Social Justice Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of the platform Salam in the Tbilisi City Court against the refusal of the Bureau of the Parliament of Georgia to initiate a bill within the framework of the #ReturnMySurname campaign. The Administrative Panel of the Tbilisi City Court declared the lawsuit admissible.

As it is known, a few months ago, the Azerbaijani community of Georgia started a self-organized campaign, #ReturnMySurname, which was related to the return of historical surnames. For the same purpose, on July 26, 2021, at the initiative of Platform Salam, the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law of Georgia on Civil Acts was submitted to the Bureau of the Parliament of Georgia, which established a new and special rule for changing surnames by removing or altering the unconventional/non-authentic suffix. The initiative group was able to mobilize the community in an unprecedented way and, in a short period of time collected more than 25,000 signatures throughout Georgia. This initiative has been a unique experience of community and society democratic self-organization for social change in recent years.

Nevertheless, the Committee on Procedural Issues and Rules of the Parliament of Georgia initially miscalculated the total number of signatures submitted by the initiative group, and then in the process of counting the signatures, so as it did not verify the identity of the signatories with formal arguments (such as absence or incomplete reference of the phone number, street name on the form, etc.) considered several thousand signatures invalid and only 22,928 signatures were actually counted. It is clear that the Committee used various and ultimately arbitrary approaches for considering authenticity of residence data in the process of counting and evaluating the signatures, and with such formal approaches restricted citizens' constitutional right to petition. It was with this technical justification that the committee prepared a negative conclusion, and on November 8, 2021, the Bureau of the Parliament of Georgia refused to submit the bill for consideration. It was with this technical justification that the Committee prepared a negative conclusion, and on November 8, 2021, the Bureau of the Parliament of Georgia refused to submit the bill for consideration.

Social Justice Center considers that the Bureau of the Parliament of Georgia made the decision without considering the merits of the case and disregarded the importance of this issue. For its part, the Committee on Procedural Issues and Rules annulled the signatures with formal, completely unsubstantiated arguments, putting the right of thousands of voters to legislative initiative at risk of violation.

We consider that such an action of the Parliamentary Bureau contradicts the constitutional principles of good governance, fair proceedings and violates the right of every voter to be directly involved in law-making activities, which is why we appeal to the Tbilisi City Court and hope that within the independent judicial process the court will abolish Bureau’s illegal decision and protect the constitutional right of every voter to legislative initiative.

Although the members of the Georgian Parliament from the ruling political team have submitted a bill, which sets out new rules and procedures for changing non-traditional / non-authentic surnames, which in our opinion is a direct recognition of the demands and concerns of citizens. We believe that the self-organization of citizens as a process has its own value. It is essential that state agencies respect the process of democratic mobilization of citizens and show special carefulness in this process.

Adherence to citizen-centered approaches is essential for building trust in state institutions and democratic processes. Unfortunately, the importance of this process has not been seen adequately by Parliament. Moreover, the campaign organized by Platform Salam was the most massive, authentic, and unique experience of democratic self-organization and political participation of non-dominant ethnic communities in recent years.

The Social Justice Center will provide up-to-date information per the stages of the proceedings.

We will also present our positions and assessments regarding the content of the bill prepared by the members of Parliament.

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