The 6th Winter School of Justice 2023, which ran from January 22-26, 2023, has come to an end. The School enhanced the theoretical knowledge and practical skills of court representatives and senior students of the law school.
The Judicial School was held under the auspices of the High School of Justice, co-organised by the Council of Europe (CoE), the USAID Rule of Law Programme, and the South Caucasus presence of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR).
“Judicial School of Justice, which has been supported by the CoE from the day of its creation, is a unique platform that enables judicial professionals to further their professional development, thereby improving their knowledge and skills. It also creates the opportunity for judicial professionals to network with their peers from other courts, share best practises, and exchange experiences.” – said Senior Project Officer, EU/CoE co-funded project “Support to the Judicial Reform in Georgia,” Ushangi Bakhtadze.
The topics covered by the eleven invited experts included the latest practises of the Constitutional Court of Georgia and the European Court of Human Rights, children's rights, national and international standards related to the prohibition of discrimination, freedom of expression, personal and family life immunity, current business law issues, legal writing, and decision-making.
USAID Rule of Law Programme Deputy Chief of Party Neil Weinstein in his welcome notes stated that “one of the goals of the Programme is to build the capacity of individual judges and court personnel. The Winter School, which USAID has supported since 2018, is part of that effort. Our support for the Winter School is in recognition of the important role judicial assistants and other court personnel play in Georgia’s judicial system and the importance of professional and independent judges and court staff in Georgia.”
“OHCHR is mandated to promote and protect the enjoyment and full realisation by all people of their human rights in the spirit of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 75th anniversary of which we are celebrating this year. Capacity building of the judiciary was and will remain one of the priorities of the OHCHR. We are happy to continue to support this initiative and hope that the Winter School enables participants to acquire not only theoretical knowledge, but also practical tools for acting in the spirit of the principles of fair trial,” - emphasised UN OHCHR Human Rights Projects Manager, Sopho Benashvili.
At the end of the Winter School the participants were given tests, based on which the first- and second-place winners will be identified. The first-place winner will join a study tour to the U.S. together with ten civil and administrative Georgian judges. The runner-up will visit the European Court of Human Rights and Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France to study mechanisms of human rights protection in Europe.
