International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy expresses its concern over the developments in the village of Chela and believes that the removal of mosque minaret and the excessive use of force against local population violated the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Georgia, legislation and international norms. ISFED jointly with other NGOs made a statement about the foregoing; however, this time we would like to address various agencies with recommendations and urge them to take actions in frames of their competence for ensuring equal protection of constitutional rights of all citizens of Georgia. 

Over the past several days the Ministry of Interior held some wide scale police raids in Tbilisi which has raised concerns of the part of population. Policemen stopped and frisked pedestrians and vehicles and inspected personal documents of citizens. As reported, sometimes policemen wrote down personal information of individuals (name, father's name, address, phone number) and took photos of them by mobile phones. Oftentimes these activities were illegal and violated human rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. 

It is widely known that a video archive is stored in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, which, alongside other records, contains images of certain people’s private life. Although the officials have made statements about the destruction of the video archive, it still remains within the Ministry. In view of the high public interest and the diversity of opinions, we, the signatory NGOs, find it necessary to state a correct legal position on the issue.

On June 27, the media highlighted how the Ministry of Finance’s Investigation Department restrained the freedom of action of City Hall and City Council officials and took them into the Ministry for interrogations. These officials claim that they had been suddenly stopped while driving by people in civilian clothes.  They were told that they were being detained; they were then handcuffed, had their mobile phones taken away, and were transported to the police station.

The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) observers the parliamentary by- elections in all three electoral districts through mobile teams, district election commission observers and 60 short-term observers at the polling stations. SMS and incident centers operate at the central office where the observers transmit information regarding the Election Day process and detected violations. Besides, ordinary citizens can also submit text messages to the toll-free SMS number 90039 should they identify any electoral violations.