I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.-Thomas Jefferson The judiciary is in permanent need of control from the side of an impartial and quality observer with a view to ensuring its existence. We are still on the way to its establishment. The public is already aware of criminal justice, which has hardly existed for the past few years. As I have mentioned at the presentation of the last court monitoring report implemented by GYLA for the past three years the progress of the last 6 months does not deserve fireworks, though some positive trends can be observed.
2013-11-20 08:24 See moreOn the basis of the May 20, 2013 decision#343/11 of the Georgian National Communications’ Commission, Kakha Baindurashvili became the owner of the 9% share of TV3. As it is known, Mr. Baindurashvili is also the President of the LEPL Chamber of Commerce and Trade. The Chamber of Commerce and Trade, as a legal entity of public law, is an administrative body, and its President is an administrative body official.
2013-11-20 01:30 See moreThe undersigned organizations disapprove of the draft submitted by the government of Georgia to the legislative branch. We call on the Parliament to refrain from adopting the initiative amending the Law of Georgia on Cultural Heritage and allowing cancellation of the status to the monument in exceptional conditions and in state necessities . The initiated amendment does not specify what is implied under exceptional condition or state necessity . They contain high risk of bias in decision making process and might have negative effect on protection of cultural heritage.
2013-11-19 04:08 See moreOn November 18-19, 2013 GYLA and the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development arranged a training for the representatives of the small and medium business sector. The training was held in the framework of the EU funded project “Promoting Well-Managed Migration between EU and Georgia”. One of the project directions migration and development implies increase of the role of Georgian Diaspora in state development process and establishment of suitable conditions for sharing their knowledge-experience.
2013-11-19 01:50 See moreOn November 17, 2013 Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association and the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development held meeting with local NGOs and population in GYLA’s Telavi Office. The event held within the scope of the project “Promoting Well-Managed Migration between EU and Georgia“ was aimed at increasing public awareness on migration issues.
2013-11-17 02:35 See moreThe state obligation to ensure individuals’ right to adequate housing is often violated in Georgia. The state policy to solve the extreme form of poverty - lack of shelter, has not been elaborated so far. Such persons even fall short to receive social vulnerability status, since the law requires indication of the permanent place of residence from them. For the past years media regularly released information about homeless deceased from winter frosts. In view of state’s failure to carry out its obligation in terms of homeless persons, NGO “Identity” decided creation of the shelter with an intent to gain experience in the field and share it with state authorities in future. Along with shelter, the organization was supposed to offer nutrition, psychological, medical and legal aid and employment to beneficiaries.
2013-11-16 01:44 See moreOn November 15, 2013 at the event dedicated to the International Day of Tolerance the National Minority Council under the Public Defender's Office granted GYLA the status of the supporter of tolerance for the its efforts in development of culture of tolerance in Georgia. November 16 is the International Day of Tolerance celebrated from the second half of the XX century.
2013-11-15 01:18 See moreGeorgian Young Lawyers’ Association and “Tiflis Hamkari” assess negatively legislative initiative submitted by the government of Georgia to the Parliament introducing amendment to the Law on Cultural Heritage and altering significantly the applicable regulation on removal of the monument status. As it is known to public, according to Article 17 of the Law of Georgia on Cultural Heritage cancellation of a status shall be admissible only on the basis of a relevant opinion and if the listed property in question has obliterated or damaged to such a degree that has lost its historical or cultural value and cannot be restored, or if judging by scientific (methodological) criteria it has lost features for which it had been granted a monument status.
2013-11-14 11:14 See moreGeorgian Young Lawyers’ Association voices its position in terms of Zugdidi incident. According to the released information, Kakha Gulordava abused physically Goga Anchabadze - patrol police officer. He cut off his ear, undressed him and left him in the vicinity of Zugdidi College. Mass media provides that the motive was Anchabadze’s attempt to rape Gulordava’s pregnant wife. Anchabadze tuned to be Gulordavas’s childhood friend and best man.
2013-11-14 10:34 See moreAmendments to the ”Law of Georgia Promoting Prevention of Legalization of Illegal Incomes” and to the Law of Georgia on Attorneys were initiated in the Parliament of Georgia. The draft aims to bring Georgian legislation in line with recommendations of the “Financial Actions Task Force” (FATF). To our regret, the process of draft preparation was not transparent enough. It was implemented without lawyers’ participation, consideration of their arguments and detailed examination of the document. This week, the Parliament of Georgia plans to adopt the draft in the second reading. GYLA opines that Parliamentary discussions should be prolonged and adoption of the law at the second reading be postponed.
2013-11-13 01:20 See more