Georgia’s national administration group of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition invites law students for participation in moot courts, which will be held in Washington, D.C., USA in spring 2012.

Teams made up of 2-4 students are eligible for participation in the competition. Registration deadline is November 1, 2011.
The competition is conducted in English and participation is free of charge.

For national registration please contact representative of the national administration group Ana Tabidze (cell: 577 48 98 48; atabidze@yahoo.com )

For additional information, please visit www.ilsa.org/jessup

Recent developments in the country raised a number of questions among public regarding the rules for acquiring and losing citizenship of Georgia. We deem it expedient to briefly clarify statutory requirements for acquisition and loss citizenship of Georgia.

Citizenship of Georgia may be acquired at birth, by naturalization or on the basis of other grounds provided for by international treaties to which Georgia is a party and this Law.
Under the Organic Law of Georgia on Citizenship of Georgia, Citizenship of Georgia may be granted to person that has reached age of maturity, if he or she meets the following requirements:

(a) has been permanently residing within the territory of Georgia during the past five years,
(b) knows the state language at the established minimum.
(c) is familiar with the history and legislation of Georgia at the established minimum. 
(d) has a job or any real estate on the territory of Georgia, or is pursuing entrepreneurial activities on the territory of Georgia, or is holding a stock or shares in a Georgian company.

Although a citizen of Georgia may not be holding citizenship of another state, under the Constitution of Georgia, “citizenship of Georgia shall be granted by the President of Georgia to a citizen of foreign country, who has a special merit before Georgia or grant the citizenship of Georgia to him/her is due to State interests”. In such case, a president of Georgia can grant citizenship to such person notwithstanding whether he or she meets general requirements for acquiring the citizenship (i.e. whether he or she has been permanently residing within the territory of Georgia during the past five years, whether he or she knows the state language, history, etc.).

On October 20-21,  2011, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) and Transparency International – Georgia held public discussions about the Election Code reform in Kutaisi and Batumi. Representatives of local NGOs, media outlets, political parties, district election commissions and local authorities participated in the meetings.

The meetings focused on presentation of recommendations and comments elaborated by three NGOs about the draft Election Code. The recommendations deal with the new election system offered by the draft, norms regulating use of administrative resources, transparency of campaign funding and monitoring, formation of voter lists, work of the election administration and problems related to election dispute procedures.

The NGOs conclude that the proposed draft fails to offer any essential changes for improvement of the election environment.

The work in this direction will continue in cooperation with the Parliament of Georgia and other stakeholders. The NGOs will hold similar meetings in other regions of Georgia.

On 22 October, a meeting was held at the Analytical Department of the Ministry of Justice. Representatives from the Ministry of Justice, the Georgian Young Lawyers Association and Transparency International Georgia attended the meeting.

At the meeting, the Ministry presented proposals concerning regulation of political party financing. While preparing the relevant legislative amendments, the Ministry intends take into consideration the recommendations offered by the local and international organizations (GRECO, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers). In addition, the Ministry is planning to propose further regulations some of which contradict certain provisions of the July 2011 agreement between political parties. The wording of specific legislative amendments was not presented at the meeting, which makes it difficult to conduct legal analysis.

Although the civil society vigorously highlighted the problems in the party financing system during past (2008 and 2010) elections, while the GRECO recommendations were published as early as 1 July 2011, the ruling party had not taken them into consideration and they had not been incorporated into the new draft Electoral Code either. We therefore believe that the government’s initiatives in terms of imposing restrictions on party financing could be linked to the recent political developments in Georgia.

The Parliament of Georgia is considering draft amendments to the Code of Imprisonment. The amendments deal with both incentives and restricting measures. Public Defender has released a statement regarding the planned changes to the Code. In his statement Public Defender noted that restriction of a short-term visits to convict was a definite negative step. GYLA's opinion on the draft law under Parliament’s consideration were submitted to the Parliament in a written form on October 27, 2011. Currently the draft has been approved with its first reading.

The draft provides for increase of number of telephone conversations, video appointments and visits, as an incentive for prisoners; it also contains a number of restrictive amendments and supplements. For example, Article 9 of the draft inserts new types of disciplinary punishments in the Code, including: h) restriction of the right to telephone conversations for the maximum period of 3 months; i) restriction of the right to receive and send personal correspondence for the maximum period of 3 months; j) restriction of the right to use the service of a store located on the territory of penitentiary/freedom deprivation facility for the maximum period of 3 months, k) restriction of the right to remittances for the maximum period of 3 months.

The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development (CPDD) and Saferworld organized a discussion on Overcoming National and Regional Challenges to Peace, Safety and Stability.

At the meeting the work of four groups focused on the following issues:

1.    Civil integration: creating common interests between regions/ethnic communities in economic, social, political and cultural spheres;
2.    Challenges to dialogue opportunities and increased integration between Georgians, Abkhazians and Ossetians;
3.    Overcoming the perception of unequal and unfair distribution of agricultural resources in Kvemo Kartli;
4.    Supporting the development of democratic institutes in the region by promoting free and fair elections.

Representatives of public society as well as authorities, political parties and NGOs in the country, both from regions and the capital participated in the discussion.

GYLA expresses concern over the death of a prisoner, Murman Kalandia and conveys its condolences to his family. According to public information, the inmate of Zugdidi N4 Prison died on October 31, 2011, while he was transported from the prison to Tbilisi Prison Hospital. Causes of his death will be determined by forensic examination; however, family of the deceased suspects that M. Kalandia’s death was caused by his ill-treatment at the penitentiary facility.

On November 10, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) and Transparency International – Georgia met with members of the Editorial Group working on the Election Code reform. Representatives of political parties in the Editorial Group, as well as other interested individuals involved in the process were also present at the meeting. The event was made possible by support from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).

The meeting focused on presentation of recommendations and comments elaborated by the three NGOs about the draft Election Code; specifically, issues related to agreement between the political parties, changes proposed by the draft Election Code that were not part of the agreement between the political parties, other problematic issues that are not addressed by the draft Election Code. The meeting also focused on the proposal laid out by the Ministry of Justice of Georgia about changes to the system of funding political parties.

The meeting featured an interesting discussion where opinions of NGOs as well as the ruling party and oppositional parties in the Editorial Group were presented. Some of the recommendations put forward by NGOs were shared by members of the Editorial Group.

On November 8 and November 11, 2011, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) and Transparency International – Georgia held public discussions around the Election Code reform in city of Gori and Telavi. Representatives from local NGOs, media outlets, political parties, district election commissions and local authorities participated in the discussion. The event was made possible by the support from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) Georgia and USAID.

The meetings focused on presentation of recommendations and comments elaborated by three NGOs about the draft Election Code. The recommendations deal with the new election system offered by the draft, norms regulating use of administrative resources, transparency of campaign funding and monitoring, formation of voter lists, work of the election administration and problems related to election dispute procedures.

The NGOs conclude that the proposed draft fails to offer any essential changes for improvement of the election environment.

The work in this direction will continue in cooperation with the Parliament of Georgia and other stakeholders. The NGOs held similar meetings in cities of Kutaisi and Batumi.

Today, on November 16, we celebrate the International Day for Tolerance. On this occasion, GYLA would like to extend its congratulations to all diverse social groups.

The UN Assembly Resolution 51/95 adopted in 1996 laid foundation for celebration of the International Day for Tolerance. This document underlines that tolerance is one of the principles to be applied to attain the ends pursued by the United Nations of preventing war and maintaining peace. Ensuring the principle of tolerance obligates the state to encourage human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.

Article 14 of the Constitution of Georgia prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, sex, religion, ethnic belonging, as well as other characteristics that are not expressly laid out by the Constitution. Despite constitutional guarantees for protection of fundamental rights, groups of different identity, ethnic and religious minorities in particular, as well as due to sexual orientation and gender, individuals remain alienated from wider public. Stereotypes about representatives of different groups still persist, which translates into hate speech in statements made by politicians, ecclesiastics and other public officials. Some of the media outlets continue promotion of stereotypes against minorities or serves the purpose of a conductor of hate speech.