PROMOTING RULE OF LAW IN GEORGIA (PROLoG) CA # AID-114-A-15-00004 QUARTERLY REPORT YEAR THREE APRIL 1, 2017 – JUNE 30, 2017 1 PROMOTING RULE OF LAW IN GEORGIA ACTIVITY (PROLoG) QUARTERLY REPORT YEAR THREE APRIL 1, 2017 – JUNE 30, 2017 Prepared under the USAID’s Promoting Rule of Law in Georgia (PROLoG) Activity, Cooperative Agreement Number AID-114-A-15-00004 Submitted to: USAID/Georgia as of July 28, 2017 Implementer East-West Management Institute, Inc. Responsible Parties: Giorgi Chkheidze, Chief of Party, Tbilisi, [email protected] Mark Dietrich, Project Director, Washington, D.C. [email protected] Disclaimer This report is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this report are the sole responsibility of East-West Management Institute, Inc. and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government 2 TABLE OF ACRONYMS ACCESS Advancing CSO Capacities and Engaging Society for Sustainability ADR Alternative Dispute Resolution CA Cooperative Agreement CEPEJ European Community for the Efficiency of Justice CIDA Civil Development Agency CRRC Caucasus Resource Research Center CLE Continuing Legal Education COE Council of Europe COP Chief of Party DCOP Deputy Chief of Party ECtHR European Court of Human Rights EHRAC European Human Rights Advocacy Centre EMC Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center EWMI East-West Management Institute Free-Uni Free University of Tbilisi GDI Georgian Democracy Imitative GBA Georgian Bar Association GIZ German Society for International Cooperation GTUC Georgian Trade Unions Confederation GYLA Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association HCOJ High Council of Justice HRC Human Rights Center HRCS Human Rights Center of the Supreme Court HSOJ High School of Justice JAG Judges Association of Georgia LAS Legal Aid Service L-N Lexis - Nexis M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MOJ Ministry of Justice NCCL National Center for Commercial Law NIHR Free Uni national Institute for Human Rights NGO Non-governmental Organization Coalition The Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary PDO Office of the Public Defender PROLoG Promoting Rule of Law in Georgia TSU Tbilisi State University TDI Tolerance and Diversity Institute TOT Training of Trainers TI Transparency International - Georgia USAID United States Agency for International Development USG U.S. Government WUSL Washburn University School of Law 3 Executive Summary Sub-Purpose 1: Strengthen Legal Framework Judicial Reform On May 23, the Judicial Strategic Committee approved the final text of the National Judicial Reform Strategy and the 2017-2018 Action Plan, both of which were developed through a year-long process that actively involved representatives of state organizations, the NGO Coalition and international experts, including from PROLoG, GIZ, CoE and EU4Justice. The Strategy is designed around four strategic areas: Independence and Impartiality; Accountability; Efficiency and Quality; Access to Justice, Transparency and Public Trust. The HCOJ approved the National Judicial Strategy and 2018 Action Plan on May 29. On June 16, in response to a Constitutional Court decision of February 15, the Parliament of Georgia adopted amendments to the Organic Law on Common Courts refining the appointment process for former and current judges with three or more years of judicial experience so as to abolish the probation requirement for these judges. PROLoG expert U.S. Judge Timothy Baland provided key suggestions to the Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs that were incorporated into the amendments adopted by the Parliament. Human Rights Legislation and Policy Development PROLoG expert Maggie Nicholson returned to Georgia to present the findings of the “Report on Progress in the Implementation of the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights in Georgia, 2014-2020, and Recommendations as to Future Approaches.” The report is the first to assess the implementation of the Strategy to determine whether the adopted activities are likely to achieve the Strategy’s objectives in a reasonable timeframe, and recommends approaches for improving the implementation process. Another PROLoG expert, Rusudan Mikhelidze, finalized the report “Towards Inclusive Human Rights Policies in Georgia: Efficient CSO Engagement in Policy Planning, Implementation and Monitoring.” The report analyzed the current situation of civil society participation at various levels of human rights policy planning, implementation and monitoring, and put forward practical proposals and recommendations to help the Human Rights Secretariat, CSOs and other stakeholders build a better framework for dialogue on human rights issues. The findings of the report were presented to stakeholders at a roundtable on the development process of the 2018-2020 Human Rights Action Plan organized by the Human Rights Secretariat. The report’s recommendations are expected to be piloted during the drafting process of the new Action Plan. PROLoG, together with OSGF, finalized grants to strengthen civil society awareness by supporting the development of tools for monitoring and reporting in a systemic manner on the Human Rights Strategy and Action Plan, as well as other connected Government strategies and action plans. Three grants, each with a different focus, were awarded. A grant to monitor topics such as the right to physical security and liberty, the right to a fair trial, the right to due process and the prohibition of torture was awarded to the Georgian Democracy Initiative (GDI); a grant to monitor freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, the right to equality, and minority (ethnic, religious, LGBTQ) rights was awarded to the Women’s Initiatives Supportive Group (WISG); and a grant to monitor women’s rights, gender equality, efforts to combat domestic violence, the rights of children, and the rights of the disabled was awarded to the Human Rights Monitoring and Training Center (EMC). 4 PROLoG expert Professor Andrea Broderick developed recommendations on the concept of reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities to help the Georgian Government determine the legislative changes needed to bring Georgia into compliance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Civil Society Engagement in Judicial Reform and Legislative Development Process On May 11, the Coalition held a public forum at which it presented a comprehensive report on “The Judicial System: Past Reforms and Future Perspectives,” which provides an analysis of reforms carried out since 2012 and explores current institutional problems. In their presentations the Coalition representatives noted that, despite certain improvements achieved through the so-called “Three Waves” of judicial reform, the objective of making the judicial system independent and transparent has not been fulfilled. The Coalition also raised concerns as to the influence of elite groups of judges within the court system. The Coalition also argued that the independence of the judiciary is weakened by institutional problems in the areas of: judicial selection and appointment, judicial probation, evaluation and promotion, number of judges and caseload, court administration and management, and judicial discipline. The Coalition plans to hold additional meetings with representatives of the Parliament and the judiciary to promote the recommendations of the report. The Coalition’s Steering Committee, led by GYLA, developed an opinion paper on the draft revised Constitution and sent it to the Venice Commission. The paper criticizes a number of provisions of the draft, such as maintaining probation for newly appointed judges, removal of the provision from the previous version of the draft according to which open voting and reasoned decisions are required for the appointment of judges, appointing HCOJ non-judge members by a simple majority vote in the Parliament, and delegating exclusive power to the HCOJ to nominate Supreme Court judicial candidates. The Venice Commission considered several of these recommendations in its opinion adopted on June 16-17, 2017, including reiterating its previous recommendation to remove a trial period for judges in order “to remove factors that could challenge the impartiality of judges.” The Opinion also recommends that non-judge members be elected by “a qualified majority in Parliament in order to prevent the domination of the majority in the election of the members of the Judicial Council in order to better guarantee the independence of the Judiciary.” The Venice Commission also recognized “that the current High Council is subject to a lot of criticism in Georgia,” which can be a reason to reform the legislation on the Council, rather than preventing it “from playing its role also as regards the nomination of Supreme Court judges.” Commercial Law Reform PROLoG, in cooperation with UNDP and GIZ, continued its support for the development of a draft framework mediation law. The MoJ organized a presentation of the draft Mediation Law, which incorporates the majority of recommendations provided by PROLoG’s international expert Aleš Zalar. The ISET Policy Institute, contracted by PROLoG and GIZ during the previous quarter to conduct a comprehensive Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) of the draft Law on Entrepreneurs, completed its Inception and Interim Reports, the first two of the three RIA milestones. Once completed, the RIA will provide evidence for political decision-makers on the advantages and disadvantages