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Tsulukiani says ID cards will be distributed to IDPs free of charge

Netgazeti reports that Georgian Minister of Justice, Thea Tzulikiani, held a special briefing regarding the free distribution of ID cards. In particular, the new electric ID cards will be given to IDPs for free.

“Let us give the new electric IDs to our most socially unprotected segment, people displaced from the occupied territories without a charge, so they can avoid paying 34 GEL as other citizens do,” Minister Tzulikiani said.

Five weeks from today, the Ministry of Justice will distribute ID cards in Tbilisi and other regions where the Public Halls are located.

As Minister said, this process has state importance. “It is our obligation to give Georgia an opportunity before the local government elections in 2014 to have a united and precise election list and define how many registered IDPs we have in Georgia,” Tzulukiani said, expressing gratitude to everyone working in the Ministry of Justice who will serve the IDPs during 12 or 24 hours a day.

The minister also encouraged the IDPs to take this opportunity. “I appeal to all full age IDPs (which as she said number nearly 177, 000) who do not have ID cards, to take free electric cards,” she said.

The free electric IDs will be distributed among the IDPs until June 24 of this year.



Deputy Justice Minister talks about the problem of secret surveillance

Interpressnews reports that Tbilisi Marriot Hotel hosted a meeting over the secret surveillance and protection of personal information where NGOs addressed the government with particular recommendations.

Representatives of non-government organizations think that the systemic problem of surveillance damages freedom of media and civil rights.

Referring to the recent developments in the country, NGOs said the new government has promised to create a prevention mechanism of illegal surveillance. However, after their seven months in governance, no relevant steps have been made in this direction.

Deputy Minister of Justice, Davit Jandieri, said before the meeting that the problem is more serious than it may seem at first glance. He said the Ministry has explained that Georgian legislation is not in compliance with international standards– it does not explain the cases when surveillance is legal, it also does not define how long the information should be kept in the frames of the law and when it should be destroyed, neither does it consider informing a person (who was the object of surveillance) that the investigation is over.

According to Jandieri, some complex issues exist which need to be solved on the legislative level in order to fully eradicate the problem.