Georgia’s nominated candidate judges for Strasbourg Court failed

The candidates nominated by Georgia for the position of judge of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) have failed. The Strasbourg Court’s judge selection committee rejected all three nominees, which implies that Georgia will have to conduct a competition for the aforesaid position once again.

According to the opposition members, the aforesaid is due to the candidates’ incompetence. The opposition claims, Georgian nominees’ failure in Strasbourg Court is the Georgian authorities ‘defeat’ and it has seriously affected Georgian’s interests.

Meanwhile, the government officials says that although the Georgian candidates’ failure is certainly not good, Georgia is not the only one with regard to which such a decision was made.

Georgian Justice Minister, Tea Tsulukiani, in turn, has blamed the opposition and the Ombudsman for Georgian nominees’ failure to get the ECHR judge post.

“It’s been very painful for me to see the National Movement’s exultation when this list was sent back to Georgia. Georgian Ombudsman, who travelled to Strasbourg a while ago, calling on other countries not to back the list, as well as the leadership of the Lawyers’ Association, also contributed to this failure,” Tea Tsulukiani stated.

Georgian Justice Minister says, she hasn’t decided yet, how to plan a new competition. In her words, a new candidates’ list will be presumably drawn up throughout the year. 

The following candidates for the position of the judge of the European Court of Human Rights were nominated from Georgia: Eka Gotsiridze, a member of the High Council of Justice; Alexander Baramidze, ex-Deputy Justice Minister of Georgia; Giorgi Badashvili, the ECHR lawyer. One out of three candidates should have been appointed as the ECHR judge. 

Georgia’s current representative Nona Tsotsoria’s term in the ECHR expires in January 2017.