Venice Commission Presented Recommendations on “The Temporary State Commission on Miscarriages of Justice of Georgia”

Tamta Tvalavadze 

At its 95th plenary session Venice Commission discussed the draft law on The Temporary State Commission on Miscarriages of Justice of Georgia set up by the Ministry of Justice of Georgia.

Commission on Miscarriages of Justice is non-legal body. Venice Commission evaluated the idea of setting up the Commission, which aims to study and expose miscarriages of justice by non-legal agency, as a disputable issue. 

The conclusion of the Venice Commission reads:

“The Venice Commission and the DJHD do not take a position on whether in fact there were miscarriages of justice in Georgia nor on whether such miscarriages of justice were of a systemic nature and require the creation of this Temporary State Commission,” the conclusion reads.

The Venice Commission stressed out that it seems difficult to re-examine criminal cases with the specific features of today’s Georgia, in particular the extremely polarized political context and the limited size of the judiciary. 

On this basis, the Venice Commission recommends that the final decision in cases which are reopened has to remain with the judiciary only. Therefore, the term “review” in Article 1 should be replaced with a more neutral term like “examine” or similar. 

In order to restore Rule of Law and justice in the country, several months ago, Ministry of Justice initiated to set up a Temporary State Commission on Miscarriages of Justice. The Commission will work during three years. However, it is only draft-law and shall be accomplished before submitting it to the parliament.