According to the Regulations of the Parliament of Georgia, the plenary sessions will not be conducted in the parliament of Georgia for one month prior to the local self-government elections. Therefore, consideration and enactment of the legislative regulations on the covert surveillance may be postponed. 

 

The first committee hearings on the draft law started on April 3 and were conducted in the committees of Human Rights’ Protection and Civil Integration, Healthcare and Social Issues, and the Committee of the Procedures. On the following day it became known that under the initiative of the Georgian State Security and Crises Management Council, the temporary inter-agency task force was created. The task force consists of the representatives of the Ministry of the Internal Affairs, Ministry of Justice and the Head Prosecution Office. The goal of the task force is to elaborate the Personal Data Protection Strategy and, as it became later known, to conduct repeat hearings on the draft law on “Covert Surveillance”. The work group, created within the Legal Committee of the Parliament has been working for almost ten (10) months on the improvement of the draft law together with the NGOs and international experts. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has also been involved in this process; however, the Ministry has not presented any remarks or recommendations in relation to the draft law. 

 

Clearly, the creation of the temporary inter-agency task force significantly hampered and procrastinated the process of the draft law consideration. This creates the doubt, that the executive government, specifically, the law-enforcement authorities deliberately try to hamper the process of the draft law consideration. 

 

The organizations, involved in the campaign “This Affects You Too – They are Still Listening” once again call upon the parliament of Georgia to immediately resume consideration of the draft law and to support the process of legislative amendment on the “Covert Surveillance”. It is important to complete the consideration of the draft law prior to the local self-government elections. 

Once again, we call upon the Government of Georgia not to procrastinate the process of consideration of the amendments to the Procedural Criminal Code and to support enactment of the legislative amendments relating to the “Covert Surveillance”, which ensures protection of the constitutional guarantee – the right to the private life and its compliance with the international standards.