Georgia
The following Justice Initiative projects are underway in, or relevant to, Georgia:
National Criminal Justice Reform
Georgia: Policing
Freedom of Information and Expression
Regional: Freedom of Information Law Implementation, Legal Advice, Litigation and Monitoring Tool
Justice Initiative FOI implementation projects include legal advice and litigation in Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania and Peru. Litigation challenging government refusals to provide requested information has been a traditional tool of activists interested in making freedom of information laws work in countries that have them. The Justice Initiative is currently working with partners to provide legal advice and pursue litigation in Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania and Peru. The Justice Initiative has developed an “Access to Information Monitoring Tool” which permits evaluation of national FOI law implementation and comparative assessment between countries. This instrument is currently being tested in a pilot project encompassing Armenia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Peru and South Africa.
International Justice
Georgia: Rome Statute Ratified
On 5 September 2003, the Republic of Georgia formally committed itself to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), by depositing its instrument of ratification with the United Nations Treaty Office. This followed ratification of the ICC on July 16 by the parliament of Georgia, with 146 parliamentarians voting in favor and none against. The Justice Initiative, in cooperation with the Open Society Georgia Foundation, supported the timely preparation of a comprehensive legislation package needed to ratify the statute, encouraging the important efforts of the Institute of International Law and the Young Lawyers Association, among others.
Georgia and the Southern Caucasus: Rome Statute progress in a difficult region
Following Georgia’s successful ratification of the Rome Statute, the Open Society Justice Initiative participated in the organization of a Workshop on the Ratification and Implementation of the Rome Statute of the ICC in the Southern Caucasus. On February 29 and March 1, 2004, in Tbilisi, the meeting gathered together experts, officials and key organizations from Armenia and Azerbaijan to discuss in depth the experience of Georgia, and to identify solutions to potential legal and political difficulties that may arise in Armenia and Azerbaijan. With informed and dedicated officials, academics and NGOs present in each country, it is hoped that Armenia and Azerbaijan will soon join Georgia in the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties.
Regional: Bringing the ICC to Countries of the Southern Caucasus
Report on a workshop on the ratification and implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in the Southern Caucasus, February 29-March 1, 2004. Organized by the Institute of European Law and International Law of Human Rights at the State University of the Republic of Georgia (Tbilisi) with support and assistance from the Open Society Justice Initiative, the Open Society Policy Center the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation–Armenia and the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation–Azerbaijan.
Anticorruption
Georgia: Anti-Corruption Development
Legal Capacity Development
Regional: Litigation Training and Support Program
The Justice Initiative continues to support training programs launched in 2001 for human rights lawyers from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in partnership with Interights and the Netherlands Helsinki Committee. The program consists of a series of five practical and interactive sessions, ranging between four and seven days in length, for carefully selected small groups of lawyers from each country of the south Caucasus. Twenty-one human rights lawyers from Georgia completed the program in April 2003. Identical programs will start in Armenia in the fall of 2003 and in Azerbaijan in 2004, with the support of Justice Initiative, the relevant Soros national foundations and the Dutch Government.
Abkhazia: Legal Clinic
Since early 2002, the Justice Initiative has been assisting an Abkhazian NGO, the “Civic Initiative and People of the Future” Foundation, to develop a clinical program at the law faculty of Sokhumi State University in Abkhazia—a breakaway region in Georgia. The objective is to provide basic legal services to poor residents of Abkhazia. The clinic aims to teach law students practical skills through clinical methodology, and to provide free legal services to the indigent. There will also be a Street Law component, bringing basic knowledge of rights to high school students.
Regional: Clinical Legal Education
Through careful allocation of resources the Justice Initiative will strive to capitalize on progress in countries where clinics have achieved rapid growth, while helping to promote clinical education in places where the idea has yet to take off. High quality clinics have emerged in Armenia, Hungary, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland and Russia, and there have been promising developments in Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania and Romania.