Forced charity

Some time ago President Saakashvili aired the initiative that all civil servants should voluntarily donate 50 or 100 lari from their salary to schools for their rehabilitation. Independent analysts however think that much of this accumulated money will be used by the authorities to manipulate the elections. Civil servants are not happy to donate this money but as in the ‘good old Soviet times’ such top-down initiatives are being presented as the initiative of working class itself (!)

The Teachers League of Georgia however and the trade unions support the initiative. They think that if charity is not given voluntarily donations should be forced. But independent experts think that this is a violation of human rights, as charity is voluntary by nature and forcing someone to give charity is a violation of the law.