Public Defender Nino Lomjaria says the draft law prepared by the Chairman of the Parliament on the selection of the Supreme Court judges, cannot respond to the existing challenges.

According to Nino Lomjaria, criteria and procedures should not be only formal but should be able to substantially change the practice of decision making under the High Council of Justice and ensure fairness. Otherwise, she said that procedures and criteria will be used to “emphasize formal legality.”

The Public Defender considers that the following changed shall be made in the draft law submitted by the Parliament’s Chairman and his team : criteria, secret ballot, the Parliament shall ensure the obligation of open ballot at the legislative level, in addition, the conflict of interests and the issues related to the number of voters and candidates shall be changed.

“In response to these challenges, it is very important to adopt relevant legislation to improve the process, to increase trust in the decisions of the Council of Justice. The Public Defender’s Office has its own opinions regarding the mentioned draft law. We will present these opinions to the Venice Commission.

I hope the Venice Commission will take these opinions into consideration. But I, as a Public Defender, as a local National Institute of Human Rights, will use my right and address the OSCE, which is authorized to prepare the conclusion and opinion on the draft laws that apply to justice issues, to study the draft law and its compliance with international standards and obligations undertaken by the state.

Therefore, I think the involvement of the OSCE in these issues will be very valuable and important. And of course, we will cooperate closely with both organizations and it will be very important for these organizations to take the country’s context into consideration. We have an extraordinary situation and accordingly, we have to find a way out timely,” Nino Lomjaria said.

The Public Defender considers it would be important if the Parliament started a discussion of the draft law after receiving the reply from the Venice Commission, an advisory board of the Council of Europe.