Today, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association released a statement over the fact of physical and psychological pressure exerted against convicted Kakha Baratashvili at the penitentiary department’s treatment facility for convicts and defendants. With the noted statement, GYLA called on the office of the prosecutor of Georgia to start investigation into the fact of ill-treatment of convicted K. Baratashvili, and expressed hope that his life and threat would not be endangered.
By its February 26, 2013 resolution N7/2013, the CEC adopted guidelines for PEC members in April 27, 2013 by-elections. The guidelines explained procedures for appointment of PEC secretaries, saying that secretaries are appointed from members of PECs that represent political parties (except for proxies of the United National Movement); that a candidate for the position of PEC chairperson must be nominated at least by two members of the PEC (except for proxies of the UNM); that a PEC secretary will be elected through an open vote from candidates that have been nominated by members of PEC appointed by political parties (except for the UNM proxies) by majority of votes of PEC members present.
To restore I.M.’s rights, the court repealed the order on dismissal and ordered the employer to pay monthly GEL 808.80 for missed salaries for the period from November 1, 2011 to February 11, 2013. Further, the beneficiary was restored to her former position.
Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) and Penal Reform International welcome initiatives of the government of Georgia for liberalization of criminal justice. Practicing fair trial is one of the most important preconditions for facilitation of democratic processes in the country. Ensuring equality of arms and improving the procedure code will naturally help improve the criminal justice situation in the country. We also believe that there are a number of issues in the draft law that need to be further improved, as well as some other issues that need to be introduced for the legal proposal to actually achieve set goals.
On April 14, the CEC released a statement about the opinion of NGOs on appointment of PEC secretaries. The statement says that “competent opinions about similar issues must be based on the principle of rule of law as opposed to political expediency”. For discussion of these topics, the CEC invites NGOs for public discussions on “The Role of Civil Society in Electoral Process”.
Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) and the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) will monitor the manifestation to be held by the National Movement on April 19, 2013 in Tbilisi.
GYLA responds to the April 24 incident in the village of Tsikhisdziri, Kobuleti Municipality, in which officers of Senaki Military Police allegedly abused local population verbally and physically on religious grounds.
On March 4, 2012, Georgian media outlets reported that the President of Georgia was opening a summer theatre in Batumi.
Had it happened before the 2012 parliamentary elections, there would have been nothing unusual about it but in fact it was met with mixed reactions from Batumi self-government.
It has been almost three weeks since Adjara senior police official physically abused a driver that had committed a violation. The small story was followed by big developments – local police officer destroyed one of the pieces of evidence proving the truth (a video footage). Another important issue was the ambiguous communication police had with the owner of the CCTV camera Sabir Nuriev and its location. What followed afterwards was an even bigger story of the Interior Ministry’s General Inspection, subsidized by taxpayers’ money, reacting with one-sided, subjective and partial findings.
We would like to react on the footage broadcasted on April 22, in evening news of TV Channel 9, which concerned construction of the Hudon Hydro Power Plant.
We paid attention to Kakha Kaladze’s, the Minister of Energy and Natrual Resources of Georgia, extremely incorrect statement about NGOs that criticize construction of the Hudon HPP. Namely, Mr. Kaladze reported that: “the future of the state shall not depend on individual NGOs and on funding received by them from abroad for some suspended projects”.
