We are ready to share our experience with Ukrainians

This is my first visit to Ukraine in the status of the Minister of Justice; the first visit to a country that is Georgia’s friend and strategic partner. My goal is the consolidation of bilateral relations. Ukraine, as well as Georgia, aims at the integration with the European Union, which is achievable through democratic reforms. That is why Ukraine’s expertise in the field of rule of law and governance is very important for us. And our Ukrainian colleagues are interested in reforms that are carried out by the new Georgian government.

We are ready to share our expertise with Ukrainians. For example, in development and simplification of government services, they are interested to know in detail how the Houses of Justice operate. We are going to hold a presentation of a model House of Justice, based on the ‘single window’ principle. The fact that a citizen receives all services in one building quickly and efficiently, and that he can get a new passport in 15 minutes, really is an indicator of success.

Only one year passed since the parliamentary elections of 2012, but the Ministry of Justice became an initiator of important changes in this year. A part of these initiatives has been turned into legislation already, while another part is still being worked on. The reform of justice is one of the first transformations carried out by the Ministry of Justice during my office. Its first stage is already completed.

We adopted democratic rules of elections into the Judicial Council, which were approved by the Venice Commission; we carried out elections of judges and members of the Judicial Council with adherence to democratic rules and as a result, four members of the Council, who are not judges, were chosen by the parliament among the public representatives; the disciplinary commission has been separated from the Judicial Council and manned with members of the Councils (judges and public representatives), which created a foundation for the Board’s impartiality in the process of disciplinary prosecution of judges.

The reform of justice started the process of the judicial system democratization; an alternative association of judges was created, judges actively joined in the discussion on legislative problems that the country faces; courtrooms were re-opened for television cameras, which made trials subject to the public control.

At the end of September, the Parliament received a set of legislative changes, which reflect the second stage of reforming the judicial system. This provides for new regulations in appointment and promotion of judges, division of cases between them, in procedures of judges’ business trips. The post of a judge becomes elective, judges will not be appointed anymore, which is a step forward on the path towards democratization of courts of law. The order of cases division will change too; it will become random. Judges will have to go through a competition in order to occupy a post. Administrative sanctions that are established by heads of courts will be limited. Judges’ consent will become mandatory during their business trips.

The reform resulted in separation of the Ministry of Justice and the Prosecutor’s Office. The Minister of Justice does not possess the functions of the Prosecutor General anymore. As a political figure, he does not interfere in the execution of the prosecutor’s duties or in the course of any criminal case. Thanks to that, the Prosecutor General received powers relevant to his post. Very soon, the General Inspection of the Ministry of Justice will be subordinate to the Minister of Justice, and the General Inspection of the Prosecutor General’s Office, to Prosecutor General.

We expanded the jurisdiction of the jury court. Now former senior officials will also be able to use this institution. The society is given an opportunity to participate in justice enforcement more actively, and the verdict given by the jury has a higher level of trust.

Criminal law became more liberal. We canceled the principle of unconditional assembly of punishment for multiple offenses and introduced the principle of a more severe punishment absorbing a less severe one. At the same time, rights of the defense were increased on the legislative level. Changes aimed at the consolidation of principles of competition and equality of parties during trial are implemented.

We started working on creating the juvenile justice code, which will combine the regulations of criminal, substantive, and procedural law. Thanks to this initiative, the system of juvenile justice is created in Georgia according to the European standards and based on the principles of the UN child protection. Children differ in their physical and psychological development from adults. The law system has to take these differences into consideration as much as is possible. The code combines procedural and executive parts, and, most importantly, it will stipulate that experts familiar with the peculiarities of working with children are going to work on cases that involve minors.

The Labor Code initiated by the Ministry of Justice has already come into force. All interested people were included in the process of its development. This process laid the foundations of confrontation of opinions between business and state, business and trade unions, trade unions and state around one common goal, around such law that applies to everyone and does not leave anyone indifferent. While working on legislative changes, we were greatly assisted by the Business Association, the American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia, the United Federation of Trade Unions, the Georgian Employers’ Association, etc. As a result, we received labor laws which balance the interests of employers and workers. Changes in the labor code bring us one step closer to the Western community, a part of which we must eventually become.

Another step will be made in this direction in the near future. The Ministry of Justice is already working on the new set of changes that foresees the protection of women’s rights. It is important for us as a small country to take women’s rights into account in labor legislation, since it is directly related to demographic issues and increase of birthrate.

The Day’s FACT FILE

Tea TSULUKIANI graduated from College-lycee Ampere (Lyon, France) in 1992. In 1997 she graduated with honors from the international law and international relations department at the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. At the same time she studied at the Academy of Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, graduating in 1998. She also finished the French National School of Administration (Ecole nationale d’administration, ENA) in 2000.

Tsulukiani worked at the Foreign Policy Research and Analysis Center at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia during 1997-98. While studying at the ENA, she worked at the prefect’s office, the Sarthe department (western France) during 1998-2000. She became a staff member of the European Court of Human Rights in September 2000. Tsulukiani has been a member of the court regulations committee since 2006, and speaker in cases to a judge since 2009. In February 2010, Tsulukiani quit working for the European Court of Human Rights and returned to Georgia. In May 2010, she joined the party Our Georgia – Free Democrats as an advisor in the field of human rights. Recently she has been the party’s deputy chairman.