Human Rights Center started a new project- “Survey of Pardon Mechanism in Georgia”, which aims to support transparent and effective functioning of the pardon mechanism.
In the frame of the project, Human Rights Center, based on models of democratic countries, will study a model of pardoning in Georgia to discover its pros and cons.
Problems will be identified and optimum model will be developed during the research period. Recommendations will be submitted to the Administration of the President, the pardon commission and other stakeholders.
Human Rights Center has many years of experience in working on pardon cases, during which a number of issues has been discovered. For example, there are cases when the pardon commission unanimously issues consent to pardon a prisoner, but the President refuses to pardon. In number of cases, the commission unanimously issues a negative decision while the President still pardons a prisoner. Sometimes the President pardons prisoners without taking pardon criteria into account, based on special circumstances. “Special Circumstance” is spelled out in the regulation, but its content is not clear and foreseeable. This raises questions among prisoners.
Despite the fact that the pardon is an exclusive constitutional prerogative of the President, the above mentioned and other issues requires appropriate legislative regulation, so that pardon procedure were more transparent and clear for citizens.
Presenting the results of research and advocating the recommendations will contribute to informing society and raising the awareness regarding issues of the pardon mechanism. In addition, it will promote improvement and reformation of the mechanism itself.
The project is being implemented with the financial support of Open Society Georgia Foundation.