“Setting higher standards of Juvenile Justice system and rule of law, through establishing juvenile court trial monitoring system”

Implementation Period: 2018 – 2020 Years

Donor: Netherlands embassy in Tbilisi (In collaboration with Public Defender’s Office)

Budget: 225 880 GEL

Achievements:

Conducted research on Protection of procedural rights of juvenile defendants, witnesses and victims in criminal justice; Legislative changes securing monitoring of closed juvenile court hearings are negotiated with relevant stakeholders; Parties involved in the process have taken the commitment to make relevant amendments and have done their significant input in the development of external monitoring system; Objective system of external quality monitoring is introduced (at least on the level criminal justice reform inter-agency coordination council); Document package for Monitoring system is approved (legislative changes are finalized, relevant by-laws and framework documents for monitoring are developed); New system of Monitoring is piloted and relevant recommendations are prepared (both on improvement of instrument and on challenges identified through monitoring regarding the rights on fair trial of juveniles in conflict with law or child victims of crime); Defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges, social workers perform their duties with higher standards; Rights of juveniles in conflict with law and child victims of crime are better defended.