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JUDICIARY /
Analytical Documents
April 19 Agreement - Another untapped opportunity for justice reform
Social Justice Center publishes an analytical document: "April 19 Agreement - Another untapped opportunity for justice reform".
The April 19 agreement, signed to defuse the ongoing political crisis and move the process to a formal-political framework, addressed several broad issues related to the justice system reform and, as a whole, presented the prospect of a substantive rectification of the judiciary.
Unfortunately, the Georgian political spectrum was able to honor the agreement for only 3 months, and on July 28, 2021, the chairman of the Georgian Dream informed the public about the termination of the agreement.
The objective of the present document is not to assess how constructive and reasoned the ruling political party's decision to annul the agreement was. The document also does not appraise the current challenges with regard to all the issues covered by the April 19 agreement. Rather, its objective is to evaluate the implementation of the agreement's provisions that relate to the reform of the judiciary and prosecution system. In particular, what reforms and legislative changes were envisaged in the agreement on the justice system, and what steps have been taken to implement them.
In conclusion, it can be argued that with the April 19 agreement, Georgia had a chance to share Western values in the process of democratization of justice systems. However, the ruling party did not present the will to reform the judiciary and the prosecution system and removed the issue of creating politically neutral institutions from the political agenda indefinitely. Accordingly, the non-fulfillment of the obligations under the agreement is another missed opportunity to establish independent and impartial justice institutions.
This document has been prepared in the framework of the project "Support the independent and fair judiciary" which is implemented by Social Justice Center with the financial support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The contents of this report are the sole responsibility of Social Justice Center. The information and assessments provided in the document do not necessarily reflect the views of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Georgia.
