On February 18, 2014 Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association and Transparency International Georgia will present their second Monitoring Report on the Activities of the High Council of Justice (HCOJ). The report mainly covers the period of 2013 and was implemented in the following direction: transparency of the HCOJ activities; the procedural issues and reasoning of the decision; appointment/transfers of judges; composition of the HCOJ.
Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association is making some explanations about the statement of the Ministry of Energy in terms of public defender.
The statement provides that: “When it comes to how reasonable it is to implement the Khudoni project and how necessary to hold discussion and make decisions, this goes beyond the authority and competence of the ombudsman”.It has been reported that on February 10, 2014 the Law Enforcement Agencies arrested the Khoni municipality governor Zurab Jibukhaia, his deputy Besarion Tchelidze, and the deputy chairman of the United National Movement’s Dusheti organization Zurab Otiashvili.
We, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy and Transparency International Georgia welcome the readiness of the ruling coalition in terms of raising an election barrier up to 50% for the upcoming municipal elections.
As it is known, according to the initial decision of the ruling coalition, 40 % vote threshold was set for election of city mayors, while 33 % election barrier was envisaged for local governors that was not supported by us. We, alternatively, asked to impose 50% vote threshold for all elected high officials (Mayors/ local governors). In view of this, we consider that increase of the election barrier up to 50% is a positive amendment, which will reinforce the legitimacy of directly elected high officials.The renewed opendata.ge will be launched on February 27, 2014 – the most voluminous online database in Georgia.
The portal serves to improve level of transparency and accountability of the government.
On February 5, 2014 Parliament adopted the new Local Self-Government Code as part of which amendments were made to the Law on Public Service as well. The amendments to the Law on Public Service contain a provision under which all civil servants employed at local self-government bodies, including those appointed through competition, shall be considered as serving ad interim after the scheduled 2014 local elections, following which competitions shall be announced for the vacated positions.
Today, on February 28, 2014 GYLA arranged the presentation-exhibition in OSGF office about Sakdrisi-Khachiani. At the event GYLA submitted official information about Sakdrisi- Khachiani received from the Government of Georgia, the Ministry of Culture and Historic Monuments Protection and the National Agency for Protection of Cultural Heritage. There were also documents that were unknown to the society at large till now.
On February 27, 2014 the Constitutional Court of Georgia delivered the judgment on the case "Ilia Chanturia v. the Parliament of Georgia". GYLA represented interests of the applicant Ilia Chanturia in the Constitutional Court. The applicant challenged constitutionality of the provision of the Civil Procedure Code, which envisaged eviction of the party to the process or his/her lawyer from the trial or their penalization for contempt of the court, without giving chance to submit any explanation about their conduct. Moreover, evicted or penalized individual was also deprived of the opportunity to appeal the court decision in the superior instance.
On February 14, 2014 GYLA held presentation of the Research – Obligation to Submit FOIA Reports (practice of Georgia, the United States and Australia).
As the research has demonstrated, public agencies responsible for submission of FOIA reports, as well as agencies authorized to receive the reports have pro-forma approach to the process. They fail to implement even trivial obligations such as publication of freedom of information reports on the web-site of the Legislative Herald of Georgia within the terms established by legislation or submission of the reports to the President, the Parliament and the Prime-Minister according to the established rules.
On February 18, draft of amendments to the Law of Georgia on Electronic Communications was published on the website of the parliament of Georgia. The parliament approved first reading of the draft with 75-0 votes on February 18. We believe that the pending amendments need to be further improved considering that they do not cover all legal relations that they aim to regulate.
