The main partners and beneficiaries of the Project are Courts of General Jurisdiction, High Council of Justice, High School of Justice, Parliament, Constitutional Court, Ministry of Justice, Georgian Bar Association, General Prosecution Office, Ministry of Interior, Supreme Court.

The main aim is to improve criminal proceedings in Georgia in accordance with European Standards.

Three expected results are foreseen under the project:

1. The criminal procedure legislation and practice has improved safeguards and guarantees in line with European standards including those related on gender equality
2. Analytical and methodological capacities of the justice sector stakeholders to assess the criminal justice’s performance including from the gender perspective and develop evidence-based criminal policy has improved
3. Performance of the authorities in matters of international mutual cooperation is enhanced

With a view to achieving these results, several activities will be implemented:

• Support the Georgian stakeholders in the reforms of the criminal procedure and strengthen the capacity of national courts to effectively exercise judicial control over the application of coercive measures by the prosecution services and law enforcement agencies;
• Support Georgian stakeholders to establish most effective system of preventive measures in line with the best European practices;
• Enhance the capacity of the prosecutors to identify and react on reported facts of ill-treatment during the pre-trial and trial stages;
• Support prosecutor’s office to effectively exercise its functions and ensure good governance and protection of human rights in Georgia while carrying out criminal proceedings and combating impunity also by reducing misuse of powers by law enforcement agencies, improve the role of the defense and ensure women’s access to justice by taking into account the results of previous findings;
• Support prosecutor’s office to build new organizational structure following the enactment of new constitution of Georgia; develop a gender-sensitive methodology on defense strategy and motion practice, cross-examination, defense ethics and legal assistance for defense lawyers;
• Assist judiciary and prosecution to strengthen analytical functions, research and evidence based criminal policy and ensure uniformity of court practices;
• Develop the methodologies and toolkits for conducting user satisfaction surveys and performance indicators for assessing the criminal justice system taking into account the gender perspectives.
• Reinforce the capacity of the Prosecutor’s office in relation to international cooperation in criminal matters and facilitate mutual legal assistance and hence, accelerate the judicial process.