Unchecked illegal surveillance by the law enforcement bodies has been a major concern in Georgia for the past several years. Using special technical equipment, investigative bodies were wiretapping phones of journalists, civil society representatives, political activists, lawyers, clergy and other citizens without any warrant or supervision.

The new government that came to power as a result of the 2012 parliamentary election has not carried out any systemic changes in this regard. Despite the promises that had been made by the current government officials, the law enforcement agencies continue to have unlimited access to all kinds of electronic communication of citizens and to personal data kept with the telecom operators. The so-called ‘black boxes’ that are installed with the mobile operators, allow law enforcement agencies to simultaneously wiretap tens of thousands of people and determine their whereabouts, read their text messages and personal electronic correspondence sent via email, Viber, WhatsApp, BBM, and other applications. 

This undermines citizens’ constitutional rights and poses a threat to the civil liberties that a free and democratic state builds on. Undoubtedly, the law enforcement agencies should have the right to conduct secret surveillance but this should occur as a last resort only and in terms of effective monitoring so that any risks of interfering with the private lives of citizens are eliminated.

Thomas Hammarberg, EU Special Adviser on Legal and Constitutional Reform and Human Rights in Georgia discusses the problem of illegal surveillance and the need to end this practice in his special report [1]. The problem is also highlighted in the U.S. Department of State’s most recent Country Report on Human Rights Practices on Georgia [2].

For the reasons mentioned above, civil society organizations are re-launching their previous campaign under the slogan ‘This Affects You’. This initiative aims to change the existing practice of secret surveillance and wiretapping in order to establish safeguards against interference into private lives of citizens by the law enforcement agencies.

Almost a year ago a draft law was introduced in the Parliament, which implies establishing such a system. Current legislation which regulates secret surveillance, unfortunately, doesn’t comply with international standards. Furthermore, some provisions directly contradict with the standards established by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

The civic initiative ‘This Affects You’  is an effort to bring the current legislation and practice in accordance with internationally accepted principles.

In case Parliament passes these amendments:

• An effective system will be established which, on one hand, will provide high standards in criminal investigation and, on the other hand, will prevent the law enforcement agencies from obtaining personal information about citizens without warrant.
• Wiretapping and surveillance will be possible only in case of grave and particularly grave crimes.
• Time limits of a secret wiretapping and surveillance will be established to avoid its arbitrary and excessive use. Furthermore, effective regulations of the use and storage of records will be adopted.
• The supervisory mechanism of secret wiretapping and surveillance will be created.
• The power of court and other agencies will be increased.

Meetings, demonstrations and conferences will be held throughout Georgia under this campaign and information about these events will be regularly updated on the campaign website: esshengexeba.ge [3] and via social networks: fb.com/esshengexeba [4], twitter.com/esshengexeba [5].

‘This Affects You’ was launched in February 2012 by non-governmental and media organizations to advocate for changes in electoral legislation with active civic involvement and participation to form a competitive pre-election environment which would be acceptable to the voters. It was the direct result of the civil society efforts that the undemocratic party financing rules were amended and the so-called must-carry and must-offer rules were introduced prior to election.