According to Giorgi Burjanadze, former Deputy Public Defender and Legal Advisor at the Civil Society Foundation, the deadline for the competition to select judicial candidates for the European Court of Human Rights in Georgia has been extended again.

According to him, the few applications submitted to the competition for the selection of judicial candidates for the Strasbourg Court are related to distrust in the processes organized by the Georgian Dream.

According to Burjanadze, due to the composition of the commission, the deadline for the competition has been extended for the fourth time until the end of the year, and the selection of a new judge, against the backdrop of strict control by Strasbourg, will be excluded until April 2027.

“The selection competition of the European Court of Human Rights has been announced for more than 9 months and only a few applications have been submitted, presumably because no one trusts the competitions conducted by the Georgian Dream.

Out of 13 members of the commission, 4 are political officials of the Georgian Dream. 3 are representatives of state universities (the Georgian Dream has full control over these universities according to the February amendments), also Dimitri Gvritishvili and the sanctioned judge of the Constitutional Court, Roinishvili. There are 12 people out of 13.

Today, the competition was extended for the fourth time, this time until the end of the year. Georgian Dream knows that this competition will not be held like its other competitions, because this procedure undergoes three levels of control in Strasbourg.

GYLA had a good report today, where this issue is analyzed in detail (I will attach it in the comments).

Lado Chanturia’s term expires in early January, but his term will be extended, as the selection of a new judge in an ideal scenario will be excluded until April 2027,” Burjanadze writes.

According to the data published on the website of the Government Administration, the deadline for the selection competition for judicial candidates from Georgia to the European Court of Human Rights is December 31, 2026. The vacancy has been announced for three candidates. As we read on the website, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will elect a judge of the European Court of Human Rights from among the three candidates nominated by Georgia. The judge will be elected for a maximum term of 9 years.