nhancing Access to Justice and Development of a Child-Friendly Justice System in Georgia

Justice for All

Enhancing access to justice and promoting a child-friendly justice system in Georgia

Photo: David Khizanishvili/UNDP

Summary

Enhancing Access to Justice and Development of a Child-friendly Justice System in Georgia is a joint initiative of the European Union and two UN agencies in Georgia: United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with UNICEF serving as an Administrative Agent.

The programme is funded by the European Union based on the Financing Agreement on "Support to the Justice Sector Reform in Georgia" signed between Georgia and the European Union in May 2015. 

Activities

The project aims to help Georgia consolidate the independence, professionalism and efficiency of the judiciary and strengthen access to justice for all citizens through the following activities:

  • Create a more effective system of justice for children based on a dedicated regulatory framework and implementation mechanism.
  • Improve institutional capacities of the Ministry of Justice, Legal Aid Service, Georgian Bar Association and the other major justice stakeholders.
  • Promote a greater independence and effectiveness of the legal profession.
  • Promote the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms - mediation and arbitration.

The main policy documents against which the progress will be measured include: the Criminal Justice Reform Strategy (CJRS) and its Action Plan (AP) (adopted in 2005 and updated systematically on annual basis), Strategy on Reforming the Justice System for Children (revised in March 2014), Strategy on Prevention of Juvenile Crime (adopted in 2012, revised in 2015), the National Human Rights Strategy 2014-2020 (NHRS) and its Action Plan (AP) (adopted in 2014).  

The overall objective of this project is to enhance capacities of judiciary and government institutions and representatives of the legal profession to promote access to justice for all and to establish a coherent and child-friendly justice system for children in Georgia. 

Specific objectives of this project are to:

  • Support access to justice through promoting more independent and effective legal profession, legal aid system and greater application of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms (ADRs)
  • Promote and support the establishment of an effective system of justice for children by dedicated regulatory framework and implementation mechanisms.  

Results so far

  • Management and administration of the Legal Aid Service (LAS) improved through the upgraded strategy and organizational structure, electronic case management system – Case Bank, and the renovation of the administration head office in Tbilisi.
  • The Legal Aid Service capacity to provide quality services to the citizens improved through the targeted training for its staff and lawyers. 79 training session in 28 subjects conducted in 2016-2018 for 1,733 trainees in total. 14 new training modules created and/or updated in cooperation with the Training Centre of the Georgian Bar Association (GBA).
  • Access to legal aid services and cooperation between service providers advanced by establishing a Legal Aid Providers’ Network and a web portal free.mylaw.ge.
  • Access to legal aid increased through launching a new website of the Legal Aid Service available in three different languages and fully adapted to the needs of people with vision impairments.
  • Awareness on legal aid as a critical component of the justice system increased by conducting a series of communication campaigns and international events.  This includes the Regional Legal Aid Conference in Tbilisi in September 2017 and the official launch of the Legal Aid Service’s head office.
  • Independence and effectiveness of legal profession strengthened by providing a systemic support to the Georgian Bar Association (GBA) – development of the 2017-2018 Action Plan, launch of the Lawyers’ Portal, assistance in conducting two international conferences, and targeted trainings for over 3,000 lawyers.
  • Public awareness on the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms – mediation and arbitration, raised through the nation-wide communication campaigns in 2016-2018.  The campaigns included public events in 8 cities across Georgia, training in mediation for more than 800 lawyers, high-level international conferences – Tbilisi Mediation Days (November 2016) and GIAC Arbitration Days in Tbilisi (October 2016 and 2017), and assistance to 10 universities to introduce academic courses in mediation.
  • A draft Law on Mediation submitted to the Ministry of Justice for final editing.
  • Regular assistance provided to the organizations working in the field of arbitration to increase their institutional capacities – the Georgian Association of Arbitrators (GAA), Georgian International Arbitration Centre (GIAC), Arbitration Initiative Georgia (AIG).
  • A series of publications about Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) prepared and published - first Arbitration Glossary in Georgian, research on traditional mediation in Georgia, Arbitration Guide for City (District) Court Judges, Arbitration Guide for Courts of Appeals Judges.

Funded by the European Union

Contact information

Project address

15a Paliashvili Street
Tbilisi 0179 Tbilisi

Contact persons

Rusudan Tushuri
Project Manager
rusudan.tushuri@undp.org

Gigi Bregadze
UNDP Democratic Governance Team Leader
gigi.bregadze@undp.org