Property rights should be upheld, respected
Wednesday, July 2
Parliament formed a commission last week to draw up constitutional amendments to protect property rights, a good start to assuaging a bad problem.
The attention to personal property rights is both warranted and overdue. Complaints of illegal property seizures were front and center in the opposition’s platform of grievances this spring.
For the past few years, according to reports by the country’s human rights ombudsman and others, there have been scattered cases of property owners pressed into signing away their holdings to the government, or towns demolishing apartment blocks and displacing families without fair notice or good reason.
This is largely an urban issue, and one largely concerning the wealthy. But there is a basic ignominy to any injustice; and, more practically, the state must persuade investors that their property will be safe from arbitrary decisions and political vagaries. That is hard to do when Georgian citizens complain loudly of trampled property rights.
The commission—which will not be looking at past complaints—won’t begin its work until September, and its work cannot be judged until then. Yet its existence is an encouraging sign that the government is not deaf to domestic complaints, and is willing to address them.
When the time comes, the ruling party should use its huge majority in parliament to strengthen the state and institutionalize justice by enshrining firm personal property rights in the constitution—and then respecting them.
The attention to personal property rights is both warranted and overdue. Complaints of illegal property seizures were front and center in the opposition’s platform of grievances this spring.
For the past few years, according to reports by the country’s human rights ombudsman and others, there have been scattered cases of property owners pressed into signing away their holdings to the government, or towns demolishing apartment blocks and displacing families without fair notice or good reason.
This is largely an urban issue, and one largely concerning the wealthy. But there is a basic ignominy to any injustice; and, more practically, the state must persuade investors that their property will be safe from arbitrary decisions and political vagaries. That is hard to do when Georgian citizens complain loudly of trampled property rights.
The commission—which will not be looking at past complaints—won’t begin its work until September, and its work cannot be judged until then. Yet its existence is an encouraging sign that the government is not deaf to domestic complaints, and is willing to address them.
When the time comes, the ruling party should use its huge majority in parliament to strengthen the state and institutionalize justice by enshrining firm personal property rights in the constitution—and then respecting them.