Justice Ministry transformed into a transparent system, Minister claims in her three-year report

Georgia’s Minister of Justice Thea Tsulukiani revealed a three-year report of the Ministry's activities, in which the official spoke about all the progress her body managed to achieve within the period.

The Minister stressed that Georgia “successfully fulfilled all the obligations drafted in the visa-liberation action plan”.

On another note, Tsulukiani touched on Georgia’s performance in the international courts.

“The first legal dispute with Russia in 2014 (deporting of Georgians from Russia in 2006) was successfully completed in the Strasburg International Court. Concerning the second dispute with regards to the August 2008 Russian-Georgian war, we achieved the ruling that next year Georgian victims of the war will be questioned in the court.

“The Hague International Court will launch an investigation concerning the alleged ethnic cleansing of Georgians during the war ,and the investigation will make use of the studies we conducted in Georgia over the conflict,” Tstulukiani said.

Highlighting domestic reforms, the Minister emphasised the importance of the reforms carried out with regards to Juvenile Justice, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Criminal Code, the Procedural Code and plea bargains.

“We have undertaken a reform of pre-trial detention and introduced a very important innovation- from this summer, each judge is obligated to recheck the necessity of pre-trial detention of a convict every two months

“Through the reforms, we launched an initiative according to which employees have become more protected. We have elaborated Georgia’s migration policy and offered a refined legislative database. We have also introduced anti-discrimination laws,” Tstlukiani added.

On the same note, over the successful reforms and intentions the Minister stressed that:
- Public services have become more available and thirteen Public Centers of the Justice Ministry have been opened in Georgia.
- Justice Houses have been built and opened in the western cities of Poti, Zugdidi and Tianeti.
- The election list has become comparably precise with exact info of 2,4 million Georgian citizens.
- Only 102 cases have been sent to Strasburg International Court last year while the figure reached 367 in 2012, 395 in 2011 and 375 in 2010.
- Former prisoners’ rehabilitation-resosialisation programme has been elaborated through which 3,000 former prisoners received the support of social workers
- 10, 852 public servants and other interested individuals have participated in various trainings at the Justice Ministry Educational Centre; 44,000 individuals have been tested there.
- Reform of Notary based on which there will not be a municipality without the notary service.
- Eastern Kvemo Kartli regional archive was constructed and opened in Rustavi.
- The State Public Registry sorted and archived 54, 235 binders, 44% of the documents have been legitimized.
- The Ministry launched arranging of the database of individual entrepreneurs; more than 200,000 cases have been transformed to online version.
- The first-ever geodesic mark has been produced in Georgia.
- All the information of all districts of Tbilisi was put in Google Map, more than 200 Georgian historical monuments among them.
- The web-page Legislative Herald of Georgia has been refined with translations in different foreign languages over Georgian legislation.

The media is generally critical of the government’s activities, and major Georgian media outlets are generally determined to highlight the negatives rather than the positives. However, the major obligation of the media is to be impartial and focus on both negative and positive tendencies.

One would need to be blind to not mention the positive achievements withs regard to the justice system. It is also a fact that the system is becoming increasingly democratic and transparent.

Compared to previous years, the public’s negative attitude towards the courts is changing and the legal system is no longer taken considered as solely being responsible for government-sanctioned punishments.

Ordinary citizens are no longer afraid that they will be taken to the police and be forced to give false testimonies.

The country has made significant advancements in major fields; the media, as well as citizens of Georgia, should neither ignore nor forget this.