Parliament Discusses Amendments to the Law on Public Defender

Gela Mtivlishvili

The parliament of Georgia is discussing a draft-law to make amendments and additions to the Organic Law of Georgia for the Public Defender. Until now the public defender has submitted two reports to the parliament each year; after the draft-law is enacted, he will prepare only one report. In addition, there will be a new attorney position created for the purpose of gathering all necessary information from local self-governmental agencies, public agencies and government officials.

The amendments to the Law on the Public Defender were prepared at the legal committee of the Parliament . Nino Eremashvili, head of the public relations department of the Public Defender’s office, stated that the comments of the ombudsman were envisaged in the draft-law.

“We have been requesting to introduce amendments to the law for the last five years; we wanted to submit only one report on the situation of human rights and basic freedoms in Georgia to the parliament each year. According to the amendments to the Organic Law for the Public Defender introduced on July 16, 2009, the public defender implements the functions of the national prevention mechanisms envisaged under the protocol of the Convention Against Torture, inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the UN Organization Against Torture. According to these functions, the ombudsman is required to prepare two reports annually. In total, working to produce four reports requires serious resources. It is noteworthy however, that according to the draft-law, the parliament will not have the right to approve a reduced budget for the public defender’s office than it had in a previous year,” said Nino Eremashvili.

In accordance with the amendments for the Law on Public Defender, the legislative base for the public defender will be harmonized to the standards of international law. Secret stateinformation will be separated from the secret commercial information and the confidential state information will be shared with the public defender in accordance to  the law. The Public Defender’s report will be submitted to the parliament only once each year during the spring session in March. Currently, regulations and procedural issues are being worked out to support the reinforcement of the Public Defender’s Institute,” said Kakha Anjaparidze, an author of the draft-law and a member of the Parliament’s legal committee.

The parliamentary opposition is not likely to support the draft-law. Deputy spokesperson of the parliament, Levan Vepkhvadze, and MP Jondo Baghaturia protest a specific paragraph of the draft-law which would enable the public defender to submit only one report to the parliament instead of two.

They said the parliament should be able to discuss the report of the public defender more than once in a given year in order to better inform the legislative body about the current situation in the field  of human rights, as in penitentiary institutions and private properties.

Former public defender Sozar Subari said that if the parliament continues to be indifferent to the violations discussed in the report of the public defender, as what occurred during his term in office, the amendments to the law will produce a significant change. “The legislative body should do its best to support the public defender. The governmental officials, and ministers among them who are responsible for the violations discussed in the report, should be invited to the parliament for explanations,” said Subari.

Currently,  as stated in the framework of the Constitution of Georgia, this particular law and other legislative acts, the public defender of Georgia is to supervise the activities of state authority, local self-governmental institutions, governmental officials and legal officials in the field of human rights and freedoms; he evaluates their resolutions, gives recommendations and provides suggestions. Every institution of central authority, local self-government, and governmental or legal officials are entitled to support the public defender of Georgia by submitting the materials, documents and other requested information to enable the ombudsman to fulfill his obligations. Based on the requests of Georgia’s public defender, corresponding state agencies or governmental officials are entitled to provide a complete explanation of their activities to the public defender within 15 days of the ombudsman’s request. In the case of absolute necessity, the term shall be prolonged as agreed upon by the public defender.