Tbilisi. The non-governmental organizations involved in the Open Government Partnership (OGP) process in Georgia express their concern regarding the flagrant violation of the fundamental values and principles of OGP by the Government of Georgia.

“In recent years, the actions of the Georgian government have consistently demonstrated a clear misalignment with the OGP core values by endorsing the Russian-inspired law on "Foreign Agents," undermining the independence of the judicial system, launching direct attacks on civil society organizations, human rights defenders, and critical media representatives, as well as making attempts to restrict their operations, infringing on fundamental freedoms, notably freedom of association and expression, and the right to privacy, restricting access to information.

The national OGP process is stalled for the fourth year already, the country has not implemented a single reform within the framework of the OGP at the national level. Georgia acted contrary to the OGP participation and co-creation standards for two consecutive cycles, by not delivering OGP National Action Plan since 2019. Regrettably, the almost three-year process of developing a new action plan has reached an impasse again…

In light of the above, Georgia’s Open Government Interagency Coordination Council (and Forum) member CSOs addressed the OGP Steering Committee with a Letter of Concern to trigger the Response Policy. The policy seeks to foster a greater engagement of the OGP’s international Secretariat (Support Unit), partner donors, and international organizations in effectively addressing the ongoing crisis”.

Read more…

Source: transparency.ge