Member nongovernmental and media organizations of the Campaign “This Affects You” are about to launch second stage of the Campaign which aims to introduce amendments to the Election Code and to make the media environment more flexible during the pre-election period. On May 7, the Campaign participants submitted packet of the legislative proposals to the Parliament of Georgia which had been signed by 35 NGOs and media organizations. The draft-amendments are open for other signatures as well. The legislative proposal is focused on the following issues: 1.Improvement of the vote-counting procedures during the Election Day –according to the draft, the number of voters shall be recorded in the final protocol before the ballot boxes are open in precincts. It will prevent the election commissions to change the number of voters who had taken part in the process throughout the day. The amendment will blockade the possibility to amend the final protocol if the unacceptable number of voters had arrived at the precinct. The counting mechanisms were farther clarified in the proposals. 2. Ensuring transparency of activities of the election administration – online-transmitting of CEC and district election commissions’ sessions during pre-election period;
2012-05-10 12:17 See moreGYLA is concerned with Zurab Delianidze and Tengiz Belkania’s death facts in prison hospital No. 18 and conveys its sincere condolences to their families. On May 3, 2012 mass media disseminated information on Zurab Davlianidze’s death fact in prison hospital No.18, whilst on May 4, 2012 T. Belkania’s death fact was reported. GYLA considers that notwithstanding various proposed versions on the causes of prisoners’ death, it is necessary to conduct effective investigation into each death case by independent investigative body. GYLA welcomes the statement of the Ministry of Corrections and Legal Assistance of Georgia made on May 4, 2012 according to which investigation of Z. Davlianidze’s death case was passed to the General Prosecutor’s Office and expects that investigation will be conducted in an unbiased, effective and transparent manner. In addition, GYLA makes reference to the official statement of the Ministry made on May 3, 2012 mentioning the high public interest towards the issue and calls on the investigative bodies to submit to public periodic information on the investigation process and its outcomes.
2012-05-10 12:12 See moreGYLA considers that conduct of cleaning service of Kutaisi City Hall, in particular, application of the water cannon trucks against the youth protest, was unreasonable interference in freedom of assembly and expression. On May 2, activists of “Georgian Dream” Kutaisi office have gathered in the Center of the city to mark the day of the city “Kutaisoba”. With lighted candles they have written on the pavement the following words: “Happy Day of Kutaisi.” The video records of the TV Company “Maestro” reveal that in the process of the event, a truck appeared spraying water cannon at the protesters. The video recorded how a person dressed in uniform takes aim at participants of the rally with water cannon. The protest was not held on the traffic road and organizers of the event were not required to submit preliminary notice to Kutaisi City Hall. Therefore, the assembly was legal. GYLA considers that conduct of the cleaning service of Kutaisi City Hall under the excuse to protect sanitary-hygienic or fire preventive norms in the city, is not convincing argument. It is unclear what risk shall be created to city sanitary or fire security norms with some candles placed in plastic glasses.
2012-05-03 13:04 See moreOn February 21, 2012 Tbilisi City Court rendered decision on the case “AISEK –Georgia” vs. the magazine “Liberali”. Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association represented interests of the magazine “Liberali” in court. The case concerned journalistic investigation “A victim of murky transaction” published in the Liberali publication of March 28-April 3. The article provided information about contractual misunderstanding among the students willing to continue their studies abroad and AISEK – Georgia. AISEK – Georgia considered that facts brought in the Article were calumny and claimed compensation for the suffered damage in the amount of GEL 20 000 as well as to repudiate the facts published in the article. The city court did not uphold the applicant’s position and did not satisfy any of the submitted claims. After communication with Tbilisi City Court GYLA found out, that the respondent did not appeal the decision and it entered into legal force.
2012-05-03 08:50 See moreGYLA is concerned with Azer Sulaimanov’s , Member of the Parliament – statements addressed to MP jondi Bagaturia, considers it as expression of the language of hatred and calls on him to abstain from similar conduct in future. In the Parliament Jondi Bagatruia reported, that having recognized genocide of Cherkez people, the Parliament has no arguments to resist from recognizing Armenians’ genocide in Ottoman Empire. Member of the Parliament Azer Suleimanov had interrupted Jondi Bagaturia with the following words: “Our Armenian colleague Mr. Jondi Bagaturyan stays on his Armenian position. ” MP Azer Sulaimanov’s statement is verbal attack on Armenian Ethnic group, with explicit, hostile attitude to the mentioned ethnic community. The statement implies that wearing of Armenian family name is humiliating to an individual.
2012-05-03 08:35 See moreToday, on April 24, 2012 three NGOs Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), “Institute for Development of Freedom of Information” and “International Transparency- Georgia” will submit their opinions to the Parliament on the draft of “Information Security”. NGOs consider that the legislative initiative is timely, since the risks associated with ever increasing speed of information technology development and utilization should be reflected in Georgian Legislation accordingly. Legislative initiative on “Information Security”, examined by the Parliament of Georgia, attracts attention as far as number of provisions influences freedom of information regulating legislation and introduces certain corrections thereto. In particular,
2012-04-25 06:56 See moreTo: Mr. Luis Moreno-Ocampo To: Ms Fatou Bensouda 24 April 2012 Tbilisi, Georgia Dear Ms Fatou Bensouda and Mr Luis Moreno-Ocampo, The signatory organizations named below welcome the election of Ms. Fatou Bensouda as the next Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). We hope that the role of the ICC in strengthening international justice and prosecuting international crimes will be strengthened throughout the following nine years. Mr. Prosecutor, Madame Prosecutor-elect, we write to you today to urge you in your capacity to ensure that justice is served in relation to the August 2008 conflict between Georgia and Russia – a situation under preliminary examination by the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor since 2008. More than three years have passed since the announcement of the opening of a preliminary examination into the August 2008 armed conflict between Georgia and Russia. Evidence from numerous sources indicates that grave crimes occurred during (and following) the conflict, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. As a result of the conflict, over 23,000 people have been forcibly displaced, villages have been torched and razed to the ground, and the territory of South Ossetia has been completely cleansed of ethnic Georgians. Evidence points to crimes having been committed by both sides to the conflict.
2012-04-24 14:16 See moreToday, on April 23 in hotel “Courtyard Marriott” GYLA presented a research “Construction of the Parliament of Georgia in Kutaisi” prepared in the framework of the project “Promotion of Accountability and Transparency in Georgia”. By this monitoring GYLA attempted to find out lawfulness of implemented procurements of works for construction of the Parliament building in Kutaisi and reasonability and effectiveness of incurred state expenditures. Public information retrieved from and disclosed by public agencies served as the primary source for the monitoring. With a view to receive public information GYLA central and Kutaisi branch offices filed administrative complaints to public agencies as well as lodged administrative cases to the courts when necessary. The monitoring revealed following trends:
2012-04-24 09:08 See moreOn April 11, 2012 the Constitutional Court of Georgia made a decision on the case Public Defender of Georgia vs. The Parliament of Georgia. The full version of the decision was placed on the official web-page of the Constitutional Court recently. Constitutional Court recognized license obligation for the cable broadcasting service unconstitutional, in contradiction with Article 24 (freedom of expression) of the Constitution of Georgia, however the court deemed necessary the license for satellite-based broadcasting. GYLA, having the status of “a friend of the court”, was involved in the case. We should highlight that written opinions proposed by GYLA were reflected in descriptive part of the decision. GYLA insisted that unlike to terrestrial platform, in cable and satellite broadcasting naturally exhausting resource – frequency was not applied, therefore, receiving of license for start of such broadcasting from the Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) was not appropriate. On its side, after initiation of broadcasting without license by cable and satellite-based broadcasters, the Regulatory Commission should have retained the authority to inspect lawfulness of activity of such broadcasters.
2012-04-24 09:05 See moreOn April 20, 2012 GYLA applied to Constitutional Court on behalf of Marina Kiku – Moldova citizen. GYLA demands to annul the restriction of foreign citizens’ right to organize and be responsible for protest meetings and manifestations. On April 11, 2011 the Constitutional Court of Georgia satisfied Public Defender’s constitutional case and considered unconstitutional article of the Law on Assembly and Manifestation of Georgia which deprived foreign citizens of the right to be organizers and responsible persons for protest meetings and manifestations. Trustee of the assembly and an organizer, who is entitled to file notification to executive body of local self-governance and who is able to call on the participants for dissolution of the meeting, are considered to be responsible persons. The prohibition that was considered unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court concerned non-citizens and stateless persons.
2012-04-23 12:15 See more