This Affects You Too Campaign responds to delays in the process of initiation of the bills for reforming the system of secret surveillance/wiretapping
This Affects You Too campaign issues this statement in reaction to delays in the process of initiation of bills for reforming the system of secret surveillance/wiretapping. We’d like to first explain the principle that the campaign relied on for choosing the form and the strategy for initiating the bills that it has prepared.
The bills are based on the Constitutional Court’s ruling in favor of members of the campaign, deeming current system of secret surveillance/wiretapping unconstitutional. The Constitutional Court ordered changing of the existing system by March 31, 2017, which entails making legislative changes and introducing new material/programmatic systems. Members of This Affects You Too campaign developed a draft on the basis of the court’s decision as well as best international practice, in an attempt to allow launching of the new system in a timely manner. While working on the draft law the campaign was closely consulting with many political groups and discussing possibilities for initiation of the new bills. Following the consultations, the campaign decided to have the bills initiated by two individual MPs – Vakhtang Khmaladze and Shalva Shavgulidze, who, because of their previous work, have been associated with reforming the system of secret surveillance/wiretapping. The campaign thought that by not connecting the bills to any particular party, it would ensure that prospects for implementation of this very important reform were real.
MPs Vakhtang Khmaladze and Shalva Shavgulidze expressed their readiness to initiate the bills. On May 13, 2016, an agreement was made between the MPs and It Affects You Too campaign; however, working on the legislative proposals within the parliament has proven to be especially challenging. It was quite difficult to engage potential initiators of the bills in close cooperation mode, despite many efforts made by the campaign.
Timely enforcement of the Constitutional Court’s April 14 decision is very important. Therefore, over the recent weeks members of the campaign have expressed their readiness to provide additional support and assistance for the MPs, in order for the bills to be registered within reasonable time. In light of this, statement made by the parliamentary faction of Republicans yesterday was rather unexpected. According to the statement, the bills will be registered in July, which we believe is unreasonable and will delay the process. It is unclear why the faction made this statement, considering that the bills should be initiated by individual MPs, not the faction. Delaying initiation of the bills until July means that current parliament will not be able to start debating the bills, while the next parliament has no obligation to continue debating bills initiated in previous parliament.
As to reforming the current system of secret surveillance/wiretapping, unfortunately it is less likely that any important and principal decisions will be made about the issue. Considering the deadline for implementation of the court’s decision (March 31, 2017), it is surprising that executive and legislative authorities have done nothing to move forward. We also regret that despite many attempts, the campaign has not been able to meet with the Prime Minister of Georgia.
Recent incidents of blackmail by using videos of private lives are indicative of seriousness of the issue and the need to implement systemic reforms. In light of this, we believe that political speculations about the issue or exploiting it to gain political advantage are unacceptable, so are any unreasonable delays in legislative reform. Considering the Constitutional Court’s decision, the bills prepared by the campaign are the only effective alternative of current unconstitutional system. Therefore, the campaign remains hopeful that the future parliament will show more support and attention for the issue.