Tbilisi. Civil society organizations released a statement in regard to the briefing of the Public Defender. “Civil society organizations express their support to the Public Defender and call on relevant state agencies to investigate the existence of a criminal subculture at penitentiary institutions and ensure the security of convicts. Besides, to guarantee safe and adequate working conditions for staff of the Public Defender at penitentiary institutions”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Public Defender makes a special statement on the situation in penitentiary establishments.  “In 2020, the Public Defender of Georgia published a special report, in which we talked about the fact that the management model of semi-open establishments was based on an informal hierarchy of prisoners, where the so-called "prison watchers" provide fictitious order, which aims to silence prisoners and prevent them from talking about their problems”, - is mentioned in the statement, - “The publication of this report was followed by public attacks on the Public Defender and illegal actions by the Minister of Justice and the Penitentiary Service, as a result of which, it has become not only difficult but also dangerous for the representatives of the Public Defender's Office to carry out visits and monitoring at the penitentiary establishments”.  Read more…   Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. Part of civil society organizations responds to developments that occurred in the village of Buknari and calls on the Government to start fundamental reforms in the field of religious freedom. “It is important to state that constructiveness of local Christian and Muslim communities and support provided by state agencies allowed the goal of de-escalation of the conflict and reconciliation in the village of Buknari to be achieved. However, we consider that it is essential to urge government agencies to study systemic legal, political, and social causes of such religious persecution, harassment, conflict, and alienation practice, and respond to it with positive intervention and reforms at legislative and institutional, as well as macro and micro social levels”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Public Defender’s Council of Religions published a statement about the latest developments in Georgia. “We, members of the Council of Religions of the Public Defender of Georgia, express our concern over the latest developments in Georgia. Insult and discrimination on religious grounds against people or religious communities, as well as manifestations of persecution, are disturbing”, - is mentioned in the statement, - “We, the religious organizations and members of the Council of Religions call on the authorities to Completely eliminating the offense committed on religious grounds in the village of Buknari; Unconditionally ensure the right of every person to have a place of worship, to pray in his/her temple or mosque and to follow religious rules, and ensure the safety of participation in religious life; Have a clear, unambiguous, anti-discrimination and state approach to xenophobia, hate speech and manifestations of anti-Semitism, try to establish the culture of tolerance”. Read more…  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. Civil society organizations released a special statement on the restriction of freedom of religion and a discriminatory state policy. “We, organizations representing the social platform “No to Phobia!” and the “Coalition for Equality”, consider that in recent months the situation in terms of protection of freedom of religion and belief has deteriorated sharply in Georgia. The state breaches principles of secularism and equality, violates rights of non-dominant religious groups and demonstrates unequal treatment of people of different religious faiths”, - is noted in the statement, - “in this regard, religious intolerance and violation of equality, shown against Muslim citizens in the village of Buknari in Chokhatauri Municipality, as well as a discriminatory policy of authorities, applied during the celebration of holidays by religious associations in pandemic conditions, and ignorance of anti-Semitic rhetoric, demonstrated by high hierarchs of the Orthodox Church during last period of time, are particularly alarming”. Read more… Source: osgf.ge

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) responds to the religious controversy, occurred in the village of Buknari, and calls on the state to de-escalate the conflict and to take effective steps aiming at ensuring unwavering protection of human rights.   “The analysis of these conflicts shows that the state did not provide a proper legal response to any of the cases, which fact, in general, resulted in encouraging impunity and turning it into a rule. Furthermore, in some cases, police representatives themselves were directly involved in large-scale violent actions organized against local Muslim communities”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia is responding to the events developed around the preaching of Ioane Gamrekeli, Metropolitan of Kutaisi and Gaenati Diocese of the Georgian Orthodox Church, and Ilia Karkadze, Deacon of the Kutaisi-Gaenati Diocese, which creates the risk of strengthening anti-Semitism in the country. According to the Public Defender, the spread of anti-Semitic views in the country threatens the equality of the ethnic Jewish people and, at the same time, shows that one of the most horrible crimes in the history of mankind - the Holocaust and its preconditions - have not been properly understood. Any manifestation of anti-Semitism is dangerous for every citizen, as well as for society as a whole. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia has addressed the Government of Georgia with a recommendation to eliminate discrimination against persons with disabilities who have reached the retirement age. “According to the recommendation, the part of the Government’s Decree (No 279) on Social Package, which prohibits the simultaneous enjoyment of a disability social package and an age pension and allows only one of them, is discriminatory. In view of all the above, the Public Defender of Georgia established direct discrimination on the ground of disability and called on the Prime Minister of Georgia to ensure that reaching the retirement age by a person with disabilities does not always exclude the possibility of receiving the social package and the -age pension at the same time”. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. On December 21, 2020, the Public Defender of Georgia established indirect discrimination on the ground of sex, as a female victim of sexual violence had been twice examined by male experts at the Western Georgia Regional Forensics Department of Samkharauli Forensics Bureau due to absence of female experts. The applicant's interests were represented in the Public Defender's Office by the Women's Initiatives Supportive Group (WISG). “According to the Public Defender, even indirectly forcing a victim of sexual violence to be examined by an expert of the opposite sex is a gender-insensitive approach and it should be borne in mind that the above would not be desirable for most of the women who have experienced sexual violence. The applicant referred to the traumatic experience in her written explanations, highlighting her grave emotional state. Based on the above, the Public Defender addressed Levan Samkharauli Forensics Bureau (LEPL) with a recommendation to employ female experts in the Western Georgia Regional Forensics Department; take into account the different needs of persons to be examined in the future,” is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. “Covid 19: Civil Society Resilience and Sustainability” is a project funded by the European Union and Implemented by ERIM (formerly IREX Europe) and Human Rights House Tbilisi in Georgia. Within the project, Rights Georgia's lawyers provided free legal advice to more than 100 beneficiaries, as well as took legal actions to protect their interests in the police, in the courts, and the other administrative authorities. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. According to information that the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) releases, in its decision of December 25 related to the case – “Giorgi Keburia v. the Parliament of Georgia”, the Constitutional Court has taken positions of the plaintiff into consideration in the majority of cases and declared unconstitutional those norms of the Criminal Procedure Code, which allow to pass a verdict of guilty on the basis of evidences obtained through operative information only. The Constitutional Court also defined that while assessing lawfulness of a search, performed due to urgent necessity, court has to take into account only circumstances prevailing at the time of the search and does not have to pay attention to the outcome of the search. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) submitted comments concerning a bill on amnesty, initiated by Mikheil Sarjveladze, a member of the Parliament of Georgia, to the Committees on Human Rights and Legal Affairs. “In the circumstances of a strict drug policy over the years, the act of amnesty will have a positive impact on rehabilitation/re-socialization of people convicted of drug crimes. However, it is important to get the parliament start working on systemic changes in the field of drug policy in time, as well as arrange norms stipulated by an article on drug crimes of the Criminal Code”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) publishes a report on a study: Forced marriage - legislation and practice. “The study has revealed that in Georgia, victims of forced marriage are women. The problem is especially acute in the Kvemo Kartli region. This is where investigations into forced marriage related issues are most frequently launched. By introducing a special norm on forced marriage into the Criminal Code and qualifying it as a criminal offence, the requirement of the Istanbul Convention has been met. However, conducting preventive activities related to this issue, carrying out effective awareness-raising works within society and providing result-oriented response to already occurred facts remain to be problematic”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Gender Informational Portal publishes an article by Lela Khomeriki: Modern technology-facilitated gender-based violence - a new form of violence against women and domestic violence. “Women living at risk of violence appeared isolated in the same space with an abuser. During the pandemic, like in other countries, the scale of domestic violence increased in Georgia too. Modern technologies offer new ways of prevention of gender-based violence and response to it. However, at the same time, there has emerged a new problem - use of technologies by abusers to keep victims under surveillance and control. This type of gender-based violence is so prevalent that today, technology-facilitated gender-based violence is considered as one of the forms of abuse along with forms of physical, economic or sexual violence”, - is stated in the article. Read more… Source: ginsc.net

Tbilisi. The present report provides results of monitoring carried out by the Gender Department of the Public Defender's Office in all state shelters and crisis centers operating in Georgia. In particular, Gender Department of the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia, with the support of the UN Women, carried out monitoring of all state shelters and crisis centers in Georgia for the victims of domestic violence and trafficking in 2019. The monitoring team payed visits to the shelters of Batumi, Kutaisi, Gori and Signagi, as well as the crisis centers of Tbilisi, Gori, Kutaisi, Ozurgeti and Marneuli. Additionally, the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia monitored all state shelters and crisis centers operating in Georgia in 2020 in order to check the shortcomings identified during the monitoring in 2019 and implementation of the issued recommendations. The present report reflects the problems identified as a result of the monitoring. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. UN Women has launched a new online campaign: Indifference virus kills. “Within the framework of the online campaign and at the initiative of the UN Women, 6 audio plays have been created, authors of which are Georgian writers Nestan Nene Kvinikadze and Lasha Bugadze. In the plays, various forms of violence against women and domestic violence are presented through scenes and situations as close to reality as possible”. Read more… Source: georgia.unwomen.org

Tbilisi. EMC believes that the Short-term and long-term effects of the second wave of anti-crisis programs raise questions. According to the opinion at the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC), coverage of new anti-crisis programs and their long-term impact, including how new credit commitments are going to be distributed to future expenditures of the budget, raise a lot of questions. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes a document in an easy-to-read format – “Rights of patients placed in a psychiatric institution”. “The document will enable people with disabilities (especially those with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities), their family members and the wider public to receive information on such issues as voluntary and involuntary psychiatric care, rights of people placed in a psychiatric institution and means of their protection”. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. As the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) clarifies, the Constitutional Court has satisfied the constitutional lawsuit of Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, the plaintiff, and declared unconstitutional the norm, which restricted a prosecutor to get copies of criminal case materials for a complainant. “Interests of the plaintiff in this case were defended by GYLA and Amiran Giguashvili, a lawyer. Prior to making this decision, the complainant could get familiarized with case materials at the Prosecutor’s Office or an investigative body under the supervision of a relevant prosecutor or investigator”. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. EMC presents a description and evaluation of basic problems in homelessness policy. The subject issue has been reviewed on the national and Tbilisi Municipality examples.  “Despite the severity of the problem of homelessness, the state has not yet developed a national housing policy - a strategy and action plan that on the basis of research and statistic data would formulate a preventive and responsive homelessness policy”.  Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) critically appraises an action of the Government to demand lists of clergy and parishioners from non-dominant religious organizations. As EMC considers, with this decision, the state actually forces people to reveal their religious affiliation. “Besides, the state will obtain access to the number of clergy and parishioners, as well as to their places of living. In the circumstances when the trust of religious organizations and communities in the State Agency for Religious Issues is very low and it is considered as an agency connected with security services, it is problematic that the Government attempts to use again control techniques and methods to communicate with religious organizations and interfere in their autonomy”. Read more… Source:emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia welcomes the adoption of Technical Regulations for National Accessibility Standards by the Government of Georgia on December 4, 2020. “It is important that the document is based on universal design principles and defines technical criteria of accessibility of buildings, land and other elements. In addition, the needs of persons with various disabilities are taken into account. The Public Defender continues to monitor issues related to accessibility, as well as the oversight of the introduction and practical implementation of the national accessibility standard”. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge