GYLA - Georgian Young Lawyers' Association

The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association is a community of skilled young lawyers dedicated to promoting human rights and the rule of law, increasing public legal awareness, and developing legislation that supports civil society and rule of law. GYLA is a membership-based non-government organization. GYLA members provide legal aid and conduct activities to raise legal awareness across the country. The organization also takes steps to support the professional development of legal practitioners and promote professional ethics among lawyers.

Since then, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association has been firmly safeguarding and serving the same principles and values for which it was established years ago.

At this time:

They provide legal consultation free of charge for up to 50 thousand individuals annually, and represent dozens of individuals before the courts and other administrative bodies to help recover their violated rights.
They address the Constitutional Court of Georgia and the European Court of Human Rights every year, in strategically important cases for the protection of human rights.
They actively cooperate with all three branches of government and support the creation of legislative guarantees for the protection of human rights.
Their nine offices conduct up to 200 meetings annually with the population, for raising their legal awareness.
They have up to 800 members, over 100 staff members and dozens of partnerships with local and international organizations and donors.
They create opportunities for up to 200 students annually, to deepen their knowledge and improve their practical legal skills. Their library serves dozens of readers on a monthly basis.

GYLA works to establish the rule of law and protect human rights in all of its projects and activities, both at the individual and institutional levels. With this approach, over years of work.

GYLA has achieved significant success in human rights protection – both in the domestic courts and at the international level. This is demonstrated by up to three thousand (3,000) successful cases in the various courts of Georgia. Moreover, out of 30 lawsuits submitted to the Constitutional Court, eight (8) have ended successfully. Out of 135 lawsuits submitted to the European Court of Human Rights, eight (8) of these have also ended successfully, while the vast majority remain under consideration.

GYLA for years has been conducting monitoring within various projects. These relate to a number of spheres: criminal; administrative; evaluation of conditions in prisons and revealing violation of inmates’ rights; property rights and protection of the rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). For years, GYLA has been actively working on media issues. We have also implemented a number of anti-corruption projects (for example “The Government of Georgia under the Sun”, “Freedom of Information in Georgia”, “Rehabilitation beyond the Facade”, “Monitoring the Budget Spending”, etc.).

GYLA has observed and monitored elections in the country for over 15 years.

GYLA has implemented three particularly high-profile campaigns: “Right to Life”, “Do Not Torture” and “This Affects You”.