Statement of Civil Society Organizations on Suspending Membership in the Consultative Group of the Parliament of Georgia

We, the Civil Society Organizations of Georgia, have been actively cooperating with the Parliament of Georgia in the direction of the Open Government Partnership since 2015.

Since 2015 the Georgian Parliament had been one of the leaders in OGP. In this period, several important reforms were implemented in terms of parliamentary openness, with the civil society being an active participant and main initiator of such reforms. The Standing Council of Open Governance was established with the Parliament of Georgia, which included the Consultative Group, composed of local non-governmental organizations and international and donor organizations.

Over the years, in cooperation with lawmakers and the Office of the Parliament, and with the financial assistance from donor organizations, we worked on and supported reforms that consisted of legislative changes and practical implementation. Reforms were made in the directions of parliamentary openness, transparency, citizen engagement, and innovations and technologies, all of which contributed to creating a more access to information, an inclusive environment, and the engagement of citizens in the law-making process. The website of the Parliament was made with the help of donor organizations, so was the infrastructure of the building of the Parliament adapted to persons with disabilities, various information was published on the website of the Parliament, including the register of lobbyists, statistical information, and others. The platform for petitions to the Parliament was implemented, a reception for citizens was created and equipped, the mobile application for the Parliament was created, etc.

With the implementation of these reforms, Georgia was one of the leading countries in the fairly large community comprising the Open Government Partnership for a number of years, and this successful format of cooperation between the Parliament and civil society was an example for many countries. One of the best examples of the local and international success of this cooperative process of the Parliament of Georgia with civil society was in October 2015, during the OGP Global Summit held in Mexico, when the Parliament of Georgia won the prize established by the OGP civil society. In 2018, the OGP Global Summit was held in Georgia, and the Georgian Parliament hosted hundreds of colleagues and visitors from across the world.

During this period we worked with Members of Parliament of three convocations. The process of working on open government was conducted in a format of cooperation and with the participation of both the parliamentary majority and the opposition, with members of the Standing Council belonging to all fractions. Our successes in parliamentary openness are the results of this joint work.

During the time when civil society organizations had been cooperating with the Parliament, offering support and financial assistance to the Parliament in various reforms, the parliamentary majority adopted the draft law “On Foreign Influence” by first hearing, which is analogue to Russian law. The purpose of which was to force Georgian civil society organizations to register in the “Registry of Agents of Foreign Influence”, in order to stigmatize them and discredit them in society, to control, and finally to curtail and abolish their activities.

This bill was criticized by our international partners. The European Union, ambassadors of EU member states, the State Department of the United States of America and the ambassador of the USA to Georgia and international organizations stated that it is incompatible with European values and principles. Despite the fact that this law created a threat to the civil sector and, most importantly, to Georgia’s European perspective, parliamentary majority still chose to adopt the Russian law in the first hearing. Although, in response to several days of public protest against the draft law, the ruling party withdrawn the bill, they expressed that they still remain righteous to its principles and will more actively continue the information campaign to support and introduce this bill to the wider public.

As a result of these circumstances, the member organizations of the Consultative Group of the Standing Council of Open Government no longer see the possibility of continuing the format of cooperation with the parliamentary majority and suspend membership in the Consultative Group.

Member organizations of the Consultative Group:

Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) – Chair of the Consultative Group

Transparency International – Georgia

Civil Society Institute (CSI)

Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA)

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The Supreme Council of Ajara has approved the Open Governance Action Plan for 2022-2024

On July 30, the Open Governance Council of the Ajara Supreme Council approved the second action plan for 2022-2024, which was developed as a result of active cooperation with the members of the Consultative Group.

The initiatives of the Consultative Group, the members of the Supreme Council and their staff, as well as the ideas submitted by the school students comprise totally 36 initiatives for the new action plan. As a result of the discussion, 26 initiatives were selected, which were transformed in eight commitments in the open governance action plan.

It should be noted that the working group shared 4 initiatives presented by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI): Thematic research on open governance issues; question or idea by a citizen for the supervisory mechanism – “Question of a member of the Supreme Council”; Citizen sending a question to the supervisory mechanism – “Minister’s Hour”; Planning an information campaign to raise awareness of citizen engagement mechanisms.

The Action Plan aims to increase public participation in the legislative and supervisory activities of the Supreme Council, raise awareness about the mechanisms of citizens’ engagements, and increase the transparency of the Supreme Council’s activities. In order to achieve the mentioned goals, the commitments presented in the 2022-2024 action plan of open governance are divided into 3 main directions – increasing public participation in legislative activities; increasing public participation in supervisory activities; awareness raising and transparency.

To increase public participation in legislative and supervisory activities, various online mechanisms will be introduced, including voting on bills and public discussion of bills, a module for citizens to send a question for the “Minister’s Hour”, a field for sharing an idea or question for a “Question of a member of the Supreme Council”. Information campaigns will be planned to raise awareness. The Supreme Council of Ajara, within the framework of the action plan, also plans to take part in organization of international network of regional legislatures within OGP and to hold the first conference of the said network.

The Open Governance Action Plan 2022-2024 of the Open Governance Council of the Ajara Supreme Council was developed within the scopes of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) “Consolidating Parliamentary Democracy in Georgia.” The project is closely cooperating with the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) to promote Open Governance Principles at the Parliament of Georgia and the Supreme Council of Ajara (SCA).

Workshop of the Open Governance Council of SCA and its Consultative Group

On July 14-15, the members of the Open Governance Council of the Supreme Council of Ajara and its Consultative Group held a workshop. On the meeting, the initiatives presented for the development of the 2022-2024 OGP Action Plan of the Supreme Council were discussed.

The Chairperson of the Open Governance Council of the Supreme Council, Davit Gabaidze, the Project Manager of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Giorgi Bobghiashvili, and the Open Governance direction Head of the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), Davit Maisuradze opened the workshop. Representatives of the Parliament of Georgia, Secretary General, Ketevan Kvinikadze and Deputy Secretary General, Giorgi Tskhvediani attended the meeting and shared with the representatives of the Supreme Council of Ajara the experience of the Parliament of Georgia regarding the development of action plans for the open governance partnership.

Initiatives for the 2022-2024 open governance action plan were presented by the member organizations of the Consultative Group – the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), the Institute of Democracy, the Green Sector, the Batumi Center for Independent Living, and the Center for Civic Engagement – Batumi (NCCE). Members of the Supreme Council and staff of the Supreme Council also presented initiatives for the new action plan. At the workshop, the three winning ideas in the competition of initiatives – “Idea for the openness of the Supreme Council” – the mobile application SCAapp, the competition “I know the Constitution” and vote for the draft law, the authors of which are school students, were discussed. The mentioned ideas will be taken into account in the new action plan.

The submitted initiatives and recommendations are aimed at increasing public participation in the legislative and supervisory activities of the Supreme Council, raising awareness of citizen engagement mechanisms, and increasing the transparency of the Supreme Council’s activities.

The initiatives discussed at the working meeting were discussed and combined in the form of eight commitments, which will be finalized and approved by the Open Governance Councilandlater approved by the Bureau of the Supreme Council of Ajara.  

The workshop of the Open Governance Council of the Supreme Council of Ajara and its Consultative Group was held within the scopes of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) “Consolidating Parliamentary Democracy in Georgia.”

The project is closely cooperating with the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) to promote Open Governance Principles at the Parliament of Georgia and the Supreme Council of Ajara (SCA).

The Training was organized on the Self-assessment Report of the Open Parliament Action Plan

On April 28, IDFI organized the training on the development of the self-assessment report of the Open Parliament Georgia Action Plan. Secretariat of the Parliamentary Council on Open Governance and representatives of other secretariats of the Parliamentary Councils were present on the training. The trainer was the independent consultant – Lasha Gogidze who has the IRM experience at OGP. 

The meeting was opened by the Acting Program Manager of UNDP – Giorgi Bobghiashvili and the Open Governance Direction Head of IDFI – Davit Maisuradze. The participants of the meeting discussed different issues such as the co-creation standard of OGP, the international practice of implementation of OGP commitments and standards and challenges of the self-assessment report.

The training was organized within the scopes of the EU-UNDP project “Consolidating Parliamentary Democracy in Georgia.” The project is closely cooperating with the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), to promote Open Governance Principles at the Parliament of Georgia and the Supreme Council of Ajara (SCA). It is noteworthy that within the scopes of the project similar trainings were organized for the secretariat of the Open Governance Council of the Supreme Council of Ajara and the self-assessment methodologies were developed for the Open Governance Council of the Supreme Council of Ajara and for the Parliamentary Council on Open Governance.

Trainings were conducted on communication with people with disabilities

Training on communication with people with disabilities was held to the staff of SCA. The participants were introduced to important issues such as disability categories and barriers, stereotypes and terminology, legislative framework, universal design and reasonable fit, segregation, integration and inclusion, standards of communication and relationship with people with disabilities.

The concept of the Citizens’ Engagement Center of the Supreme Council of Ajara envisages the training of employees in the standard of communication with people with disabilities. The establishment of the Citizens’ Engagement Center in the Supreme Council of Ajara was envisaged according to the third commitment of the Open Governance Action Plan 2020-2021.

The training will promote the readiness of the Supreme Council to ensure access to all representatives of the community to activities of the Council and thus further increase the engagement of citizens.

The training was led by the Consultative Group member “Youth Organization Changes for Equal Rights”. The trainers were Toma Kakabadze, Ramin Matcharashvili, Nino Chkhaidze, Davit Ardzenadze, Soso Kazaishvili and Dea Eremashvili.

The training was held with the support of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the framework of the project – Consolidation of Parliamentary Democracy in Georgia, and was organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI).