GYLA to Appeal the Constitutional Court against Prohibiting Foreign Citizens to Organize Assemblies

On April 20, 2012 Georgian Young Lawyers Association [GYLA] appealed to the Constitutional Court of Georgia in the name of Mariana Kiku, a Moldavian citizen. The nongovernmental organization requests to annul the provision in the law which prohibits foreign citizens to organize a protest assembly in Georgia.

On April 11, 2011 the Constitutional Court of Georgia satisfied the Public Defender’s constitutional lawsuit and declared the article of the Law about Assembly and Manifestations of Georgia unconstitutional which disabled foreign citizens to occupy responsible positions in Georgia; among them to be attorney and organizer of assemblies who could submit warning notification to the local self-governmental agency about the scheduled assembly and to suggest the assembly participants to halt protest.

The restriction imposed by the Constitutional Court dealt with foreign citizens and apatrids – stateless people.

Amendments and additions were introduced to the Law about Assembly and Manifestation on July 1, 2011. The parliament partly restituted the non-constitutional norm in the law: foreign citizens still cannot organize assemblies and manifestations in Georgia. The Constitutional Court did not mark off apatrids and foreign citizens when passing judgment. Furthermore, the ground for the Constitutional Court to declare the restriction unconstitutional was its blanket character: a person without Georgian citizenship was banned to organize any sort of protest assembly regardless its purpose. The amendment introduced by the parliament still preserves blanket character and disables foreign citizen to efficiently inform the government about the issues which cause concern of Georgian citizens and apatrids living in Georgia.

The GYLA appeals to the Constitutional Court of Georgia to repeatedly declare the provision unconstitutional.

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