Promotion of Implementation of European Human Rights Court Verdicts in Georgia

Last week, NHC took part in several events in Tbilisi focusing on improving the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights in Georgia. The events, a conference and two training sessions, were organized by NHC partner NGO Unity of Judges of Georgia.

Around 65 representatives from the judiciary, the Ombudsman’s office, the Ministry of Justice, NGOs and legal offices attended the conference on July 18. Two Dutch speakers, Marc de Werd, judge at the Amsterdam Appeals Court and founder of the European Courts weblog, and Gerritjan van Oven, substitute judge at the Appeals Court of The Hague and former Member of Parliament, spoke about the role of the courts and the parliament in The Netherlands. Implementation of the Convention requires efforts in court policy and practice as well as in the political sphere, as full implementation of Court verdicts often requires legislative change.

Among the Georgian speakers were Levan Meskhoradze of the Ministry of Justice, Ketevan Eremadze of the Constitutional Court and Eva Gotsiridze of the High Council of Justice. Tamar Dekanosidze of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association spoke about the role of NGOs in strengthening the implementation of European Court judgments. Ms Gotsiridze emphasized that Georgian judges should increase the use of European Court case law in their sentencing. Experiences applying the Convention and the case law were discussed in the training sessions specifically aimed at judges. The very limited availability of translations of verdicts was noted as a problem that needs to be solved by the Georgian legal sector.