Participating organizations of the campaign entitled, 'This Affects You – They Are Still Listening,' welcome the statement made by Alexandre Chikaidze, Minister for Internal Affairs of Georgia, on 6 March. In the statement, he noted that the Ministry is ready [1] for a dialogue with civil society about wiretapping and interception abuses. Additionally, the Minister noted that bringing the interests of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and citizens of Georgia into agreement would be an acceptable outcome.

We would like to emphasize strongly that Georgia is a state party to the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 8 of this Convention guarantees an individual’s right to privacy. Therefore, the legislation regulating surveillance should not be drafted solely in accordance with agreements made between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and citizens, but also in accordance with case law under article 8 of the European Court of Human Rights. The draft law currently in the Parliament, which is supported by participants of, 'This Affects You – They Are Still Listening', meets the standards laid down by the European Court. Implementing these standards into Georgian legislation will not only strengthen the protection of privacy rights, but also, it will prevent the lose of future cases in the European Court brought against Georgia, thereby avoiding financial sanctions.

It is unacceptable to cite human rights protection as the reason and justification for giving these powers to law-enforcement agencies, these powers threaten citizens' constitutional rights, including privacy.

The right to privacy is also related to visa-free travel of Georgian citizens to the Schengen Area. Under the Visa Liberalization Action Plan, the Georgian authorities took the obligation to reform the field of personal data protection. According to this document, the Georgian government must provide legal and institutional regulation of personal data protection bringing the laws and bylaws of Georgia in compliance with the EU law.

In response to the statement of Minister Alexandre Chikaidze, participating organizations of the campaign, 'This Affects You – They are still Listening', are ready to meet with chief officials of the Ministry to exchange our opinions regarding the draft laws about wiretapping.

This statement is approved by several dozen organizations. The following organizations are initiators of the meeting with the Minister for International Affairs:

Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, Transparency International Georgia, Article 42 of the Constitution, Open Society Georgia Foundation, Institute for Development of Freedom of Information, Liberal Academy Tbilisi, International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, Coalition for Civil Development