Today, on April 11, 2012, four non-governmental organizations – Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, Transparency International – Georgia, Association of Regional Media of Georgia and the Green Alternative Association – held a presentation of another report prepared within the frames of the project Promotion of Property Rights in New Tourist Zones.

There were several key problems revealed in the process of preparing the report:

•         Frequent cases of free of charge transfer of lands and real estate by citizens of Georgia in favor of the government throughout Georgia and particularly in tourist zones.

•         Frequently there are mass cases of transfer of lands and real estate when dozens of citizens on one and the same territory abandons their property in favor of the government or presents the property to the government. For instance, there were 79 cases of property abandonment by natural persons on the territory of resort Bakhmaro during the period of January 13-25, 2011, and 20 facts of presenting property to the government by entrepreneurs in the resort of Sairme during December 13-23, 2010.

•         Frequently and particularly in tourist zones, a property that has already been registered in paper in the name of another individual is electronically registered in the name of another individual. In most cases government is the new owner.

The project aims at promotion of property rights in new tourist regions, in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and Adjara in particular; promotion of property rights guarantees envisaged by law, the Constitution and international norms, as well as reduction of threats of violation of property rights and provision of free legal assistance to victims of property rights violations.

The first report under the project auspices was prepared in March 2011, featuring 271 facts of deprivation of property by the state in the village of Gonio (Adjara). The second report was published in July 2011 focusing on facts of deprivation of property and difficulties that local population faces in terms of registration of land into their ownership in Daba Mestia (Svaneti).