On 10 February 2022, the Report "Remote Court Hearings in Criminal Cases in Georgia" prepared by João Arsénio de Oliveira, expert of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) and chairman of the CEPEJ Working group on quality of Justice, was presented to justice professionals, namely judges, court managers, public prosecutors and lawyers, as well as to representatives of Ministry of Justice and academia. The presentation focused on advantages and disadvantages of remote hearings in criminal proceedings, while also proposing recommendations to Georgian authorities on how to ensure that all guarantees to a fair trial under European Convention on Human Rights and CEPEJ standards apply to remote hearings in judicial proceedings.
During the presentation, the expert also highlighted the importance of the recently adopted CEPEJ Guidelines on videoconferencing in the judicial proceedings and introduced its main principles for the first time to Georgian partners.
The event was organised in the framework of the project “Enhancing the accountability and the efficiency of the judicial system and the professionalism of lawyers,” funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in their Partnership for Good Governance II 2019-2022.
