Tbilisi. IDFI believes, that the experience of recent years, especially the information spread a few days ago about the alleged facts of mass interception, clearly shows that covert surveillance is a systemic challenge for Georgia.
‘Total surveillance, the use of covert surveillance records as a tool for political retaliation, influencing people and blackmailing them reveal a severe crisis, a democratic setback, and a disregard for human rights standards in the country’, - is mentioned in the information of IDFI, - ‘The institutional arrangement of the State Security Service, the excessive and uncontrolled power concentrated in its hands, the lack of an efficient system of oversight are incompatible with fundamental democratic values and principles. The regulatory and institutional framework governing covert surveillance fails to ensure adequate protection of privacy. There is no effective system of supervision and control in the country and there are no proper procedural guarantees to prevent the abuse of power by the state’.
Source: The webpage of the organization
Standards of Accountability & Transparency
Review of Civil Space in Georgia (August 2024-Octomber 2024)