Challenges of Protection of Property Rights of Citizens in Touristic Zones

Presentation of the Report "Problems related to the Propery Rigths Protection" (The case of village Gonio)

On April 5, 2:00 pm Open Society Georgia will present Report “Challenges of Protection of Property Rights in Georgia” at the Tbilisi Marriott Hotel, Ballroom.

On April 4, the Open Society Georgia published a pres-release about the presentation.
 
“Protection of property rights became more challenging in Georgia especially after declaring Svaneti, Anaklia, Gonio and Black Sea adjacent territories to be touristic zones and launching large-scale infrastructural projects.  Under  the  existing  circumstances  interest  of  potential  investors  is growing more and more, what creates feasible background for the perspective of economic development in  the  future.  On  the  other  hand,  except  positive  outcomes,  following  the  transformation  of  these territories into touristic zones interests of local population have been vastly infringed.

Against  a  backdrop  of  particular  interest  in  properties  of  local  citizens  a  number  of  property  rights violations have been recorded in these zones up to now.

All the above quoted urged NGOs engaged in these problems to make prompt reaction on the matter. Four NGOs with Open Society Georgia Foundation's support started implementation of the project: "Protection of property rights in new touristic regions" that envisages study of the concrete cases on the spot meeting with  local  population,  collection  of  relevant  data  according  to  legal  methods  via  requesting  public information.

The report "Problems related to the Propery Rigths Protection" to be presented on April 5 unveils the results of the first stage of the research.  The report highlights cases of deprivation 271 Gonio inhabitants of lands, which were bestowed to them and legalized in 2007-2010. Report provides for legal assessment and analysis of the ties with ongoing processes in the country.

Cases took place in Svaneti are being studied now, where locals own real estate for centuries as the so- called "traditional ownership" and this property in most cases is not registered.
Representatives  of  international  organizations,  NGOs,  government,  media  and  political  parties  will  be invited to the presentation.

"We strive for drawing attention of civil society on  the cases of property rights violations in order to prevent and eliminate that kind of facts. We'd like to propose our recommendations to decision-makers as to  achieve  systematic  solution  of  similar  issues"  -  Tinatin  Bolkvadze  from  the  Open  Society  Georgia Foundation, says.

The project is carried out by Association "Green Alternative", Georgian Young Lawyers' Association, Transparency International Georgia and Regional Media Association of Georgia with the support of Open Society Georgia Foundation.