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Minister of Justice to have no authority over Prosecutor’s Office

Interpressnews reports that according to the proposed changes to the Law on the Prosecutor’s Office initiated by the Georgian Dream MPs, the Minister of Justice will have no connection with the Prosecutor’s Office and its activities. Parliament may start discussing the bill this week.

The legislative body has adopted the draft law on splitting the Ministry of Justice from the Prosecutor’s Office with its first reading, while the proposed changes consider moving the authority of the Minister into the hands of General Prosecutor.

According to the bill, the Justice Minister will have the opportunity to approve the principles of criminal law elaborated by the General Prosecutor. The Justice Minister will also manage to solicit criminal cases to international courts.

There will be a separate clause in the law that the Justice Minister will not engage in criminal investigation or criminal persecution carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office as well as decision-making.

According to the current constitution and legislation, the Prosecutor’s Office is subordinated to the Justice Ministry. However, the issue of splitting the two bodies is not yet on agenda.



Level of unemployment decreases 0.1%

News.Ge reports that the level of unemployment decreased 0.1% in 2012 compared to the previous year and is at 15% as a whole. According to the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat), the percentage of self-employed people is high among those who consider themselves as employed.

Geostat defined that the level of unemployment is lower than in cities. In particular, the level of unemployment in Kakheti decreased 2.4%, in Adjara – 1.5%; while in Shida Kartli and Kvemo Kartli it increased by1.7 and 1.6%.

Geostat explains that traditionally unemployment level is lower among the females than among males, because the majority of women are housewives thus belong to non-active population, while the level of activity among the males in 2012 reached 78.2% which is the highest figure in the last 15 years.

Meanwhile, the level of unemployment decreased by 4.1% among youths between the ages of 20-24 in 2012. Georgia is 19th on the list of 25 countries according to the level of unemployment, accompanied by Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.