By 20:30 GYLA continues election observation. The electoral process is mostly conducted in the calm environment. By 20:00 the voting procedure has ended. By that time, the violations relating to the mobile ballot box, indirect influence upon the voters’ will, the attempts of taking the ballots away from the polling station, as well as other violations have occurred.
In 2010 Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association applied to ECtHR on behalf of the applicant Z.Jakheli. On May 12, 2015 the European Court rendered a ruling that was published on the web-page on June 4, 2015. Based on the reached agreement between parties the case “Jakheli vs. Georgia” has been removed from the list of pending cases.
On June 5, 2015 the ruling coalition Georgian Dream introduced its decision to public and reported that forthcoming parliamentary elections in 2016 will be held under the applicable mixed proportional-majoritarian system with slight amendments. In particular, the Coalition plans to increase the minimum threshold of majoritarians to 50 percent and proposes to redraw the borders of majoritarian districts for observance of equality of votes as per Constitutional Court decision.
Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) responds to the statement, made by the prime minister on June 8, 2015 regarding Giorgi Okropiridze and the subsequent actions of the prosecution that raise serious doubts in terms of independence and impartiality of this public body.
With assistance of GYLA’s Kutaisi branch court found an individual innocent
T.G. was accused as per Para 5, Article 276 of the Criminal Code of Georgia (violation of the traffic safety rules that caused death of an individual). Specifically, according to the indictment, T.G. has violated traffic rules while driving a car in Zestaphoni region, village Shrosha and hit a pedestrian. The court upheld position of the defense, as well as evidences submitted by the defense and concluded that it was impossible to avoid an accident by T.G. In view of this, there was no necessary standard beyond the reasonable doubt to render a convicting judgement and the court found T.G. innocent.
The representatives of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), Transparency International – Georgia (TI) and the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) will attend the Venice Commission session, on June 19 and June 20, where the amendments to the Law on the Prosecution will be discussed.
The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association presented the results of its monitoring of criminal cases in Batumi, Kutaisi and Tbilisi City Courts and Tbilisi and Kutaisi Appeals Courts on June 22, 2015. Danielle Reiff, Head of USAID’s Democracy and Governance Office, and Anna Natsvlishvili, Chair of Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association opened the presentation. The court monitoring conducted by the GYLA is funded by the USAID through the Promoting Rule of Law in Georgia (PROLoG) Activity implemented by the East-West Management Institute (EWMI).
The forum will bring together government and civil society stakeholders to discuss the issues of state policy towards past human rights violations. The Coalition will provide recommendations to the state in order to achieve justice for past violations while safeguarding the process from political retribution.
Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association and Transparency International - Georgia presented Three-Year Summary of Monitoring the High Council of Justice in the period of 2012-2014. The report summarizes the activities of the Council on the selection/appointment of judges, transfer of judges, transparency of the work of the Council, disciplinary proceedings against judges, etc.
On June 30, 2015 GYLA finalized the project it has been implementing since May 1, 2012. The project aimed at providing legal aid to Internally Displaced Persons. The project was financed by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) and implemented by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC).
