The United Nations Human Rights office has called on the ruling Georgian Dream party to withdraw a bill proposing to replace the State Inspector's Service with two new agencies.
Several Georgian majoritarian MPs put forward a bill on December 25 based on which the State Inspector’s Service would be replaced by two new agencies: the Special Investigation Service and the Personal Data Protection Service, which would be authorised to investigate offences committed by the authorities and to monitor personal data processing respectively.
The UN Human Rights office says that it is ‘deeply concerned’ by the proposal, noting that the Inspector’s Service is an ‘independent institution with a key role in torture prevention and privacy protection.’
#Georgia: Deep concern over proposals for Parliament to abolish State Inspector's office, an independent institution with key role in #TorturePrevention & privacy protection. We call for the initiative to be withdrawn & to ensure independence of national human rights mechanisms.
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) December 27, 2021
It also says that the independence of national human rights mechanisms should be ensured in the country.
NGOs, the parliamentary opposition and State Inspector Londa Toloraia have criticised the bill stating that the government aims to influence the independent institution.
Toloraia called the initiative of the MPs a 'punishment of the service for its independence' earlier today and stated that she will protect the 'interests of the Service and each of its employees.'
NGOs said that the State Inspector's Service has been praised for its ‘independence and impartiality’ by international partners, noting that the body needs to be strengthened instead of being replaced.
The Georgian parliament adopted the law on the State Inspector’s Service on July 21, 2018, and the Service began operations on November 1, 2019.
Per the bill, the State Inspector’s Service is assigned to conduct the investigations with the supervision of the Georgian Prosecutor's office.
The State Inspector’s Service has received a total of 5,523 notifications with eight police officers having been convicted over the last two years.