The Coalition for Media Advocacy is addressing to Chief Prosecutor of Georgia Murtaz Zodelava, Minister of Interior Affairs Vano Merabishvili and Secretary of Securitry Council Giga Bokeria with an official appeal to declassify the photojournalists’ case. The photojournalists, Zurab Kurtsikidze (European Photo Agency representative), Giorgi Abdaladze (a photograph of the Ministry of Foreign affairs of Georgia) and Irakli Gedenidze (a photograph of the press service of the president’s administration) were arrested by the Interior Ministry’s department of counter intelligence. The Coalition for Media Advocacy is demanding to be provided with an official written response on whether the case of the arrested photojournalists entirely constitutes information designated as state secret or whether only parts of the case have been classified. Furthermore, the Coalition is demanding to be informed about level and duration of the classification and identify of officials that have authorized classification of the case.
2011-07-21 09:55 See moreOn July 15, 2011, the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Georgia released a statement saying that based on the footage disseminated by media outlets, the office of the prosecutor, statements of the public defender and NGOs, it carried out the examination of disciplinary violations committed by employees of the MIA during the dispersal of the May 26, 2011 rally and punished 16 employees, including by dismissing 4 employees of the Interior Ministry. With regards to the noted statement, GYLA believes that the Interior Ministry's response to information disseminated by media outlets, as well as statements of NGOs and the public defender is important for government accountability and prevention of any future offences by employees of the Interior Ministry. However, GYLA believes that the information released by the Ministry fails to reveal specific criminal offences that noted individuals were held liable for or positions that they were holding. The statement says nothing about whether the MIA officers that were involved in the process of planning the May 26 rally dispersal and were personally responsible for carrying out the operation were punished.
2011-07-20 12:48 See moreFrom December 20, 2010 to December 2011 GYLA has been implementing the EU-funded new project the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association for Effective Protection and Promotion of Basic Labor Rights in Georgia. The project covers Tbilisi and seven regions of Georgia, where GYLA’s regional offices are located – Kutaisi, Adjara, Gori, Rustavi, Telavi, Ozurgeti and Dusheti. The project is implemented on the basis of the GYLA’s strategic approach that incorporates improvement of civil rights practice in the country by means of combination of three components: ensuring effective legislation, responding to and preventing individual civil rights violations and raising legal awareness of public. Based on the noted strategy, the project has three main strands: 1. In order to improve applicable labor laws and harmonize them with the European standards, GYLA, with assistance of its parliamentary secretary and in cooperation with corresponding state agencies and other NGOs, will prepare and lobby legal drafts in the parliament.
2011-07-18 14:22 See moreOn the International Day of Justice, celebrated on July 17 worldwide, the Georgian Coalition for the International Criminal Court composed of the following NGOs - the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, the Human Rights Centre, Human Rights Priority, the union ‘Article 42 of the Constitution’, the Centre for the Protection of Constitutional Rights, the International Center on Conflict and Negotiation - addresses and once more calls for the governments of the Russian Federation and Georgia to effectively investigate crimes committed during the August 2008 war. In the August 2008 war mass and gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law occured, including signs of ethnic cleansing against ethnic Georgians, premeditated killings of civilians were committed, facts of disappearance, mass destruction of personal property, forceful banishment, unlawful arrests, captivity, torture and inhumane treatment occurred on both sides of the conflict. A number of persons affected by the August war applied to the investigative agencies of Georgia and the Russian Federation, seeking investigation into the crimes committed against them. Corresponding official agencies on both sides declare that investigation of war crimes is ongoing but as of now, there are no signs of progress or considerable efforts for the purpose of ensuring effective investigation on part of either of the conflict sides. Furthermore, it should be noted that specifics of investigation of war crimes in Russia and Georgia differ to a certain extent.
2011-07-18 13:19 See moreSince November 2010 the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), Transparency International – Georgia, the New Generation – New Initiative (nGnI) and the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) have been actively observing the process of negotiations for improvement of election environment, supported by the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES). The process was transparent as a number of international and local NGOs that in their turn updated public on developments in the negotiations, could freely attend it. As you are aware, on June 27, 2011, five political parties signed an agreement offered by the ruling party on measures for improvement of the election environment. Later the agreement was signed by several other political parties. On July 8, 2011, the first meeting of the editorial group working on the election reform was held at the Parliament of Georgia. The group focuses on issues that will be reflected in the election legislation on the basis of the agreement between the stakeholders. The editorial group is scheduled to hold the second meeting in two weeks. The meeting will not be attended by representatives of non-governmental and international organizations. Public is unaware of the composition and the working format of the group.
2011-07-13 13:30 See moreOn July 11, 2011, at 12:00 p.m. the Georgian Young Lawyers‘ Association held a presentation of outcomes of the project Durable solutions – a Way Forward for IDPs in Georgia and the research State Policy toward IDPs, Analysis of Policy Deficiencies. Since 2010, the Georgian Young Lawyers‘ Association in partnership with the Danish Refugee Council has been implementing the project Durable Solutions – a Way Forward for IDPs in Georgia, which has been financially supported by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). The project entailed various activities, including legal assistance, raising awareness, advocacy and monitoring of evictions. During the project implementation, several significant issues were identified that are related to certain problems. In order to analyze the problems, the research State Policy toward IDPs, Analysis of Policy Deficiencies was prepared. The research analyzes the issues that affected IDPs the most during the project implementation. Specifically, it was identified that granting the IDP status remains to be problematic, as some of the internally displaced persons still have not received the status. Furthermore, provision of financial compensation is also problematic, which is one the one hand caused by ambiguity of applicable norms.
2011-07-11 10:22 See moreLawyers of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association are defending interests of Irakli and Natia Gvendadzes. On July 7 the lawyers met with and talked to the detainees but the following evening, on July 8, when the photographers where formally charged, the investigation did not allow GYLA’s lawyers to meet with the detainees whose interests they are protecting. According to the investigator, the Gvindadzes have refused to use the service of GYLA’s lawyers and have decided to hire another lawyer. The investigator also presented an application on preclusion. GYLA’s lawyers were demanding to be allowed to meet with the detainees personally for them to confirm that the decision to change the lawyers was made willingly and without any pressure but the lawyers’ demand was refused by the investigator. It should be noted that during the most recent meeting with Irakli Gedenidze, the lawyer did not suspect anything about a possible preclusion. To the contrary, at the meeting it was agreed that the lawyer would frequently visit the detainee and that they would meet at the time he was formally charged.
2011-07-09 10:41 See moreThe Georgian Media Legal Defence Centre of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association is defending photo journalists Irakli and Natia Gedevanidzes and Zurab Kurtsikidze arrested under Article 314 of the Criminal Code of Georgia - on charges of espionage - by the Interior Ministry on July 7, 2011. The lawyers met with the arrested persons yesterday, on July 7. The case has been classified as secret; therefore, due to their professional obligation, lawyers of the GMLDC may not release any details of the matter. It is important that among the arrested photo journalists there are photographers that have cooperated with international media outlets, which causes high public interest in the detainees and the fact of the detention. The GMLDC believes that the rule of law is the value that any citizen of a democratic society aspires to protect. Therefore, the Centre calls on the Interior Ministry to make the decision about classifying the case (individual administrative-legal act) public on its own initiative, and protect the legitimate public interests by providing society with credible arguments about expediency of classifying the case as secret.
2011-07-08 13:29 See moreOn June 28 the draft on “introducing of amendments to the Civil Code of Georgia” was initiated to the Parliament. According to the decision adopted by the bureau of the Parliament the draft has been considered in an accelerated way and was adopted by three readings within five days from the day of its initiation. Such velocity excludes participation of religious unions, especially religious minorities, in consideration of the legislative amendments. Moreover, information on the sessions of legal issues committee, where the draft has been considered by the first and the second reading, was not published on the web-site of the Parliament, which is gross violation of regulations. The final copy of the draft adopted yesterday became accessible to us only today. According to the draft the new Article 15091 is added to the Civil Code of Georgia and according to its first paragraph “religious unions will be able to register as legal entities of public law.” Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association considers that it is improper to grant the status of legal entity of public law to religious organizations. However, since constitutional agreement already permits such practice and revision of the document is not on the agenda, we would only examine issues related explicitly to the draft.
2011-07-07 06:44 See moreThe agreement reached between the ruling party and some opposition parties on June 27, 2011 envisages increase of the total number of the Members of Parliament from 150 to 190. For the last period opinions were voiced repeatedly that Georgian Parliament possessed authority to increase the number of MPs by the constitutional amendments. We would like to remind the society requirements of the Georgian legislation, according to which this agreement contradicts Georgian citizens’ willpower expressed at the Referendum in 2003 and therefore, its implementation by the Parliament will be illegal and unconstitutional. Presidential order #428 of September 2, 2003 on appointment of the referendum provides: “Following issue shall be submitted at the referendum: “Do you agree with reducing the number of members of Parliament and setting a limit of no more than 150? ”. The referendum was held on November 2, 2003. 1904 105 citizens participated in the election. The absolute majority of the electors (1590 000 persons) voted in favor of decreasing the number. On February 23, 2005 Parliament passed a constitutional amendment to Article 49 downsizing the number of MPs to 100 members elected by proportional system and 50 - elected by majoritarian system.
2011-07-04 06:31 See more