Tbilisi. Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary publishes opinions for the Parliament of Georgia regarding bills on the fourth wave of a judicial reform.

"The Parliament of Georgia reviews through the first reading a package of bills on proposed amendments to both the Organic Law of Georgia on Courts of General Jurisdiction and Codes of Civil and Administrative Procedure. The package of bills is a constituent initiative of the fourth stage of the judicial reform” – is noted in the statement, - according to initiators, legislative changes aim at settling problems related to delays in court proceedings and overloading of judges. As it is known for the Coalition, on a later stage, within the frames of the fourth wave of the judicial reform, it is also intended to make amendments into the fields of disciplinary proceedings of judges, activities of the High Council of Justice, the High School of Justice. We underline that the Coalition supports continuation of systemic reforms in court and hope that amendments of the fourth wave will respond to challenges that exist in court in terms of informal and unhealthy governance, empowerment of individual judges and increase of accountability. Hereby, the Coalition negatively appraises the process of working on the "fourth wave” reform, which is carried out in isolation, without participation of professional groups and civil society organizations. Taking into consideration previous experience of working on judicial reforms, it is unclear for us what has been the reason for exclusion of those organizations from this process that have long experience of monitoring court and council, as well as working on reforms and strategies for judiciary. The Coalition hopes that preparation of other bills of the fourth wave will continue to take place in a more open and participatory manner”.

Source:The website of the organization