On June 27, 2023, First Deputy Public Defender Tamar Gvaramadze participated in the joint conference of the Special Investigation Service and the Council of Europe – “Ensuring the protection of victims’ rights and effective investigation of ill-treatment: the role of the Special Investigation Service”.

Tamar Gvaramadze spoke about the close cooperation between the Public Defender’s Office and the Special Investigation Service, noting that over the past year, the Office received detailed information about investigations into dozens of criminal cases, as well as terminated cases, and accessed investigation materials. “The thorough study of the cases showed that the investigations conducted by the Special Investigation Service mostly meet the standards of effective investigation, however, the Public Defender’s Office still identified certain problems that require attention.”

The First Deputy Public Defender also emphasized the need to change the legislative acts regulating the Special Investigation Service, noting that the expansion of the Service’s mandate to additional crimes and actions committed by any individual seriously reduced the agency’s focus on the fight against law enforcement impunity and that too broad jurisdiction might reduce the effectiveness of investigations and/or decrease attention to serious crimes. In addition, the recent legislative changes do not provide sufficient guarantees for effective investigation.

The one-year activity results of the Special Investigation Service, the draft strategy and the feedback received from the Council of Europe were also presented at the conference. In addition, the topics discussed included the strengthening of the victim-centered approach, witness protection process and measures to improve the rights situation of victims, effective participation of victims in the investigation of serious violations of human rights, as well as the investigation of crimes related to the violations identified by the European Court of Human Rights and the standards of new investigations launched, taking into account the practice of the Committee of Ministers, following the judgment of the European Court.