Liberty Institute (Georgia)
The Freedom Institute (Georgian თავისუფლების ინსტიტუტი, Tavisuplebis Instituti ) is a nonprofit and nonpartisan foundation in Georgia, which advocates for a liberal civil society. Your seat is Tbilisi. In addition to the student organization Kmara! she was one of the bearers of the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003.
Objectives
The Institute is trying to convey with civic campaigns, debates, surveys and training civil rights, public accountability, the rule of law, transparency and a free market economy in public life, politics, legislation, and institutions of Georgia. It has set itself the goal of individual freedom, including the right to assembly, association, press, religion, speech and petition freedom, the right to privacy, due process, equal legal protection, freedom of information, good governance for everyone to obtain by legal and appropriate means and convey.
Personnel pool for Saakashvili government
After the Rose Revolution in 2003, the majority of the Institute's founder was elected as an MP in the Parliament of Georgia. The coordinator for human rights programs Giga Bokeria was Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Legal Committee, member of the parliamentary defense and security committee and one of the leaders of the President's party, the National Movement - Democrats. He initiated several laws to strengthen citizens' rights in Georgia.
The journalistic coordinator Givi Targamadze became chairman of the parliamentary defense and security committee. Together with other members of the Liberty Institute and the student group Kmara! he advised the Kyrgyz opposition during the Tulip Revolution. Dawit Zurabishvili came in 2005 from the National Movement - Democrats out and now leads the opposition faction Democratic Front. 2004, the member of the Freedom Institute Sozar Subari was elected by Parliament for Ombudsman, which is to monitor compliance with civil rights in the country. The former Liberty Institute Member Giorgi Ugulava was mayor of Tbilisi, the former member Zurab Tschiaberaschwili was Georgian ambassador to the Euro Europe. In 2005, the Member Tamara Kinzuraschwili by the Trustees of the Public Broadcasting of Georgia was elected as the first Director-General.
From the founders remained only Levan Ramishvili the Freedom Institute. He continues to work with young civil rights activists, who earlier in the student organization Kmara! were active.
History
As the Freedom Institute was founded in 1996, there were few civil rights organizations in Georgia. Trigger the start-up activities was the threat of the private television station Rustavi- 2 by the government. The Ministry of Communications had a month earlier revoked his license to broadcast. The founders saw this as blatant violation of press freedom.
The Freedom Institute publishes an annual report now the situation of human rights in Georgia and publishes the monthly magazine freedom. It in addition to its main office in Tbilisi five regional offices in Georgia. There were several thousand people are advised on legal issues annually.
Parliamentary lobbying
Through the initiative of the Freedom Institute eleven laws have been amended or introduced in the Georgian Parliament. 1999, the Parliament adopted an administrative law book whose chapter was prepared via the Freedom of Information from Liberty Institute. It provides for public access to administrative and governmental information. 2003 were amended upon the proposal of the Institute of Georgia Constitution and introduced the jury system in the judiciary. In addition, a law on the confiscation of illegally acquired property was created.
After the Rose Revolution originated in 2004 and 2005 with the participation of the Institute new education and higher education legislation that guaranteed academic freedom and student rights. The law on freedom of speech was amended and adopted a broadcasting law that gave the state TV and radio a public structure to Western European standards. Currently, the Institute promoted an amendment to the Georgian Criminal Procedure.
The President Mikheil Saakashvili's government has taken various concepts of the Institute. These include the strategy against corruption and the concept of educational reform.
Public campaigns
Corruption
In addition to human rights issues, the Institute has extended its activities to several new fields. It supports the dissemination of investigative journalism in Georgia. Between 1998 and 2000 it introduced its own research that led to the dismissal of the Minister for Communications, for agriculture and energy sectors. As part of its activities against corruption it revealed criminal activities of a deputy and a governor, tobacco, fuel and alcohol smuggling by employees of the Interior and Security Ministry and illegal transactions of members of the family of former President Eduard Shevardnadze.
Since 2001, the institute turned together with student organizations against corruption at the State University of Tbilisi. It was performed to a survey, names of corrupt staff and faculty named publicly. It misuse of university funds and various other financial abuses were disclosed. The documents it found the prosecutor's office and the Council against corruption have been made available.
Religious Violence
1999 turned to the Institute as one of the first organizations in Georgia against religiously motivated violence. It protested against excesses from the ranks of the Georgian Orthodox Church of the Apostles against religious minorities and the seizure of non- orthodox literature by the state. In two cases, the Institute sued for the violation of religious freedom before the Constitutional Court.
Assaults of law enforcement agencies
One of the main objectives of the Institute is to protect against illegal arrests, torture in detention and other human rights violations by law enforcement agencies. In 1998, the Institute on a special project for the observation of police raids. It doing illegal assaults and cases of torture were revealed. 2000, a public advisory committee was created at the initiative of Liberty Institute, Ministry of Justice, which controlled the observance of civil rights in the Georgian prisons. Together with the ombudsman appointed by Parliament in 2004 public advisory councils were created, have the right at any time to visit without conditions, detention centers and police stations.
Support of youth organizations
The Institute supported the development of youth movements such as self-governing student bodies at universities and the emergence of a youth network for civil rights. 2003 established with the help of the Institute, the youth organization Kmara! Otpor! Activists taught in the Institute rooms around 800 Georgian students organizing a non-violent political change. Currently, the Institute is in the Georgian province through a series of youth debates for the propagation of human rights and an anti- corruption morality.
Media
In 2003, the Institute, the first professional standards for mass media in Georgia. The Code was adopted by all the major print and electronic media in Georgia.
Attacks against the Institute
The Freedom Institute was again the target of attacks. On 10 July 2002, the Tiflisser office was devastated by a 15-member bat group. They beat several people with clubs and iron bars, including Levan Ramishvili, Sozar Subari, Dawit Zurabishvili Giga Phrangischwili and Dali Zkitischwili. Witnesses to the incident were academic staff of the Council who were present just in the office. Although the raid learned much public attention, it has not been studied until now.
On 28 September 2006, the political analyst Irakli Kakabdse and three leading members of the Freedom Institute were arrested for allegedly allegedly sprayed protest slogans on the facade of the presidential administration in Tbilisi. Civil rights organizations called for their immediate release.