Civil Sector demands increased representation in the working group for preparing criteria for selection of Supreme Court judges

The Civil Sector demands increased representation in the working group for preparing criteria for selection of judges of the Supreme Court, - Sopho Verdzeuli, representative of the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) told InterPressNews.

According to her, NGOs plan to raise the demand at the next working group meeting.

"Now the most important question is what the format of discussion of this issue will be. The existing working group does not include a wide representation of civil sector. There is only one person from the Coalition of Justice. It is very important to expand the representation in this group, since it was said that there was willingness for broader discussion of the issue. First of all, the working group should be expanded. We will raise this issue. It is impossible to talk about the willingness for broader discussion without allocating more than one seat for the civil sector.

The second issue is the subject of discussion and the plan of the parliament. Only determining criteria and procedures cannot bring results. Members of the Council, who created this system and brought justice in this deadlock, must resign. It is, of course, important whether the Council members will support or not the criteria, but it is not enough. There is no guarantee that the Council will not adjust the new procedures to themselves. Criteria are to be set out, but it should happen with bigger engagement, including of the Venice Commission. However, our first demand is to expand the group," Sopho Verdzeuli said.

According to her, the civil sector is also interested in who is responsible for the situation. "Responsibilities should be undertaken by the members of the council who made this list", - Verdze said.