On May 6, the CEO of Rustavi 2 - Nika Gvaramia and the employees of the TV channel issued a special statement. According to the CEO, the channel was under the audio and video surveillance. Nika Gvaramia presented the video and audio surveillance footage, recorded in the offices of Gvaramia and Deputy CEO Nino Shubladze, to the media. According to Gvaramia, the video footages were obtained from their informant from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the footages depict the conversations taking place in the offices.

On April 11, 2014, the administrative complaint of the citizens – Kakha Kozhoridze and Dali Mamulashvili was submitted to the Government of Georgia. In their complaint, the citizens requested to revoke the decision of the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia, which granted the right to the LLC “RMG Gold” to conduct broad-scale works on the archeological site of Sakdrisi-Kachagiani. On May 7, 2014 the authors of the complaint received the notification from the office of the Government of Georgia, informing them that it was decided to refuse to consider the administrative complaint on the motive that “the complaint was submitted by the unauthorized persons.”

 We are concerned with the homophobic evaluations made by the Minister of the Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees, Davit Darakhvelidze, during the interview with the newspaper “Versia” on May 9. 

The law of Georgia on the “Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination” was enacted on May 8. The goal of this law is to “eliminate all forms of discrimination and ensure equal enjoyment of the rights, prescribed under the legislation of Georgia, by each natural and legal person, regardless of their race, color, language, gender, age, citizenship, origin, birth place, residence, property or status, religion or beliefs, national, ethnic or social affiliation, profession, marital status, health condition, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, political or other views or any other characteristics.”

For many years, the civil society has been talking about the problems existing in relation to the secret eavesdropping and surveillance and the necessity of introducing reform in this regard. One year ago, the representatives of the civil society sector addressed the parliament of Georgia with the legislative amendment initiatives. However, due to the resistance of the law enforcement bodies the process was procrastinated.

As it is known, on May 6, 2014, “Rustavi 2” publicized the records of the secret video and audio surveillance. At the press-conference conducted on the same day, the CEO of the TV outlet stated that the secret records were provided by the representatives of the Ministry of the Internal Affairs.

On February 25, 2014, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), Transparency International – Georgia (TI), International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) and Open Society – Georgia Foundation  (OSGF) have commented on the amendments to the law of Georgia on the “Civil Service”.

On March 10, 2010, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) addressed the European Court of Human Rights, representing the family members of Giorgi Gamtsemlidze (mother, widow and under-aged children of G. Gamtsemlidze) with the complaint “Gamtsemlidze and Others against Georgia”. 

On May 16, 2014, the Central Election Commission (CEC) considered the complaint submitted by GYLA, which related to the alleged fact of use of the administrative resource by the Tbilisi Mayor’s Office. 

May 17, 2013 has become an important event in our socio-political environment. The counter-demonstration of the the clerics and various social groups, conducted against the planned International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) turned into a broad-scale violence. Hence, the counter-demonstration was in conflict with the existing legislative order and liberal-democratic values, which is based on the ideas of secularization of the public-political environment and protection of freedom, dignity and equality of humans, recognizing their supreme value.