The Civil Service Bureau published monitoring results of asset declarations of officials on December 29, 2017, which was implemented in Georgia for the first time and is important mechanism for prevention of corruption. According to the report, the Civil Service Bureau examined completeness and correctness of the asset declarations of 287 officials during 2017, out of which 224 declarations (78%) were assessed negatively and the information about the violations revealed from monitoring asset declarations of the 7 officials was sent to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia for response.

The High Council of Justice is examining the applications of 51 current judges for appointment to office for life. These days, the Council is interviewing the judges, a process which has once again revealed an organized attempt of an influential group of judges to hinder the appointment of judges on the basis of critical assessment of their past activity and competence. This process has also seen a trend of closing interviews by the candidates, which, in a situation of a high public interest, undermines the credibility of the process of judicial appointments.

Every week the media is reporting about the laborers being injured or dying at their workplaces. Today a worker fell from the construction site and died on Jvania Street. 10 days ago a man working on the construction site in the village of Rukhi died. In May 2017, in the mine of Tkibuli, four workers at the same time died due to the nonexistence of the safety standards. Death on the workplace has turned into a usual thing and became a part of everyday life.

We are expressing deep concern about the profound institutional crisis in the Public Broadcasting. The trust for this organization among the citizens is critically low, even though they pay more and more in the state budget every year to finance the broadcasting. 

We are willing to share our concerns regarding the ongoing processes at the Parliament of Georgia related to the discussion of the draft law on “Labor Safety”, which is also one of the significant issues for EU-Georgia association agreement and the association agenda. 

The Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary assesses the draft law developed by the Ministry of Justice of Georgia that aims to introduce the State Inspector’s Office. Under the draft law, this office will replace the Personal Data Protection Inspector and, in addition to performing the latter’s functions, will have the authority to investigate specific crimes committed in the capacity of a law enforcement body’s representative, employee or a person equalized to him. 

In 2017, GYLA successfully litigated 121 cases, including 6 before the Constitutional Court, 4 before the European Court of Human Rights. GYLA continues to provide legal services in over 300 cases.

LEPL Public Broadcaster refused to broadcast a social advertisement prepared by the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association which aimed at informing population about the necessity of amending the Administrative Offences Code of Georgia, adopted in 1984. 

A legislative package has been initiated in the Parliament of Georgia on amendments to the Law of Georgia "On the Accumulated Pension System" and other accompanying legislative acts. According to the amendments, it is planned to introduce an accumulated pension system in parallel to the social pension. The financial support of the scheme will be provided by mandatory pension contributions of the employed, employers and the state.