Web Portal on Human Rights in Georgia

Different organizations allocated sums to the United National Movement on the next day of the municipal elections. The United National Movement received and spent 14 113 411, 8 GEL for the municipal elections of May 30. It is 20 times more than the fund spent by the Christian-Democrat Movement, which took the second place in the election results and 100 times more than the funding of the Alliance for Georgia for the election campaign.

The tension in Kutaisi public schools increases every day. Teachers protest the new initiative of the minister of education. “It is violation of our rights. Why do they think that teachers with only 18 working hours are valuable people for school? Finally, let them tell us that we are not necessary any longer. But they should not send us out of the street and offer new working places,” the teachers start their meetings in every public school of Kutaisi with similar discussions every day.

Akhmeta district governor Koba Maisuradze fired specialist of the district administration Tengiz Mailashvili. The governor said Mailashvili was dismissed based on his personal statement. Mailashvili claims he wrote resignation letter under oppression. He said the district governor called him to his room and threatened him to punish him and his family members unless he wrote resignation letter.

The Human Rights Center finished working on the mid-term report on municipal elections. With the financial support of the Foundation “Open Society-Georgia” the Human Rights Center monitored the elections in Samegrelo Zemo-Svaneti and Kakheti regions on May 30.

June 20 was the International Day of Refugees.  The day has been celebrated throughout the world and in Georgia too for 9 years already. “Real People – Real Needs” – it was slogan of the charity events organized by the UNHCR and Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation of Georgia. However, the slogan was not enough and real needs require real sources to be resolved.

The administration of the president of Georgia tries to hush up the visit of the president in the United Arab Emirates and his meeting with the representatives of the company “Etisalat.” There is assumption that the main reason of the president’s visit in the Emirates was to get information about the technologies which provide the access to the confidential information from the mobile phones without special sanctions.

Old furniture, fridge which has lost the function and soviet time TV-set “Record” – these are total fortune of Elmira Bagirova who was registered in the data-base of social subsidies; she still has the same fortune. However, since July of 2009 she has not received the allowance because the social agent doubled the rating points for her as a result of the repeated examination.

Press Association of Georgia and publishers of magazines and newspapers protest the new tax code. The code of magazines-newspapers is removed from the list of entities which are free from VAT from the new tax code. The article which discharged the printed media from VAT for advertisements is also removed from the Code. Chairman of the Press Association Lasha Tughushi said the newspapers will not cope with similar tax oppression and they will stop working.

The employees of the Georgian Manganese Ltd in Zestaponi and Chiataura are waiting for the administration to keep their promises. Systematic negotiations were going on between the administration of the Georgian Manganese and the United Trade Union of Georgia. Several times, it was threatened to renew the protest demonstrations. The employees would have used their right of demonstration if they could not have achieved their goals through negotiations.

The new municipal boards in all eight districts of Kakheti region held first sessions. They all elected the chairpersons, their deputies and district governors. Only one application was submitted to each municipal board for the position of the district governor. Mostly the relatives of the Kakheti region deputy governor Giorgi Sibashvili were appointed to the high positions in the districts. Representatives of the opposition parties have not occupied any high positions in the region.

Facts listed below were revealed during the work of the Human Rights Center on the project “Legal Aid for the mentally disabled persons in Georgia.” This project, financed by Abilis Foundation, Finland lasted for 8 months and at the moment is on its final stage. In the frame of the project, the Human Rights Center provided people with mental health problems and their relatives with free legal aid. Over 90 consultations were provided; a number of cases were discussed at court. The Human Rights Center worked in close collaboration with mental health service users and organizations which involve service users. During the project a monitoring of the closed psychiatric institutions was conducted as well as visits to the Day Rehabilitation Centers.

Attorney of Vakhtang Maisaia – military expert accused in espionage – Natia Korkotadze reported to the journalists at the press-conference on June 18 that her client has still been under physical and moral oppression. On June 6, Vakhtang Maisaia was beaten by his cell-mate Paladi Birkaia after what the military expert was blamed in the incident and he was placed in the punishment cell for ten days. Prison administration put Paladi Birkaia in the punishment cell only for three days.

In Gurjaani, the family house of the Andronikashvilis, built in the 19th century, was destroyed. The district administration sold the building at the auction for 13 700 GEL. The district governor Shota Utiashvili reported to the Kakheti News Center that they plan to build a training ground for the policemen in the area.

“It was calm, but rigged elections, which was not less falsified than the previous ones,” the opposition parties evaluated the municipal elections of 2010 negatively; as a result of the elections the ruling party came into the local authority again.

Russian soldiers on the background of green and yellow carriage at the Akhalgori district administrative border look nice. If we recall the days of the armed conflict of August of 2008, we will remember Tbilisi being afraid of Russian tanks to enter in the capital; after that you will expect cruel faces of Russian soldiers to stand at the checkpoint of the village of Mosabruni in Akhalgori district… But it is not so. Russian recruits of 18-20 stand there with the face as if they are holding toy-guns instead of real automatic weapons. They register the passengers traveling to Akhalgori and surrounding villages with smiling faces. They seem to have received a similar order.

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published its third report on Georgia. The ECRI focuses on the progress achieved since the previous report on Georgia however, describes those issues which shall be improved. We publish the summery of the report.

On June 12, repeated municipal elections were held in the polling station # 47 in the village of Zemo Lambalo in Sagarejo district. According to the directives of the Central Election Commission (CEC) the Sagarejo District Election Commission (DEC) annulled the election results based on the video-recording of the Human Rights Center. On May 30, the observers of the Center video-recorded a person who tried to drop ballot papers in the ballot box; after that chairperson of the precinct commission tore off the ballot papers.

The Rural Program was launched in Baghdati, Vani and Samtredia districts in Imereti region in February of 2010. All projects were finished before the municipal elections. In comparison to the previous year, the funds of the project were doubled. The speed of the activities also increased. Local officials spent three months on the launch and completion of all projects. Last year, the number of projects and the funds were less and the activities continued till the end of the year.

More and more appeals are sent to the European Court of Human Rights from Georgia year by year. Particularly a large number of appeals were sent in 2008-2009. The Human Rights Center assists people to protect their rights at the European Court of Human Rights for free.