Amendment No. 23 | Doc. 13588 | 30 September 2014

The functioning of democratic institutions in Georgia

Signatories: Ms Guguli MAGRADZE, Georgia, SOC ; Ms Ingrid ANTIČEVIĆ MARINOVIĆ, Croatia, SOC ; Ms Eka BESELIA, Georgia, SOC ; Mr Arcadio DÍAZ TEJERA, Spain, SOC ; Mr Tadeusz IWIŃSKI, Poland, SOC

Origin - 2014 - Fourth part-session

In the draft resolution, replace paragraph 17 with the following paragraph:

"The Assembly expresses its concern about cases of illegal surveillance of citizens by the Georgian law-enforcement agencies which violate the country's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and notes steps taken by the authorities such as destroying illegal surveillance videos acquired by domestic intelligence during the previous government. While welcoming these recent measures to address this issue, the Assembly considers that comprehensive legislation is urgently needed to regulate data collection and surveillance by law-enforcement agencies. The Assembly welcomes the adoption by parliament in late July of legislative amendments to the Criminal Law Proceedings Code which will introduce stricter regulation for the use of secret surveillance."

Explanatory note

In January 2014 the government destroyed a cache of thousands of "dirty tapes" recorded under the previous regime. In May 2013, a deputy minister was arrested on charges of breaching privacy laws. The government introduced new legislation to ban such recordings which was passed by the parliament in July.