After the appointment of Tea Tsulukiani as Georgia’s Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth, large-scale changes and reorganization began in the institutions subordinate to the Ministry. As a result, many employees were released from their positions both directly from the Ministry and from the agencies under the Ministry. The process not only took the form of removing undesirable personnel from the leadership positions, but also demonstrated that the purpose of these decisions is to control and censor the cultural sphere.
Opposition to the minister’s policy first arose at the level of the national museum, among people who were in solidarity with the values of the National Museum of Georgia and signed the protest petition drawn up by the initiative group “For the Museum of Art” – aimed at the preservation of the historical building, unfair personnel policy and lack of public information.
Today, many of the petition’s signatories have been released from both the museum and the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Protection. The manipulative levers at the disposal of the new minister, through which she tries to intimidate the dismissed or demoted employees, so that they refrain from legal disputes, should be emphasized. After engaging in organized resistance by demoted and fired employees, some employees were first transferred to other positions (demoted) and when they appealed the change of position, they were fired from their new positions, mostly on the grounds of reorganization.
GYLA currently represents 12 individuals (across 11 cases) who were negatively affected by the personnel policy changes. This report reviews the facts legal issues surrounding these cases.
