The Coalition Addresses the Prime Minister of Georgia To Mr. Giorgi Kvirikashvili Prime Minister of Georgia From the Coalition for Transparent and Independent Judiciary Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

We hereby appeal to you about the process of selection of judgeship candidates from Georgia for the European Court of Human Rights.

As you may know, December 14, 2015 Decree of the Government of Georgia No. 623 establishes a government commission for the purpose of selecting judgeship candidates from Georgia for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and nominating shortlisted candidates to the Government of Georgia for their consideration.

The coalition welcomes the Government’s initiative to designate a commission for selection of judgeship candidates for the Court, despite the fact that law does not provide any such obligation.

The Coalition viewed the initiative as reflection of the Government’s will to carry out a merit-based selection process, one that is transparent and fair and results in selection of candidates based on their professional and moral reputation. Such experience is unprecedented in Georgia, and must be certainly welcomed.

As you may know, the by virtue of the foregoing decree, a representative of the Coalition was able to participate in the work of the Governmental Commission for selection of judgeship candidates for the ECHR.

Our involvement in the work of the Commission has made it clear to us that evaluations by executive authorities and the ruling political force was not driven by the intention to determine compatibility of candidates with applicable qualification requirements; rather, they aimed to promote candidates selected in advance to ensure that they are shortlisted for nomination before the government, which has defeated the purpose of the Commission and rendered the entire initiative pointless.

This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that certain highly qualified individuals did not make the shortlist, unlike candidates who received extremely low scores from representatives of non-governmental entities (the Public Defender, the Chair of the Georgian Bat Association, and the Coalition Chair).

Speaking in its capacity as a member of the Commission, the Coalition believes that the foregoing information must be available both to you and the public in general.

In addition, the Coalition believes that it is important to share with you its views about some of the needs, flaws and possible solutions to procedural problems in the competition process.

Competitive selection of candidates

It is extremely important to ensure a transparent and inclusive process of selection of

judgeship candidates for the ECHR, and selection of country representatives in other international expert of quasi-judicial bodies where Georgia is entitled to a representative. We remain hopeful that the Government will consider the possibility and make a subsequent decision.

Regulation of the work of the Commission:

_ Rules and procedures that govern the work of the Commission shall be provided by a law rather than a Governmental Decree, in order to increase legitimacy and stability of the process;

_ It is also important to establish detailed and clear guidelines for the Commission and procedures for selection of candidates, which are not provided for by the Decree;

Members of the Commission

_ Because it is Government’s prerogative to select 3 out of 5 candidates nominated by the Commission, the Commission should not be manned by members of the Government and their deputies. Otherwise, it will lead to a situation in which the same person/agency has two votes in selection of candidates – both in the first and the second stages of the process, which defeats the purpose of the process itself.

_ Members of the commission should include the President’s representative and a non-majority MP.

Issues related to operation of the Commission, which need to be regulated

_ The law should provide grounds and procedures for conflict of interests, recusal and self-recusal;

_ In this regard, we should also note participation of the Deputy Minister of Justice in the competition on an equal basis with others, and in absence of any restrictions (temporary suspension from office, adequate safeguards against conflict of interest), especially considering that the Commission Chair was the Minister of Justice, while the Secretary was manned by employees of the Minister, which at the very least put other candidates at a disadvantage;

_ The procedure should provide for the opportunity to appeal any decision at any stage of the selection process, in an event of discrimination or any other similar practice;

_ We welcome the standard of transparency in the work of the Commission, requiring that identity of applicants, their applications, test results, interview evaluations and decisions and minutes of the Commission should all be made public. Under the Governmental Decree, Commission meetings are also open for media; however, for meaningful transparency, each member of the Commission should not be required to assign a general score to a candidate; rather, they should be required (rather than authorized) to assess each candidate according to specific criteria in order to justify the total score assigned to him/her. Otherwise, the transparency standard will be meaningless in practice. IT is also important to improve templates for evaluation of candidates.

_ It is extremely important to expressly define the meaning of “the high moral and professional reputation. In particular, factors that should be taken into account during evaluation of reputation, etc. must be expressly defined. In this

regard, it is important for the law to foresee the so-called background check procedure, meaning that for a comprehensive evaluation of candidates, records about each candidate should be collected through a unified, standardized procedure and questionnaires, which will help the Commission evaluate the candidate more effectively, especially in order to determine whether his or her reputation is appropriate for the high status of the ECHR judge.

_ Notably, members of the Commission expressed dramatically different views about a few candidates. When there is such a difference of opinion, Commission members should be able to engage in open discussions.

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

We remain hopeful that the Government of Georgia will consider the foregoing important circumstances identified by the Coalition through its direct participation in the process.

Please, be informed that the Coalition plans to make this letter public and accessible to stakeholders through media.

Sincerely, Ana Natsvlishvili Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary Member of the Judgeship Candidate Selection Commission for the European Court of Human Rights