The Council of Europe and the European Union together with the Human Rights and Civic Integration Committee of the parliament organised discussion on main findings of an expert opinion on compatibility with the European standards of Georgia’s Criminal Procedure Code and related legislative provisions bringing together international experts, members of the parliament, representatives of the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and Gender  Equality Division of the Council of Europe.

Participants overviewed issues related to better safeguarding rights of victims of the crime, position of vulnerable groups, plea-bargain agreement framework and system of pre-trial measures. Moreover, representatives of the Council of Europe secretariat highlighted the need for further legislative changes stemming from the execution of the European Court of Human Rights decisions and the full implementation of the Istanbul convention.

Legislators emphasized that the review serves as a comprehensive basis to build upon further work for bringing Georgian criminal procedural legislation closer to the best European standards. In addition, participants of the event discussed possible follow up actions to move forward the reform of criminal procedural legislation.

The event is organised under the CoE/EU joint Project "Supporting the criminal justice reforms - tackling criminal aspects of the judicial reforms in Georgia" which is funded by the European Union within the framework of the Partnership for Good Governance Programme.