Rule of Law, Human Rights and Freedom of Media

23 January 2015

Court Accepted the Appeal of IDFI Against MIA

On December 24th 2014 Tbilisi City Court accepted the appeal of IDFI against the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As a result the Ministry was found responsible to provide the institute with complete information on salary supplements and bonuses received by the Minister, Deputy Minister and Department Chairmen during the year of 2013. The information is to be provided separately for each month indicating names and surnames of the officials.

16 January 2015

Criminal Prosecution against Giorgi Kldiashvili has been terminated

Criminal prosecution against Giorgi Kldiashvili was terminated. The 1500 GEL bail will be returned to Giorgi Kldiashvili. The prosecution has 5 days to file an appeal against the decision of the court terminating criminal prosecution against Giorgi Kldiashvili.

12 December 2014

Information on the Persons Held Responsible for the Facts of Torture in the Prisons is Still Inaccessible

After the footage of torture from prison cells was published in 2012, the belief that the facts of torture and inhuman, degrading treatment was well implemented practice in penitentiary institutions was inculcated in the society. This was added inter alia by the public statements of high officials currently in office, highlighting the existing problems. Nevertheless, till to date society has no comprehensive information on the results and scale of the investigations.

2 December 2014

There Are Positive Amendments in the Legislation for Aliens Lawfully Staying in Georgia

On the 26th of November amendment to the law on the Legal Status of Aliens and Stateless Persons went into force. The recently adopted amendments to the law sets new regulations linked with the issue of immigration visa as well as residence permit. Overall we find that the new amendments to the law should be assessed positively. Moreover the fact that the Government of Georgia has reacted to the concerns highlighted by the aliens as well as by the CSOs should also be welcomed.

22 November 2014

Practice of Proactive Disclosure of Public Information in State Agencies

Within the auspices of the project, conducted during the period of September-October 2014 IDFI researched to what extent 133 public entities fulfilled their obligation deriving from The Decree on the Electronic Request and Proactive Disclosure of Public Information.

31 October 2014

The Number of Officials Prosecuted for Illegal Wiretapping is Still Unknown

In the year of 2014 IDFI has referred to the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia, Investigations Service of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the request to provide us with the information on the number of investigations launched on the bases of articles 158 and 159 of the Criminal Code of Georgia. For the detailed ifnormation on the responces received please reffer to the full text of the post.

18 July 2014

Civil Service Recruitment

The civil service recruitment procedures have significantly improved after the adoption of the relevant decree by the Government of Georgia on the 20th of July this year. Overall the legal guarantees of the recruitment process being conducted in an objective and impartial way has been strengthened by the legislation. Nevertheless in the process of comparing Georgian legislation with international practices (the UK and Estonia) it was found that the legislation regulating civil service recruitment issues in Georgia needs further improvements, hence our recommendations are as follows.

10 March 2014

Access to Government Information

Topic of the research is the request of public information and the ways of its publication channels. The research covers issues regarding legal wording analysis, institutional design and publication schemes.

5 March 2014

IDFI was mentioned in the annual Country Report on Human Rights Practices by U.S. Department of State for the second time

Country Report on Human Rights Practices by U.S. Department of State: Georgia The research conducted by IDFI has been mentioned in the annual Country Report on Human Rights Practices by U.S. Department of State for the second time (see the 2012 report). The annual country reports are prepared based on facts provided by U.S. embassies and posts worldwide and give comprehensive overview of human rights in almost 200 countries. The reports are widely used by U.S. government in

29 November 2013

Whistleblowers in Civil Service: International Practice and Georgia

The goal of the study is to evaluate the regulation and court practice regarding the whistleblowers in civil service. The article presents the main direction and recommendations for improving the legislation and practice regarding whistleblowers in Georgia.