The Minute of the Criminal Justice Reform Inter Agency Coordination Council Session

20 April, 2010

Introduction

The Council session was opened by the Co-Chair – Mr. Zurab Adeishvili, the Minister of Justice. Mr. Adeishvili welcomed the participants of the meeting and mentioned that this was the 5th Session of the Inter Agency Coordination Council and in the recent period the work in the framework of the Council has been carrying out through the respective working groups as well as by the relevant state institutions; During the reporting period state institutions have been carrying out activities in line with the respective actions plans, that would be briefly described n the up-coming progress report.

Mr. Adeishvili mentioned that according to the proposed agenda(see enclosed agenda as Annex I), the Secretariat has asked the representatives of the respective agencies to outline the ongoing reforms and conducted activities for the Council while the detailed information in this regard will be covered in the draft Progress Report, to be send out by the Secretariat.

Afterwards, Mr. Adeishvili presented new Co-Chair of the Council, Ms. Khatuna Kalmakhelidze, the new Minister of Corrections and Legal Assistance to the auditorium who welcomed the members of the Council in her new capacity.

The Secretariat of the Council

The National Secretary of the Council - Ms. Tomashvili informed members of the Council that the Secretariat has prepared the renewed/updatedlist of members of the Council. Proposed draft has been tabled before the Council Members. Secretariat in line with the recommendation of the European Union proposed the amend the Council Statute and delete article 7 dealing with the Steering Committee, due to the fact that the Steering Committee is part of the Georiga/EU Financial Agreement rather than the part of the Inter-Agency Council system. Ms. Tomashvili asked t members of the Council to make their comments in this regard, and since there were no objections, the renewed Statute was considered as adopted by the Council and to be submitted for approval to the Office of the President of Georgia(please fined enclosed as Annex II amended version of the Council membership).

Next, MS. Tomashvili informed Council members that the EU RoL Project expert, Mr. Thomas Thomsen has prepared an assessment report on donor and sector Coordination (please find enclosed the Report as an AnnexIII). The report covered such aspects as coordination efforts within the state institutions, donor coordination activities and monitoring system for the adopted Strategy/Action Plan. Notably, Secretariat along with expert organized the meeting of the contact point whereas Mr. Thomsen has presented his finding and the recommendations respectively.

Namely:

-In relation to the donor coordination, the expert has proposed the draft Memorandum of Understanding among the state institutions and donors. The said MOU has been tabled before the Council and Secretariat formally asked Council to allow it to initiate negotiation process with relevant donors. Ms. Tomashvili also noted that the draft MOU has been discussed with donor community and amended on several instances to meet everyone’s interests. Since no objections have been raised in relation to this matter, the Secretariat noted that it would officially launch negotiation with the donor institutions in relation to MOU; Secretariat also pointed out that it understands that not all players might be able due to different commitments sign the memorandum; however, as long as all stakeholders agree to harmonize their pledges on the same line, the aims of the MOU could be achieved (please find enclosed the MOU final version as Annex IV);

-Next topic referred to the issues related to the monitoring implementation of the drafted action plan. In this regard, the expert has suggested to develop Logical Framework for each action plan as well as improve the indicators identified. Ms. Tomashvili briefly outlined the logframe exercise conducted and trainings organized for the representatives of state institutions of the Criminal Justice Reform Strategy.Agreement among the stakeholders rested on the understanding that the state institutions in consultation with the expert would prepare the logframesthat would be discussed in the WGs on later stage. By the 5th Council meeting, this process has been initiated and Secretariat anticipated having the log frames ready by mid May (major parts of them were already substantially discussed within the WGs).

-In parallel, the state institutions along with the experthave defined the overall objective, program purpose and relevant stakeholders inline with respective component of the Strategy, which will be applied in the introduction of the Criminal Justice Reform Strategy and adopted along with the revised Action Plans. The next step would be the preparation of the Monitoring Table in every respective direction.

-Ms. Tomashvili also underlined importance of the financial part of the action plan and emphasized that it needs to be further updated; thus, state agencies as well donor/implementing institutions have been asked to fully cooperate with the Secretariat and relevant experts on this matter.

-Council members have been reminded of the fact that the Secretariat has prepared three months monitoring reports in temporary formats[1]and this document has been send out to all Council and WGs members as well as it is publicly available on the website of the Ministry of Justice - under the Criminal Justice Reform link. Ms. Tomashvili alsonoted that the Secretariat will finalize the draft Progress Report in upcoming days and send out for comments to the respective contact points and members of the Council.

-Secretariat also addressed one of the recommendations given my experts, i.e. creation of the WGs in all respective directions of the Criminal Justice Reform that would allow on permanent basis to discuss implementation of the respective Action Plans. She noted that this issue would be addressed by the relevant state institutions in their speeches.

-Lastly, Secretariat informed the Council members that as last year, it wouldorganize the big meeting with civil society, donor community and diplomatic corps. The aim of the meeting would be to share via panel discussion criminal justice achievements since summer 2009 and ongoing challenges, as well as discuss avenues for future cooperation with new donors and civil society.

Speech by Mr. Mr. Antti Ruotsalainen

Afterwards, the floor was given to Mr. Antti Ruotsalainen, Team Leader of the EU RoL Project. Mr. Ruotsalainen in his speech mentioned that the Rule of Law project supports the Secretariats efforts in developingdonor and sector coordination issues and also thanked the Secretariat of the Council for its work.

Overview of the Strategic Directions

According to the agenda, the rapporteurs of the working groups and representatives of the respective agencies briefly outlined the ongoing reforms in line with the Criminal Justice Reform Strategies and Action Plans:

  1. Criminal Procedure Legislation (hereinafter CPL) – the Rapporteur of the working group on CPL Mr. Otar Kakhidze (Ministry of Justice) informed the members of the Council that according to the EC recommendation the working group on CPL has been created and the first meeting has been held. Mr. Kakhidze highlighted the fact that the working group members have updated the Action Plan in line with the planned activities and currently the logframe is being prepared. The CPC WG would follow and discuss implementation of the respective action plan, participate in the drafting the explanatory notes with regard of each article as well as the commentaries of the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia.

By the 5th meeting of the Council more than 400 prosecutors of Georgia have been trained on the major developments of the New Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia through the Training Center of Justice; notably, these prosecutors, are cooperating with the Police Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in order to train Investigators. During the WG meeting, ABA has noted that they would be carrying out intense training of the defense lawyers via the project with the Georgian Bar Association.

Apart from this, the questionnaire and model of instructions for Jury is being elaborated in close collaboration with foreign experts.

Last but not least, Mr. Kakhidze discussed the developments in relation to the Integrated Criminal Case Management System, the programming stage is finished and now the software is in testing process and the first pilot version will be installed in Rustavi from May, 2010.

  1. Judiciary – Mr. Zaza Meishvili, the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court, briefly underlined the ongoing reforms within the Judiciary. Namely, Mr. Meishvili noted that the reforms are carrying out in line with the Criminal Justice Reform Action Plan, the Judiciary is working with regard to the lifetime appointment of the judges - this proposal has been taken on board by the Constitutional Commission; Judiciary is further developing integrated case management system. In addition, the logical frame work of the Judiciary is being elaborated according to the recommendations of the expert and would be presented to the Council members in the nearest future. Moreover, Mr. Meishvili welcomed to the recommendation of creation of the working group on Judiciary component and expressed the readiness from the Courts sideto work closely with the Secretariat of this matter.
  2. Juvenile Justice – the Rapporteur of the working group Mr. Kerry Neal (UNICEF) mentioned that the recent development in JJ system related to:

- legislative developments: increase of the minimum age of criminality, adoption of the discretionary prosecution in relation to the juveniles, incorporation of the positive norms in relation to juveniles in draft Code on Imprisonment

-Institutional initiatives - outline proposed by the MCLA to develop a referral system in relation to the imprisoned juveniles; mapping out of the situation in relation to prevention; educational and vocational initiatives within penitentiary institutions;

-Professional training of all relevant players: prosecutors, judges, penitentiary staff and probation officers in child friendly justice system;

  1. Penal System Reform – Mr. Anton Kelbakiani noted that the apart from the adoption of the Code on Imprisonment, currently the MCLA in collaboration with MOJ is preparing the draft document in relation to the Parole Boards that would be presented before the WG on Penitentiary along with the log frame that is being finalized by the Rapporteurs.

Secretariat noted that the Code on Imprisonment has been send to the Council of Europe for expertise; that is one of the reasons why the Code does not enter into force immediately, so that the WG would have the opportunity to consider the comments of the COE experts.

  1. Probation – the Rapporteur of the working group Mr. Temur Iobidze (MCLA) informed the members of the Council that Probation Service has already prepared and discussed in the WG Probation log frame. Currently, the Probation Service along with the experts in working on the developments of the HR component within the system as well as implementation of the job description for the probation officers. He further note that the Law on Probation would be amended and the WG on Probation would have a chance to discuss them. These changes are minor and relates to the technical issues. Secretariat reminded the Council that the Law has been sent to the Council of Europe for expertise and its recommendations would be discussed by the Probation WG respectfully.
  2. Legal Aid – the Rapporteur of the working group Mr. Irakli Kobidze (MCLA) underlined the ongoing activities in the scope of the Legal Aid Service. Namely, Mr. Kobidze noted that on 22 April, 2010 the legal aid bureau will be opened in Samtskhe-Javakheti. In addition, from 2010, the active media and public awareness campaign has been initiated by the Service. He also noted that one of the recent surveys has shown that the number of users of the Legal Aid Service web site has increased in comparison with the last year.
  3. Police– the representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mr. Shalva Kvinikhidze briefly outlined the activities implemented in the framework of the Police component.Namely, the Ministry of Interior has moved to the electronic case management system and the special program is already operational.In addition, the Ministry continues to improve the infrastructure of temporary detention centers in compliance with international standards. Several centers that didn’t meet international standards have been closed, while the rest have been renovated. The registration in the centers is carried out electronically.The hygiene, water supply and nutrition are ensured at the detention centers.Mr. Kvinikhidze underlined the importance of the border line management and mentioned that in 2008 the Strategy on Boarder Management has been drafted. The Ministry is going to organize the donor coordination meeting where the Ministry will present their achievements in this regard.Next, he also mentioned that the Ministry of Internal Affairs actively uses the EU technical assistance instruments such as TAIEX, SIGMA and TWINING. In the framework of the mentioned instruments, the ministry has made nine applications already. In the framework of TWINING program, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will share the experience of Poland and France with regard to the border line management.
  4. Prosecution – the Deputy Chief Prosecutor Mr. Davit Sakvarelidze in his presentation emphasized the Community Prosecution project and mentioned that the project is successfully implementing in 7 regions; therefore, decision has been made to enlarge the geographical scope of the Community Prosecution ineight additional regions(Batumi, Bolnisi, Rustavi, Gori, Khashuri, Kutaisi, Isani, Sachkhere).In addition, Mr. Sakvarelidze noted that the Prosecutor Office has established 3 pilot victim consultation centers that would allow first hand assistance and information to the (potential) victims of the crime. The centers will start functioning from May 2010. He further stressed importance of the public awareness campaign in this regard and noted that the Prosecutor’s Office is going to addressdonor organizations for assistance.Moreover, the Prosecutor Office expressed readiness in terms of creation the working group on Prosecution that would monitor implementation of the prosecution action plan.
  5. Public Defender’s Office – the Ombudsman of Georgia, Mr. Giorgi Tugushi followed the action plan and outlines major achievements in this regard. In relation to one specific activity, he emphasized that the Public Defender’s Office prefers to strengthen the existing offices instead of opening additional ones. With regard to the National Preventive Mechanism (hereinafter NPM) – in line with current budget the NPM is covered partly by the State Budget and partly by EU support. The EU project ends in September and PDO might have certain challenges in ensuring the proper functioning of NPM.Next, Mr. Tugushi noted that the PDO electronic case management system will be in place by September, 2010.

Statistics

After presentations from the respective agencies and working groups,Ms. Rusudan Mikhelidze- the rapporteur of the working group on Statistics briefly reported regarding the ongoing activities implemented in relation with the crime statistics:

Ms. Mikhelidze emphasized the fact that in terms of crime statistics the significant contributions have been made by the EU expert’s recommendations. Based on the experts recommendations the respective agencies are working on elaboration the methodology document which will be approved by the representatives of relevant institutions. The methodology document will cover the criminal statistics general concept, unified crime statistics report and standard scheme of crime classification. The first draft is to be ready by the end of April and the inputs are to be waited from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Prosecution/Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Corrections and Legal Assistance and Judiciary.

In addition, Ms. Mikhelidze highlighted the fact that there was lack of interagency coordination in relation with crime statistics issues, which is already achieved due to creation of the WG on Statistics and the respective institutions are working in coordination in this regard, including the National Department of Statistics.

Creation of the Local Councils

Secretariat of the Council presented before the Council an initiative regarding creation ofLocal Councils in the regions that would allowdiscussing the reform related activities on regional level. Ms. Tomashvili used this opportunity to propose community prosecution schemes as place whereas the local councils could be established and ask respective representatives to coordination this efforts. She presented the draft document regarding the local council’s structure and activities and mentioned that the work in this direction will start from May(see enclosed Local Council outlines as an Annex V).

Questions presented at the meeting