28.03.2008 Marneuli Legal Consultative Center Continues its Activities

MARNEULI CONSULTATIVE CENTER- APLR/OSCE-HCNM/CIDA joint office continues free legal aid to Kvemo Kartli residents and together with free advice offers paid services to business companies acting in the region and to any interested person.

On March 27, this year, the Conference on the achievements of the project – FREE LEGAL CONSULTATIONS AND AWARENESS TO MARNEULI RESIDENTS was held at Marneuli gamgeoba building. The said project is carried out by the Association for Protection of Landowners Rights, with the support of OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities and Canadian International Development Agency. Representatives of local authorities and population, local banks and business companies took part in the Conference.

It was mentioned at the conference that Marneuli Consultative Center carried out important works within the last year. In particular, the Center offered legal advice to 1216 persons, held up to 100 public meetings in the villages of the region and 12 roundtable discussions addressing urgent issues such as perfection of irrigation systems, population registration at civil registries, improvement of services rendered by local offices of public registry etc.; disseminated information booklets in Georgian, Azeri and Russian languages, as well as covered the issues of local communities interests in the Landowner magazine.

The Center was opened in Marneuli in May, 2006 to provide legal consultancy to the local population, inform them on area-specific issues and find the ways for problem resolution. The Center is staffed by qualified lawyers who speak Azeri and thus facilitating communication with locals. Regular office hours are allocated for consultation services when interested individuals as well as organizations and private companies operating in the region can make enquires on their problems. A free-of-charge mobile hotline is available for local communities to report any complaints, problems or violations and solicit feedback and advice.

The Center also offers local population and private companies titling services, civil registration, advocacy at courts and resolution of problematic issues with state and private institutions. Any interested individual or private company can get legal services such as identification of land and property owners/users, procurement and analyses of relevant documentation, submission of application and essential documentation to the public registry, obtaining ownership certificate of real property; advocacy at courts of any instance.

Representatives of local population and chairman of local Sakrebulo thanked the APLR and donor organizations for their efforts and expressed willingness to get legal assistance in the future. The locals stated that they had been able to resolve various problems thanks to Consultative Center.

According to APLR representative the Center plans to provide further legal consultations to local communities and extend its activities in the region. The Center shall also offer to its stakeholders paid services, in particular: 1.Title registration (ownership, sale, lease, hypothecation etc.) 2. Property legalization. 3. Land survey. These services shall be available for any interested person.