Georgian NGOs Send Letter to US Vice-President
Twenty-four non-governmental organizations (NGOs) based in Georgia sent an open letter to United States (US) Vice-President Mike Pence ahead his arrival in Georgia on July 31, indicating the most important issues for Georgia.
The NGOs expressed gratitude for America’s continuous support of Georgia and noted that US support for Georgia’s independence, territorial integrity, security and its democratic and economic development, as well as Georgia’s NATO membership, played a fundamental role in the process of building a modern Georgian state.
“We firmly believe that the United States is the closest and most trusted partner of Georgia, supporter of our sovereignty and statehood, based on shared values of freedom, democracy, rule of law and human rights,” the letter reads.
The organizations stressed that Georgia’s striving to freedom has become a target for Russian aggressive revisionism.
“Russia is constantly trying to undermine Georgian statehood by continued occupation and creeping annexation of Georgian territories, illegal military presence and other coercive measures,” the letter reads.
The NGOs also underlined that Georgia has achieved significant progress in the process of consolidating democracy, modernizing the country and implementing significant reforms, which “have played a decisive role in enabling Georgia to develop resilience to withstand Russian pressure.”
The letter also familiarizes the US Vice-President with the most important issues that concern civil society and “threaten to undermine” the democratic achievements of Georgia.
The organizations believe that the most acute problem nowadays is the Constitution reform, saying it is “one-handed” and no effort was made to seek and achieve broad public and political consensus over the draft of the document.
“Among other controversial issues, such as abolishing direct elections of the president, the reform failed to achieve immediate change of the electoral system despite the expectations of the political spectrum, civil society and the Venice Commission,’ the letter reads.
The NGOs claim that the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party has pushed for introducing mechanisms that would favor the incumbent political party, “which is an alarming sign of further concentration of power by the ruling political force”.
The independence of the judiciary was also listed by the NGOs among the problematic issues.
“Despite three waves of reforms and certain positive tendencies in the judiciary after 2012, the GD government largely failed to address systemic problems in the judicial system,” the organizations claim.
Moreover, the letter reads that impunity and lack of accountability of law-enforcement and security services is another important issue of concern. The NGOs believe that there exists no effective parliamentary or civilian oversight or judicial control over the activities of the law enforcement bodies and security services.
The list also noted the issue of media pluralism, saying the situation in this regard has worsened in Georgia in recent years.
“Mr. Vice President, we sincerely believe that continuous US support to Georgia’s freedom, independence, effective governance and its NATO membership aspirations is vital, is in the interest of both nations and is essential for building a Europe that is whole, free and at peace,” the letter reads.
Thea Morrison