Article
37(5). Individuals have the right to complete, objective
and timely information on their working and living conditions.
Article
41(1). Every citizen has the right according to the law
to know information about himself which exists in state
institutions as long as they do not contain state, professional
or commercial secrets, as well as with official records
existing there. (2). Information existing in official
papers connected with health, finances or other private
matters of an individual are not available to other individuals
without the prior consent of the affected individual,
except in cases determined by law, when it is necessary
for the state and public security, defense of health,
rights and freedoms of others.
•
Undernourished people (% of total population),
2000/03: 27
•
Population with sustainable access to an improved
water source (%), 2002: 76
Source:
UN Development Program, Human Development Reports
Data
The
General
Administrative Code of Georgia was adopted in 1999.(2)
Chapter 3 of the Code is entitled "Freedom of Information."
It sets a general presumption that information kept, received
or held by a public agency should be open. All public information
should be entered into a public register in two days.
The
law gives anyone the right to submit a written request for
public information regardless of the form that information
takes and without having to state the reasons for the request.
The agency must respond immediately and can only delay if
the information is in another locality, is of a significant
volume or is at another agency. Fees can only be applied
for copying costs. The law also sets rules on the access
and use of personal information.
There
are exemptions for information that is protected by another
law or that which is considered a state, commercial, professional
or personal secret. Names of some public servants participating
in a decision by an official can be withheld under executive
privilege but the papers can be released. The 2001 amendment
prohibits the withholding of the names of political officials.
Information
relating to the environment and hazards to health, structures
and objectives of agencies, election results, results of
audits and inspections, registers of information and any
other information that is not state, commercial, or personal
secrets cannot be classified. All public information created
before 1990 is open. Agencies are also required to issue
reports each year on the requests and their responses under
the Act.
Those
whose requests have been denied can appeal internally or
can ask a court to nullify an agency decision. The court
can review classified information to see if it has been
classified properly. The Supreme Court ruled in June 2003
that legal fees can be obtained as damages when a requester
wins a case. It agreed in March 2006 to hear a case brought
by the Georgian Young Lawyers Association on the constitutionality
of limits to access to information in the Administrative
Code.
The
OECD said in 2005 that "is a well-known fact that FOI
Chapter is one of the best-implemented laws in Georgia,
which is conditioned mostly by the special interest of diverse
donors."(3) A survey of public officials
by Article 19 and national partners in 2004 found that all
the public officials were aware of legal obligations to
release information and 92 percent were aware of the FOI
provisions of the Administrative Code.(4)
However
there are still problems with implementation including a
lack of promotion by officials, demands for reasons for
requests (declining but still common), failure of some bodies
to create registries, failure of administrative appeals
and sanctions, and slowness by courts.(5)
The Ombudsman in 2004 found that most public authorities
are not fulfilling their obligations for reports.(6)
The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy
conducted a national survey of public accessibility of information
in 2001 and found that it was still difficult for ordinary
citizens to obtain information.(7) The
OECD's Anti-Corruption Network for Transition Economies
recommended in January 2004 that the government:
Ensure
that the access to information legislation limits discretion
on the part of the public officials in charge as to whether
the requested information should be disclosed, and to
limit the scope of information that could be withheld.
Consider steps to reach out to both, public officials
as well as citizens to raise awareness about their responsibilities
and rights under the access to information regulations.(8)
The
Law
on State Secrets sets rules on the classification of
information where "disclosure or loss of which may
inflict harm on the sovereignty, constitutional framework
or political and economic interests of Georgia".(9)
There are three categories with fixed terms for the length
of classification: "Of Extraordinary Importance"-
20 years, Top Secret - 10 years and Secret - 5 years. The
State Inspection for Protection of State Secrets oversees
the protection of secrets and can order declassification.
A 1997 decree sets the procedures on classification.(10)
Information shall be declassified no later than the end
of the fixed term (unless it is extended by the President)
or when it is no longer necessary to be classified. All
information about the construction of the President's residence
was decreed to be a state secret in 2004.
The
Criminal Code prohibits the disclosure of personal secrets,
state secrets, and other secret information.(11)
Georgia
signed the Aarhus Convention in June 1998 and ratified it
in April 2000. The Law on Environmental Protection provides
for a right to information about the environment and other
related laws provide for public registers.(12)
The Article 19 study in 2004 found that only 52 percent
of the public officials surveyed know about the convention
and only ten percent relied on its provisions to releasing
information. An Act on State Environmental Control was adopted
in June 2005.
19
FEBRUARY 2004
GEORGIA: President Proposes Release of KGB Files RFE/RL
Newslinereports that Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili has proposed to declassify
the remaining Soviet-era KGB files at the ministry's disposal
even though doing so could cause "problems" for
some people. But he noted at the same time that some of
the former KGB archives were transferred to Moscow in the
early 1990s shortly after the collapse of the USSR, and
more were sent to Russia during Igor Giorgadze's tenure
as state security minister in 1993-95.
3.
Fighting Corruption in Transition Economies: Georgia
OECD 2005.
4.
Article 19, Under Lock and Key: Freedom of Information
and the Media in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, April
2005.
5.
Transparency International Georgia, Adherence to the
Anti-Corruption Recommendations of the Oecd's Anti- Corruption
Network (Acn) Recommendations by the Government of Georgia
- Alternative Report, December 2005.
6.
Office of the Public Defender of Georgia, Report on
conditions of Human Rights in Georgia in 2004, 2005.
7.
International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy,
The report on the monitoring of openness and accessibility
of information, 2002.
8.
Anti-Corruption Network for Transition Economies, Regional
Anti-Corruption Action Plan for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia,
the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan
and Ukraine: Georgia - Summary of assessment and recommendations,
21 January 2004.
10.
"The
Procedure for Defining the Information as a State Secret
and its Protection" Decree No. 42 of the President
of Georgia of 1997, 21 January 1997.
"The
law provides for public access to government meetings
and documents; however, few citizens or journalists
employed it. The Government often failed to register
freedom of information act requests, and although
the law states that a public agency shall release
public information immediately or no later than
10 days, the release of requested information
could be delayed indefinitely and was sometimes
ignored. A requesting party has no grounds for
appeal."
1) Voice and Accountability: -0.34
2) Political Instability and Violence: -1.26
3) Government Effectiveness: -0.80
4) Regulatory Burden: -0.64
5) Rule of Law: -0.87
6) Control of Corruption: -0.91
