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Ethnic Minorities Justice Accessibility Research

2013

Ethnic Minorities Justice Accessibility Research was made possible with the support of Eurasia Partnership foundation, EWMI-JILEP and US Agency for International Development in the framework of the project Accessible Justice for Ethnic and Religious Minorities in the Administrative Justice Sphere implemented by CSO CiDA.

The contents of the research are the sole responsibility of CiDA/ARC and do not necessarily reflect the views of EPF, EWMI- JILEP and USAID.

Introduction

Access to justice is one of the indicators of democratic development of the country. Access to justice can be seen as a combination of components that serve the process of receiving fair verdict of legal issues through court. Important components for judicial process: 1) Public awareness on: a. Personal rights; b. Existing legislation and enforcement mechanisms; c. Level of public awareness on activities of courts and other state institutions; d. Ways of settlement of legal disputes. 2) Trust level toward different state institutions: a. Quality and access to services provided by courts and other state institutions determine the level of trust toward these institutions; 3) Understanding of fairness and existing infrastructure of legal assistance. a. Fair legislation and impartial enforcement; b. Legal qualification that ensures people of different ability to defend their own interests. Georgia is a multiethnical country, with two regions where ethnic minorities reside in collective centers and represent majority of the population of the regions. Ethnic minorities also live in Kakheti region, where majority of population is represented by ethnic Georgians. The fact that majority of ethnic minorities living in a collective centers still are not familiar with Georgian language, is one of the obstacles to accessibility of justice, accordingly these regions are of crucial importance for the research.

Purpose for the research Evaluation of the accessibility of justice for ethnic minorities residing in Georgia. Objectives of the research 1. Study of level of awareness of ethnic and religious minorities on their rights. 2. Study of level of awareness on accessible justice and legal assistance for ethnic and religious minorities in the administrative justice sphere.

Methodology Research was conducted in July, 2013 in 10 municipalities of 3 regions of Georgia. Quantitative and qualitative (focus groups) research methods were used during the study. Quantitative research Due to the objectives of research regions and towns, where the quantitative research was conducted was selected according to the ethnicity of the population. The regions where ethnic minorities reside in collective centers were selected. Sampling area: To form selection framework, data from General Population Census of 2002 was used.1 Regions with three or more municipalities with at least one settlement with population of 60% ethnic minorities were selected. Three regions were identified, Kvemo Kartli, SamtskheJavakheti and Kakheti. Sampling method: Three stage cluster approach was used. First stage covered region, second municipality and third was settlement. Settlements populated by 60% ethnic minorities were identified. Respondents were selected according to settlements, proportional to population. Primary sampling unit of selection was settlement, secondary sampling unit was household and the final sampling unit was represented by 18 years and older persons. Respondents were selected according to their ethnicity. In each primary unit, secondary sampling unit was selected by randomized sampling method. Step size was different for each primary unit and depended on density. In secondary sampling unit, the final unit was selected based on the household family members last birth date. Percentage of responses is - 82%. In targeted regions (Kvemo Kartli, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Kakheti) quantitative research was conducted covering 1000 respondents. Targeted groups consisted of non Georgian ethnic population. Research was conducted through direct interviewing. Questionnaires with closed and open questions (49 question in total) were used as a tool of the quantitative research.

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Table 1. Division of respondents according to regions2 Region Kvemo Kartli Samtskhe Javakheti Kakheti Total: Quantity 460 390 150 1000 % 46 39 Sampling error 3.54%

3.26% 15 5.71% 100 2.21%

Table 2. Targeted regions and municipalities: Region Kvemo Kartli Town Bolnisi Gardabani Marneuli Dmanisi Akhaltsikhe Akhalkalaki Ninotsminda Telavi Sagarejo Lagodekhi

Samtskhe- Javakheti

Kakheti

Qualitative Research In targeted regions Kvemo Kartli, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Kakheti 6 focus group meetings were conducted, 2 focus groups in each region. Total of 68 persons participated in focus group meetings. Local NGOs, media representatives and local lawyers participated in focus group meetings. Discussions of focus groups were conducted according to prior established guidelines. Research topics were inconsistence with research objectives and goals. Demographic data Table 3. Which nationality respondents identify themselves with?

e
2

z 2 pq( N n) ( N 1)n

Nationality Armenian Azerbaijanian Representatives of other ethnicities (Russian, Greek, Ukrainian, Kurd)

% 46 43 11

Table 4. Division of respondents according to gender Female Male 56,3% 43,7%

Average age of respondents was 41. 19% of respondents are unemployed, 21% is employed, and 35% self-employed. Among employed persons, half of them are self-employed, leads his/her business without other employees.

Table 5. Employment of respondents Main job of the respondent Lead my own business/self-employed without other employees, including working on land Lead my own business/self-employed, have other employees, including working on land Employed in a local small family business/family enterprise Employed in local medium or large private organization, company or enterprise Employed in state institution, company or enterprise Employed in foreign or international organization, company, enterprise or joint enterprise Employed in local or international nongovernmental/noncommercial organization 9 7 15 1 1 %

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Major Conclusions Obstacles related to access to justice

1. Lack of information: a. About legal topics; b. Ways of solving legal issues; c. Mechanisms of settling legal issues; d. About rights. 2. Low level of legal understanding and legal culture; 3. Lack of local qualified legal service; 4. Low level of integration and knowledge of the state language; 5. Low readiness of others intervention to settle the conflicts.

Quality of awareness and rights Non Georgian ethnic population of Georgia considers that more or less they have information about their own rights and courts, they assess their awareness with 2 point on 3 point scale where 1 indicates no awareness, 3 indicates high awareness. As was expected, answers differed among regions. In Kvemo Kartli more respondents believe that they lack information about their rights, than in Samtskhe Javakheti and Kakheti.

Table 6. Are you informed about your own rights? Please assess on a scale from 3 to 1. (3 meaning well informed, 1 not informed). Evaluation (Average score) 2,16 2,36 2,31

Kvemo Kartli SamtskheJavakheti Kakheti

Difference between averages: Kvemo Kartli/Samtskhe-Javakheti P-value (Independent Samples Test)= 0,000 Kvemo Kartli/Kakheti P-value (Independent Samples Test)= 0,002 It should be noted, that awareness about their rights female respondents from Kvemo Kartli region assessed with lower score than female respondents from other regions. Evaluation (Average Score) Male Kvemo Kartli 2,08 Evaluation (Average Score) Female 2,25

Samtskhe Javakheti Kakheti

2,32 2,28

2,40 2,34

Difference between averages: Kvemo Kartli/Samtskhe-Javakheti P-value (Independent Samples Test)= 0,000 Kvemo Kartli/Kakheti P-value (Independent Samples Test)= 0,005 Lack of information for Non Georgian ethnic citizens is related to the low level of integration, that is also confirmed by this research the few information they have is about situations in other regions and political & economical processes.3 One of the factors of low integration is not knowing the state language. In Azerbaijanian communities strongest problem is related to access to justice for female residents. As members of focus groups mentioned, women in Azerbaijanian villages have no rights at all. Its very hard for them to defend their rights, they are constantly controlled by parents or spouses family members. Knowledge about the functions of administrative organ is quite low. 18% of respondents are not aware of functions of administrative organ. There were not vivid differences among responses of female and male respondents. 67% of respondents know that board is an administrative body, but only 35% consider assembly to be administrative body as well. 23% think that court is administrative body and 5% considers presidents administration to be administrative body as well. Respondents are not aware what is individual administrative act, including those who have received individual administrative act during last 12 month (103 respondents) 16% did not even know that it could be appealed; only 3% knew about appeal procedures. Among those who appealed the act (32 respondents), for 17 of them the procedure was difficult. 4 of them considered to be easy, and 8 though it was neither difficult not easy. The reasons of difficulty were, lack of knowledge of state language, no information how to file the complaint and about the existed pre-made forms. Besides abovementioned lack of information about administrative proceedings, problem related to access to justice is also linked to the situation that for settlement of the dispute people often approach the body that doesnt have competence to solve the case. According to qualitative
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Diagram 24 Chapter: Awareness and rights

research part of the population has to go through longer way and approach many state institutions to solve the issue, as they are not sure which institution they should approach for settling the case. Lack of information and no knowledge of state language is the reason that citizens, especially Azerbaijanian community members usually use other members of their community who know state language and ask for special fee to act as mediators.

Trust toward state institutions According to the research trust of ethnic minorities toward different institutions is higher than average. The trust is higher in Kvemo Kartli and Kakheti, rather than in Samtkhe Javakheti. Trust is higher than average (>3,5 on the scale of 5 the highest) toward judicial bodies ethnic minorities rely on courts and police. Respondents trust police more than courts. If trust level toward court is 3,6 point on 5 point scale, than the indicator for police is 4,18 point. Though the trust toward police is high, residents are afraid of police and call them only at the last stage. There is high reliance toward self governance. Trust toward local bodies and assembly on 5 point scale is 3, 8 and 3, 7. Respondents also give high evaluation to work of self governance institutions. 71% of respondents positively evaluate their activities. Majority thinks that personnel of board and assembly are competent, polite and oriented on problem solving, their work is transparent Though board and assembly performance was positively evaluated, its worth mentioning that highest points were given to self governance in Kakheti region, and lowest in Samtskhe Javakheti. Access to justice One of the criterias for accessibility of justice is the sense of fairness in society. What is the part of society believes that state treats them fairly. According to the results, majority of respondents (91%) consider that Georgian government treats him/her and people like him/her fairly. Only small number (1,4%) thinks that government treats ethnic minorities unduly. Though majority of population thinks that state is fair and court performance was assessed by higher score than average, fifth of the respondents (30%) believe that accessibility of justice is

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easier for ethnic Georgians, state representatives and their close acquaintances (47%). These peoples trust in court is relatively low. 4 Majority of respondents thinks that there is no corruption in courts. Only 0,7% (7 respondent) noted that during last 2 years judges asked for bribe from him/her/his acquaintance. Slightly less than third of the respondents (31%) consider that access to justice is improved during last six month. Mostly Kvemo Kartli respondents referred to improvement of justice (43%), unlike respondents from Samktkhe Javakheti region (19%). Nearly similar numbers of respondents (32%) think that access to justice has not changed, and for 3% situation is changed to worst. 74% of respondents agree that in their community citizens can receive legal assistance. 17% of respondents dont know where to ask for legal assistance, fifth of the respondents (21%) think that this service can be received through private lawyer, 10%- consider NGOs, and 19%- refer to state legal aid service center. In Kvemo Kartli public organizations are not considered to be legal aid provides at all, while in Samtskhe Javakheti fifth of the respondents (21%) refer to them as legal aid providers. A bit more than fifth of all respondents (27%) cant answer the question about the specific legal topics that local people need assistance with. Third of the respondents (34%) believe that these are social topics, like pension, benefits, assistance and etc. Issues like: divorce, immovable property, labor disputes and etc were mentioned as topics for legal assistance <5% respondents. Social cases as topics for assistance were made from respondents from Kvemo Kartli and Kakheti. Majority of respondents (71%), have not even heard about any disputes in their settlement. Among those, who know about disputes, mainly refer to neighbor disputes 40%, land rights disputes 19%, family disputes 23%. According to respondents residents mainly uses court to settle the dispute or try to keep quiet. There is higher number of people who keep quiet about their problems and try to solve them by their own strength in Kvemo Karli and Kakheti. More respondents from Samtkhe Javakheti would advise acquaintances to approach NGOs for legal assistance (6,5%), rather than in Kvemo Kartli (0,9%) and Kakheti (0%). Though the trust result toward courts is quite high, only 4% consider courts to be a body to solve legal issues (Kvemo Kartli 3%, Samtskhe Javakheti 8%, Kakheti 0%).

Table 7. Which organization would they advise to address in case of necessary legal assistance.
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** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

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Legal Aid Service Center Private lawyer NGO Court Local Authority I dont know

Kvemo Samtskhe Kakheti Kartli Javakheti 16.7 18.5 8.7 3.3 9 2.7 0.9 5.6 2.6 8.2 0.8 76.5 57.9 88.7

Evaluation of court performance While assessing different aspects of court performance, respondents were very brief in regards with this institution and gave higher than average points to all criterias on 5 point scale. The higher points were given to different aspects of court performance from respondents residing in Kakheti region, 5 point for nearly all criterias. Lower assessments are given to SamtskheJavakheti courts, though the evaluations go lower than 3 points. Table 8. Court evaluation Criteria All regions together Average score 3.84 3.83 3.93 3.82 3.85 3.94 3.80 3.78 3.89 3.84 3.86 3.83 3.82 3.82 3.87 Kvemo Kartli 3.95 3.96 4.20 3.96 3.95 4.17 3.94 3.95 3.97 3.99 3.98 3.98 3.94 3.91 3.94 Samtskhe Kakheti Javakheti 3.54 3.53 3.45 3.51 3.56 3.52 3.46 3.41 3.72 3.58 3.62 3.55 3.51 3.53 3.63 4.26 4.17 4.27 4.25 4.32 4.33 4.29 4.23 4.21 4.23 4.25 4.28 4.32 4.32 4.33

Court personnel is competent Court personnel is ready to assist Court personnel is polite/ nice to citizens Reliable judges Judges are competent Judges treat citizens with respect and politeness Judges speak clearly Judges are impartial Court hearings are conducted on time Time frame of hearing cases is reasonable Necessary information is provided on duly manner Court decisions are distributed on time Court performance is transparent Court system is reliable Information provided by courts is understandable/clear

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Court decisions are well grounded Court notifications are clear Courts are well organized Information field

3.79 3.85 3.86

3.91 3.92 3.94

3.57 3.59 3.62

4.22 4.42 4.35

More than third of the respondents 37,5% dont watch central television channels at all. In Samtskhe-Javakheti 63,3% doesnt watch central television channels, Kvemo Kartli - 22%, in Kakheti - 12%. Among those who watch, 69,4% watch Rustavi 2, 65% - Imedi TV, GPB - 46,7%.

Diagram 1. Which TV channels watch non Georgian ethnic population of Georgia division according to those who watch central TV channels

20% of respondents listen to radio, 9% reads newspapers and magazines. From listed radio stations Muz Radio and NOR are leaders, as from newspapers Vrastan and Bolnisi. As for the internet websites, 52% of respondents dont use internet, but according to internet users social network and email websites are the most popular.

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Diagram 2. Popular websites division according to information provided by internet users

odnoklassni facebook.co gmail.com mail.ru google.com vk.com youtube.com twitter.com vesti.ru ipn.ge 0% 60.3% 54.6% 16.8% 15.1% 14.6% 5.1% 2.4% 1.4% 1.1% 1.1% 20% 40% 60% 80%

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