The Council of Europe organised a 6-day training of trainers (ToT) event for Georgian prosecutors in co-operation with the Chief Prosecutor’s Office. The training was held in two sessions from 29-31 March and from 21-23 April 2016.

The ToT aimed to prepare a pool of trainers for the Chief Prosecutors Office to train their peers on fair trial standards. Training sessions were led by well-known international and national human rights experts, former European Court of Human Rights lawyer, Ana-Maria Telbis and former Government Agent to the ECtHR, Levan Meskhoradze. Besides reviewing the substance of Article 6 of the ECHR and explaining the main notions of the right to a fair trial, experts spent substantial time on practice exercises. Participants acquired not only theoretical knowledge on fair trials, but also practical training skills on how to deliver training to their peers.

Council of Europe will further support the Chief Prosecutor’s Office in organising cascade training sessions. By the end of 2016, every prosecutor will have knowledge of the European fair trial standards.

Activities on fair trial were organised in the framework of the EU/CoE Joint Project "Application of the European Convention on Human Rights and harmonisation of national legislation and judicial practice in Georgia in line with European Standards", which is funded through the Programmatic Cooperation Framework for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus.