NGOs involved in ‘This Affects You’ campaign welcome statements made by the Minister of Justice Tea Tsulukiani and MP Tamar Kordzaia, in which they openly support the legislative package dealing with the undercover investigative procedures initiated by the Parliament. We would also like to thank the Georgian Parliament members who took part in drafting and improving the bill, or otherwise supported the initiative.

At the same time, we consider statements made by the State Security and Crisis Management Council representative Levan Ghirsiashvili to be unsubstantiated. According to Ghirsiashvili, “the legislative initiative submitted to Parliament contains flaws that have to do with personal data protection and security issues, not only in terms of national but public safety as well. The flaws also pertain to crime prevention and suppression."

Unfortunately, Ghirsiashvili does not clarify which provisions of the bill impede the protection of national and public safety and crime prevention and suppression; neither does he specify in what way they are impeded.

The legislative package is designed to ensure that the laws concerning secret wiretapping are in line with the Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights and match the existing practices of European countries, which will minimize or altogether prevent risks of arbitrary infringement of personal communication. It should be noted that the legislative package has merited positive assessment of a number of European experts. Such legislative regulations have done no harm to the security or crime prevention and suppression in any European state, nor shall they have any detrimental consequences to Georgia if adopted.

Levan Ghirsiashvili also states: "they [new parliamentary working group] aim at the legislative initiative to reflect the views and positions of those directly responsible for national and public safety as well as human rights." The NGOs involved in the ‘This Affects You’ campaign would like to remind Mr. Ghirsiashvili that the legislative package was initiated in the Parliament in the spring of 2013. During this time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who is responsible for protecting public safety, had the opportunity to submit their comments with regard to the draft law. Both the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security and Crisis Management Council are still allowed to submit their constructive proposals regarding the pending draft law to the Parliament. We can only appreciate initiatives of executive authorities that are directed towards achieving a reasonable balance between a person's right to privacy and the national security interests, provided they do not protract the legislative process.

The NGOs participating in ‘This Affects You’ campaign hope that comments made by representatives of the State Security and Crisis Management Council about the bill on covert investigation will gain more clarity and validity.

At the same time, we would like to once again call on the representatives of the executive branch to refrain from making unconstructive statements and actions that can bring the Parliamentary legislative process of upholding the right to privacy to a deadlock. We are deeply convinced that the only thing the bill really ‘poses a threat to’ is the existing system that does not ensure the protection of the people’s right to privacy.