In July 2015, Ministry of Justice proposed draft legislation on reforming the rules of witness interrogation. The draft is based on the opinions of the special group created under the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliament of Georgia. The group was created given the multiple postponements of enforcing the new rules of witness interrogation adopted in 2009 and its objective was to identify the model of witness interrogation that is in compliance with international human rights obligations.
On August 31, 2015 the Georgian Dream coalition announced that no fundamental changes to the electoral system were being planned prior to the 2016 parliamentary elections. Instead, the government plans to introduce two changes. Firstly, a new 50% threshold will be introduced to the majoritarian electoral system. This will mean that if in the first round of voting a candidate does not receive 50% of the vote, a second round run-off will be triggered. Secondly, majoritarian electoral district boundaries will be adjusted, in accordance with the ruling of the Constitutional Court of Georgia and the Council of Europe’s 2002 Code of Good Practice.
The September 2015 amendments to the Law on Prosecutor’s Office have changed procedures for the appointment of Prosecutor General. The amendments introduced Prosecutorial Council consisting of 15 members including Minister of Justice, 2 Parliament Members, 2 common court judges, 2 representatives of the academia, and 8 prosecutors. The Council has been endowed with an important role in the selection and appointment of Prosecutor General. The amendments also introduced Prosecutors Assembly, which includes all prosecutors and investigators working for the Prosecutor’s Office. The Assembly is responsible for the election of 8 members of the Prosecutorial Council.
The organizations that have prepared and signed this statement would like to respond to the tense developments in the country. We believe that various groups have recently stepped up the activities that pose a threat to the pluralism in the media and political pluralism as well as to the public order. There is a real threat of further escalation of the situation and violent actions, so all political and civil groups need to treat the situation with a special sense of responsibility. Attacks on the opposition United National Movement have been carried out in an organized manner over the last few days. A chronology and brief descriptions of the attacks are provided at the end of this statement. It has been reported that Georgian Dream activists, as well as heads of village administration and other representatives of local self-government bodies, were involved in the attacks that followed the protest rallies held outside the United National Movement’s offices in the capital and almost every region. Aside from the party offices, the attacks also targeted the Saakashvili Presidential Library. The timing and the manner of the attacks suggest that they were organized and planned in advance. Also, attacks were previously carried out against the Constitutional Court judges, prompting the Constitutional Court chairman to address the Georgian president, the Prime Minister and the Parliament Chairman with an extremely alarming statement and ask for the illegal actions against the court and its judges to be investigated. In order to fully understand the situation, it is necessary to keep in mind recent public screening of torture videos and public calls for violence, which also constitute a crime.
For the last few days, the video records, depicting torture, are being aired through the TV company “Obiektivi”. The mentioned video records are repeatedly aired in the format of the advertisement, in a way which makes it possible to identify the victims. We consider that it is unacceptable for the media to air the mentioned videos in this way, because this violates the right to privacy of the victims and might have dire psychological impacts on both victims, as well as their family members and the broader public. At the same time, the video records can become easily accessible to the underaged.
The Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary is concerned about recent developments which demonstrated disrespect of political forces and certain public groups towards judicial independence and rule of law thereby threatening independence of important constitutional institutions in the country. On September 18, 2015 Giorgi Papuashvili, President of the Constitutional Court of Georgia made a media statement according to which certain judges and their family members are under pressure coming from threatening statements by different groups of citizens gathered in front of the judges’ private homes. Giorgi Papuashvili believes that the reason for the pressure directed against the Constitutional Court judges is that the Constitutional Court has upheld Giorgi Ugulava’s appeal. In addition to this statement, the media have been circulating declarations of representatives of certain civil groups, which threaten judges.
On September 18, 2015 the Parliament of Georgia adopted the draft amendments to the Law on the Prosecutor’s Office on the third reading. The amendments constitute the reform of the Prosecutor’s Office which according to the Government of Georgia. The Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary got engaged in this process by publishing opinions on the draft law. In its commentary the Coalition stressed that establishing a new rule for the selection/appointment and dismissal of Prosecutor General is not sufficient for the reform of the Prosecutor’s Office. The Coalition also criticized the initial draft amendments, which did not guarantee depoliticization of the selection process. Later, the Venice Commission developed a similar opinion, which stated that despite a generally positive direction of the process of reform, the draft law submitted for consideration did not provide guarantees for full depoliticization of the Prosecutor’s Office. It needs to be stated once more that the Government did not adequately justify the lack of will and readiness for constitutional changes in this context.
Based on GYLA’s complaint the Constitutional Court prohibited use of illegally obtained evidence in criminal cases
On July 31, 2015 the Constitutional Court of Georgia delivered decision on the case Maia Robakhidze vs. the Parliament of Georgia. In the case concerned GYLA represented applicant’s interests. Constitutional Court of Georgia declared unconstitutional words “of this Code” included in Para 1, Article 72 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
On June 9, 2015 Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association arranged a round table about evaluation of the report on implementation of the 2014 action plan of the National Human Rights Protection Strategy.
GYLA’s report revealed the following:
Ø Activities of the Interagency Coordination Council of the Georgia’s Human Rights Protection Government Action Plan were carried out with irregularities;
- Activities of the working groups set up within the Council fail to meet the stated goal. Further, group members are involved in the process mostly for show;
- Some gaps were observed in terms of activities envisaged by the Human Rights Protection action plan and adequate indicators;
- In some cases it is difficult to find a link between certain activities and selected indicators, whereas progress oriented indicators aiming to measure achieved success are almost missing from the plan, which complicates evaluation of report implementation.
