NORLAG held a Conference on «Supreme Courts use of their own decisions and of judgments from the European Court of Human Rights in Georgia and Norway» in cooperation with the Supreme courts of Norway and Georgia at Sheraton Hotel on the 25^th of April 2012.  The conference is a continuation of a joint effort between the Supreme Court of Georgia and NORLAG – which started in September 2010 with an MOU on developing a database for the Supreme Court’s judgments in Georgia. The speakers at the Conference were the chairmen of the Supreme Courts Mr. Kublashvili and Mr. Schei, judge of the Supreme Court of Norway, Mr. Arnfinn Baardsen and judge of the Supreme court of Georgia, Mr. Nugzar Skhirtladze. They addressed topics on unified practice, applying precedents and following up on decisions from the European Court of Human rights. The speeches from the Norwegian speakers are available under publications on this website.

NORLAG had launched the second round of the trainings for social workers. The purpose of the training is to enable social workers to independently carry out the release/harm reduction program. The trainings were conducted by the NGO “Human, Law, Freedom” at Penitentiary and Probation Training Center. From April 2012 they will start implementing it in Rustavi #16, Tbilisi #12 and Women’s #5 penitentiary establishments.

NORLAG conducted seminar on reasoning of judgments in criminal cases for City/District and Appeal Court judges at the High School of Justice on the 24^th and 25^th of March, 2012. Norwegian judges Nina Mar and Bernt Bahr gave lectures on the European Convention and its requirements regarding groundings. After theoretical part of the seminar the participants made practical exercises and presentations.

Ministry of Corrections and Legal Assistance of Georgia plans to introduce a new approach towards women inmates. For that purpose, by the financial support of NORLAG, MCLA, Penitentiary Department together with Penitentiary and Probation Training Center and the NGOs working in this field arranged a workshop in Gudauri.  Major focus was made on elaboration of the instruments for three stages of imprisonment: pre-trial detention, imprisonment and release phases.  The participants agreed upon preliminary action plan which envisages distribution of tasks and obligations among stakeholders, amending the legislation and arrangement of subsequent meetings for further development of the process.

On 29th September 2011 the Supreme Court invited to an event on the publication of Supreme Court decisions in an internet database.The aim of the database is to promote uniform interpretation of Law in Georgia, focusing the fact that Supreme Court is a role model for other legal practitioners.Development is based on a Memorandum of Understanding between the Supreme Court and NORLAG. The database has been developed in 2011 by the company Idea Design and funded by NORLAG.