The Public Defender of Georgia met with Gianni Buquicchio, the Presidentof the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe,in Strasbourg on April 28, 2017. Ucha Nanuashvili briefed the Presidentof theVenice Commission of the positive changes and opinions concerning the efforts of the Constitutional Commission.

The Public Defender praised the inclusion of provisions concerning internet freedom and gender equality in the Constitution, which had been recommended by the Public Defender, though he stressed that a number of his important recommendations have not been taken into account during drafting the main document of the country.

In particular, the draft document does not provide for the creation of a state supervisory body for ensuring effective realization of labour rights, creation of a independent investigative mechanism for investigation and prevention of cases of torture and inhumane treatment committed by law enforcement agencies and expansion of the authority of the Constitutional Court, which implies implementation of constitutional control for the purpose of checking the constitutionality of individual legal acts and decisions of common courts.

Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili also reviewed the rule of election of an ombudsman and noted that the inadmissibility of election of one and the same person twice as an ombudsman is unreasonable and ungrounded, since most of the European countries do not have such restrictions, while in the countries, where similar restriction is applied, ombudspersons are elected for a term of more than 5 years.

Another recommendation reviewed by the Public Defender at the meeting with the President of the Venice Commission, concerned budgetary guarantees of the Public Defender’s Office. In this direction, the Constitutional Commission did not consider the Public Defender’s recommendation and reduction of state budgetary expenditure will be possible without the consent of the Public Defender.

The Public Defender also negatively assessed the definition of marriage in the draft constitution, as well as the rule of election of a president and changes in the court system.

The Public Defender also noted that, as a result of the work of the Commission, the draft constitution includes some provisions that could not be agreed between the members of the Working Group of the Commission, which, according to the Public Defender, is a result of the forced regime of the Commission.

At the end of the meeting, the Public Defender once again pointed out the role of the Venice Commission in the final formation of the Constitution and expressed hope that the recommendations, developed by the Venice Commission, will be fully considered by the Georgian side.