On July 2010 the Parliament of Georgia adopted the draft of amendments and addendums to the Law on General Education of Georgia with third hearing, giving bailiffs right to stop and frisk and use force and special device. The Georgian Young Lawyer’s Association gave a negative evaluation to the noted amendments and called on the Parliament to cease review of the draft and continue the process of adoption upon elimination of flaws and immediate threats.Regrettably, the draft was adopted with third hearing. Due to the utmost importance of the matter, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association will submit a proposal for harmonizing the law with constitutional and international standards after the Parliament renews its autumn session.GYLA prepared its findings and legislative initiative concerning the noted amendments (see the attachment), which provides precise frames of performing stop and frisk, imposes additional restrictions on use of force and special device by bailiffs and most importantly, offers procedural guarantees of protection for excessive use of authirty during stop and frisk or use of force. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} View findings of GYLA. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
2010-07-29 15:12 See moreOn July 27 the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association held a meeting with journalists in frames of the project Legal Protection of Media. Purpose of the meeting was to identify legislative flaws that hinder journalists the most from working effectively and can be eliminated through legislative amendments. Local and regional media representatives attended the meeting and discussed the issues that prove to be most problematic in their activity. Following issues had been identified:• transparency of media owners; • financial transparency of media outlets;• high amount of court fee and litigations terms that are too lengthy;• high fees for copying public information, as well as special regulations for acquiring different types of information, such as excerpts from industrial register, certificates from archive, etc; • Public access to court sessions, restriction on photo, video and audio recording;• broadcaster licensing issues;• inability to acquire a soft-copy of public information; • issues of protection of journalists’ labor rights;• Artificial barriers that journalists are facing with regard to access to public agencies and public sessions.
2010-07-28 07:01 See moreThe Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association considers that
2010-07-24 13:06 See moreIn 2009 a citizen M.S. hired a lawyer Sh.Sh. to remove the sequestration order issued in 1996 and paid him USD 620 for the legal service.The lawyer filed an application in court and sequestration order was removed under the court decision. Upon submission of the enforcement document in the Public Register it was revealed that sequestration orders registered before 1997 had been automatically annulled Under Article 35 of the Law on Public Register (2008); therefore, there was no need of applying to court to remove the sequestration order.
2010-07-23 13:04 See moreSince June 2010 expulsion of IDPs from collective centers has become a massive practice. The expulsions are conducted on the basis of the May 27, 2007 #747 order of the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Georgia “Rules for Inhibition of Seizure or Other Obstruction to a Real Estate Item under the Ownership”. According to the noted provision, expulsion of IDPs registered at the collective centre is allowed only after a certificate on expedience of IDPs’ expulsion is issued by the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories of Georgia, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia (former Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation). After the Ministry’s issues its consent, IDPs are notified in a written form and they are required to leave premises of the building in five business days. For example, 33 families residing at Tvalchrelidze St. #2, former office of the Pharmacy Unit of the Trans-Caucasian Troops in Tbilisi were evicted in compliance with this rule.
2010-07-22 12:57 See moreGYLA provided legal assistance to a seven-month old infant with a grave health condition, who was abandoned by his father D.Kh. after his birth. The infant has been suffering from inborn rickets and was in need of a long-term treatment.
2010-07-21 12:51 See moreToday the Parliament of Georgia is reviewing the draft law on addendum to the General Administrative Code of Georgia. Under the draft law, clause 5 will be inserted in Article 3 of the General Administrative Code of Georgia:“5. Chapter III of this Code does not apply to activities of the executive authorities that are related to participation of the state of Georgia in litigations and review of cases in international arbitrary, foreign or international courts before deliverance of judgment by them. Prior to deliverance of final judgment by court, information will be released in compliance with an international agreement and treaty of Georgia and/or terms of courts provided in this paragraph”.
2010-07-20 14:43 See moreFour organizations – Human Rights Center, Transparency International Georgia, International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy and Georgian Young Lawyers' Association are responding to the statement made on July 14 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
2010-07-16 10:37 See moreFour organizations – Human Rights Center, Transparency International Georgia, International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy and Georgian Young Lawyers' Association are responding to the statement made on July 14 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
2010-07-16 09:48 See moreDuring the Spring Session 2010, the Georgian Parliament began discussing the new Tax Code. According to the first part of the draft code, paragraph 308, the income tax rate applied to NGOs (non-governmental organizations) will be increased to 20% beginning January 1, 2011. In accordance with the current Tax Code, the income tax rate applied to income from grants is 12%. It was planned to increase to 18% beginning January 1, 2012 and then decrease to 15% from January 1, 2012. However, the new draft elaborated by the Government of Georgia to move toward the 15% rate was postponed until January 1, 2014. This means that the income tax rate from January 1, 2011 to January 1, 2013 will be 20%; 18% from January 1, 2013 to January 1, 2014; and 15% only after January 1, 2014.Correspondingly, the draft law unexpectedly initiated by the Georgian government considerably increases the tax rate on income received from grants. This unexpected increase in the income tax rate conflicts with previous verbal agreements between the Georgian government and civil society representatives. This tax increase should not be made without consultations with the civil sector. Unfortunately, the new Tax Code was developed behind closed doors. This barred civil society actors from expressing their positions on the tax regime specifically related to non-governmental organizations. The above mentioned non-inclusion approach took away the possibility of civil society actors to participate in a process, which directly relates to non-governmental activities.The new Tax Code seemingly ignores the fact that NGOs are not-for-profit institutions whose income is frequently solely based on grants from donor organizations or foreign governments. These funds, as well as NGO activities, focus on promoting democratic development and providing support to vulnerable groups. In fact, in many cases, the funds serve to provide those services that the state itself is unable to provide the population.In our opinion, the proposed new Tax Code will only impede the activities of non-governmental organizations and is contrary to the interests of donor organizations, namely to spend grant funds on specific services rather than increase spending on personnel. Increased taxation will burden civil society organizations and will inhibit their ability to attract and retain qualified personnel. The current economic environment in Georgia must be taken into consideration. Due to the 2008 August War and the world financial crisis, the challenges have become more acute and as a result the number of vulnerable groups requiring assistance has increased. Consequently, the need to maintain the preferential status for NGOs is even more important now than it was three years ago, when the Georgian government and NGOs agreement on the 12% income tax rate. The NGOs request that the Government of Georgia and the Parliament: • Extend the terms of the moratorium agreed by the Government of Georgia and civil society for three years; particularly, the tax rate on income received as grants should be kept at the 12% rate through January 1, 2014.• Increase the tax rate only after three years to a rate established through consultations with the civil sector.
2010-07-14 14:06 See more