Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association held  a presentation of the research Flaws in the Criminal Justice System and Recommendations on November 12, 2012.

As public is aware, the new Criminal Procedure Code came into force in 2010. In the research GYLA evaluated legislative environment as well as practice developed, which clearly illustrated that the new Criminal Procedure Code has not changed the criminal justice environment. Significant flaws remain both in practice and in legislation, in particular:

• Norms regulating crime detection and investigation fall behind the European human rights standards, harming interests of an individual;

• Problems that prevailed previously, when the old Code was in force, also persist in the practice of conducting investigating actions and application of preventive measures curtailing rights of an individual.

• Jury Trial fails to provide sufficient safeguards for objectivity of jurors; further, verdict falls short of contemporary European standard.

Based on the European human rights standards GYLA has offered concrete recommendations for elimination of problems, which must be taken into account both in practice and in legislation. GYLA also offers guarantees for protecting legal interests of individuals and concrete instructions for improving practice.

The meeting was attended by local and international organizations specializing in the field, and representatives of legislative, executive and judicial authorities of Georgia.