On 1 August 2014, the Parliament of Georgia, based on legislative proposals largely prepared by the civil society, adopted legislation regulating secret surveillance. This new legislation and regulation of secret investigative actions was assessed by international experts to be a progressive step. However, the new legislative initiative sponsored by parliamentary majority MPs Eka Beselia, Irakli Sesiashvili and Gedevan Popkhadze is an attempt to undermine the high human rights standards set by the 1 August 2014 laws.

Civil society organizations campaigning against illegal surveillance would like to respond to the allegations voiced by the Prime Minister on 20 November 2014.

We are closely following the latest political developments in our country. The investigation process initiated by the Prosecutor’s Office against MoD, General Staff Officials and their accusations were followed by a statement of the Minister of Defense directly accusing the Prosecutor’s Office in purposeful persecution and most significantly of deliberate disruption of Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic Integration policy. Because of this the Prime-Minister has discharged the Minister of Defense.

The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association presented the results of its monitoring of criminal cases in Batumi, Kutaisi and Tbilisi City and Appeals Courts on December 4, 2014. The court monitoring by GYLA is funded by USAID though the Judicial Independence and Legal Empowerment Project (JILEP) implemented by the East-West Management Institute.  

Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association has been protecting Vasil Lomsadze’s interests, who allegedly was beaten by Zaal Adamia, deputy head of Rustavi department of the Ministry of Interior and other employees of the police.

On December 8, 2014 GYLA held presentation of the research  about State Policy of IDPs’ housing solutions. 

Perpetrators were prohibited from inflicting verbal, physical and psychological violence on victims of domestic violence

On December 10, 2014, in relation to the International Day of the Human Rigths Protection, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) has made the brief evaluation of the state of the human rights protection in the country and has briefly summarized its activities in this regard for the past year. Considering the multitude of the topics and issues, we will cover only some of the directions of the human rights protection in this statement.

GYLA held presentation of the monitoring report of pre-election environment, election day and post-election period. The report covers results of the monitoring conducted in April 1-July 22, 2014 period. The report describes in details irregularities revealed within pre-election campaign, during election day and in the course of calculating results. Further, it proposes concrete recommendations that will assist individuals involved in election process to eliminate the gaps.

On December 12, 2014, the Ministry of the Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia (the Ministry) and the National Agency of the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of Georgia have issued the decrees (#03/266 and #2/271), resulting in the renewal of the mining works by the “RMG Gold” in Sakdrisi-Kachaghiani.