Georgian Judge Lado Chanturia elected to ECHR

The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly has elected Lado Chanturia as judge to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). On 10 October, after receiving a majority of votes, Chanturia was elected for a term of office of nine years. He will replace Nona Tsotsoria, whose term expired in January.

Two other candidates were nominated by Georgia alongside Chanturia, but both Lali Papiashvili, who received 54 votes, and Otar Sichinava, 5 votes, were outvoted by Chanturia, who gained the support of 120 committee members.

According to the European Convention on Human Rights, judges must “be of high moral character and possess the qualifications required for appointment to high judicial office or be jurisconsults of recognised competence”.

The Council of Europe rejected Georgia’s previous nominations in June 2017, after two of the three, Sofio Japaridze and Shota Getsadze, who were nominated alongside Chanturia, were rejected by the court’s expert council

On 24 January, the first list of candidates nominated for the position was also rejected by the Council of Europe, who cited their lack of qualifications. The rejected list included Giorgi Badashvili, a case lawyer at the ECHR Registry, Aleksandre Baramidze, Deputy Justice Minister since 2013, and Eva Gotsiridze, a member of Georgia’s High Council of Justice. Gotsiridze had been substituted for Nana Mchedlidze, who was rejected by the court’s expert council.