Tbilisi. On 22 March 2019, Public Defender of Georgia presented a national study on reproductive and sexual health and rights, which was prepared with the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). At the opening of the event, the Public Defender noted that despite the progressive steps taken by the state, there remain systemic problems in terms of quality and accessibility of services, which lead to unaffordability of services, social barriers and lack of information. All of this has particular impact on the rights situation of ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, women and girls in rural areas; there is no systemic approach to post-delivery services; children do not have complex education or full information about their body or reproductive health, which increases the risk of hazardous behavior. The study was carried out within the framework of the UN Joint Programme for Gender Equality, which is financially supported by the Swedish Government. Read more…  Source: The web-page of organization

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association supports the strike of social workers and demands to launch real reforms in order to ensure decent working conditions for them. ''It is sad reality that over the years there have not been carried out real reforms in the direction of social protection, respectively, the quality and efficiency of work of the Social Service Agency remains a problem for a long period of time'', - is noted in the statement released by GYLA. Read more... Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association has submitted its viewpoints in regard to the ''Code on the Rights of the Child'', initiated by members of the Parliament of Georgia, to the legislative body. ''GYLA welcomes creation of a general legal basis that aims at ensuring legal standards, guaranteed by the ''Convention on the Rights of the Child'''', however, it notes that ''the proposed draft law does not fully respond to those legislative problems, which have been determined by the European Court of Human Rights. That is why there is a need for additional broader discussions and detailed regulation of issues in regard to this subject''. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Kvemo Kartli. "Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center” (EMC), on behalf of a local activist, sues Marneuli City Hall and City Assembly in court due to non-availability of translation resources in Azerbaijani language. "City Assembly and City Hall of Marneuli Municipality do not build translation resources related to releasing public information in the language understandable for minorities and, among them, do not provide enactment of a system that supplies citizens with translation of letters, applications, complaints, as well as responses of administrative bodies, public information and normative acts. In these circumstances, ethnically Azerbaijani citizens, who do not possess knowledge of the state language fluently, have to translate their applications and received responses at their own expense in order to obtain information regarding those basic rights, services and regulations, which ensure their participation in public life”, - is noted in the statement released by EMC. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. GYLA will submit viewpoints regarding a draft Organic Law on "Agricultural Land Ownership” and amendments to relevant legislative acts to the Parliament of Georgia. GYLA considers it important to focus on the following issues contained in a draft Organic Law on "Agricultural Land Ownership” and a draft Law on "Sustainable Management of Target and Agricultural Lands”: a) inheritance of agricultural land by a foreigner and set limits; b) prohibition of use of agricultural land as a security tool; c) change of a partner legal entity of private law, registered in Georgia; d) the right to preferential purchase of agricultural land by the State; e) investment plan. Read more…https://gyla.ge/ge/post/saia-sasoflo-sameurneo-danishnulebis-mitsis-sakutrebis-shesakheb-saqartvelos-parlaments-mosazrebebs-tsarudgens#sthash.3Fqx24IZ.dpbs Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association and Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center consider concerning the case of death of a worker while on duty on the construction on March 14, 2019, at the fourth Nutsubidze plateau in Tbilisi and express condolences to the family of the deceased. "The state is still unable to create such a labor policy, which would facilitate private employers to ensure dignified labor conditions that will not endanger lives and health of those employed”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. A conference on Hate Speech in Election Campaign was held on 12 March 2019 involving representatives of state institutions, civil society organisations, and the international community. The conference was opened by the Head of the Council of Europe Office in Georgia Cristian Urse and the Chairperson of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association Sulkhan Saladze. The event aimed at discussing questions related to negative campaigning and hate speech during elections, with particular emphasis on 2018 Presidential elections. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Adjara. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, on behalf of Irakli Jugeli, addressed the Constitutional Court today and demanded to recognize 2 norms of the Code of Administrative Offenses as unconstitutional. GYLA complains against the ground for detention stipulated by the first paragraph of Article 244 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which allows a representative of law enforcement agency to arrest a person for identification purposes. Besides, GYLA considers unconstitutional different deadlines of detention as set out in Article 247 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. According to the second paragraph of the mentioned article, a person, whose detention period coincides with non-working time, may be arrested and placed in a temporary detention isolator for 48 hours, while in case of detention during working time, detention period may last 12 hours. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. On 5 March 2019, Public Defender Nino Lomjaria presented a special report on the situation of equality in the country. ''At the opening of the event, the Public Defender noted that the enactment of the Law on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination facilitated discussions about the issue of equality and at the same time, it more clearly portrayed the problems faced by vulnerable groups. The Public Defender emphasized the necessity of taking appropriate measures by the state for overcoming widespread stereotypes and misconceptions. In the reporting period that lasted from September 2017 to August 2018, the Public Defender's Office studied 159 cases of alleged discrimination; recommendations were issued in 21 cases and general proposals were developed in 9 cases. The highest rate of addressing the Public Defender in connection with alleged discrimination was again related to the public sector (69%), like the previous year. The Public Defender was most often addressed with regard to alleged cases of discrimination on the ground of sex (16%), followed by discrimination on grounds of political and different opinions (12%), discrimination on the ground of religion (11%), etc. As for the area, most of the applications were related to alleged discrimination in labour relations'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: The Ombudsman’s page in a social network

Tbilisi. Zugdidi Regional Court made a decision to reinstate Manana Sagliani, dismissed from ''Center of Art and Culture of Mestia Municipality'', to her former job. The court abolished a resolution of Director of the center of art and culture of Mestia Municipality regarding dismissal of Manana Sagliani from her job, ordered the defendant to reinstate the plaintiff in the same position in and imposed to compensate forced loss. Interests of Manana Sagliani at court were represented by ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center'' (EMC). Read more... Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) calls on the Penitentiary Department of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia to protect the right to health of Archpriest Giorgi Mamaladze. Besides, taking into consideration his complicated medical condition, to use the mechanism of the sentence enforcement postponement, stipulated by law. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. On the Day 4 of the Winter School of Justice of 2019, the participants were provided an opportunity to discuss and debate the recent case-law of the Constitutional Court of Georgia, as well as other problematic issues of the constitutional review together with the Judge of the Constitutional Court of Georgia, Teimuraz Tugushi. ''The Deputy Head of the Legal Research and Provision Department of the Constitutional Court, Levan Maisuradze provided workshop on constitutional referral institution and participants worked on improvement of their skills while drafting a referral on a hypotetical case. In the second half of the day, Keti Abashidze gave lectures on introduction to the EU Law and talked specifically about non-discrimination law. Issues related to the different aspects of non-discrimination principle and its regulation under various jurisdictions is one of the central topics of the Winter School'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: The page in the social network

Tbilisi. Representatives of the organization visited a psychiatric institution on February 22, 2019 to provide legal assistance to people placed there. Information released by PHR states that according to explanation of a lawyer of the institution, people placed there do not require assistance from human rights defenders as the institution completely ensures solution of their legal problems with its own resources. Read more... Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. On February 26, 2019, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association held a presentation of the report - "Prevention of ill-treatment and response to the occurred facts”. "The report analyzes the cases of ill-treatment that GYLA has identified in 2017-2018. The existing deficiencies in the legislation that essentially hinder the effective response to the facts of ill-treatment cases and their prevention are also reviewed in the report. The report includes analysis of 12 criminal cases ongoing in Tbilisi, Gori and Batumi, in which GYLA got involved in 2017-2018", is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. As a result of legal assistance of the Human Rights Center, 4 plaintiffs out of tens of employees, dismissed from Public Broadcaster, are reinstated to their job via negotiations, on which fact the court ruling has been obtained. ''1 plaintiff has been given cash compensation via negotiations with another party in the amount demanded by him/herself, while on 2 cases the court has made a decision to invalidate the dismissal order and impose payment of a compensation in the amount of 1 year labor remuneration'', - is stated on the website of the organization in a social network. Read more… Source:The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) responds to adoption of the Law on Labor Safety by the Parliament of Georgia. ''EMC positively appraises and welcomes legislative amendments to the ''Law on Labor Safety'', adopted by the Parliament of Georgia on February 19, 2019. However, it considers that this is not sufficient for effective protection of labor rights of those employed and further more efficient steps need to be taken in this direction'', - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more... Source:emc.org.ge

On February 12, 13 and 14, 2019, ''Young Pedagogues’ Union'' held training ''Child care issues''. ''Teachers of partner schools and pre-schools of the organization (Shroma, Laituri, Nagomari, Shemokmedi, Khadjalia, Nigvziani and Nasakirali) as well as the parents attended the training. The teachers and parents acquired knowledge about violence and its forms, as well as focused on the issue on how teacher and parent can identify violent fact and child as victim of violence, also about the procedures to protect the child or react upon the fact of violence'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: The page of the organization in the social network

Tbilisi. Today, on February 13, the Constitutional Court of Georgia begins essential review of a lawsuit of ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center'' (EMC) regarding constitutionality of police raid. A statement in this regard is released by EMC. ''In the submitted lawsuit, EMC argues that the current form of police raid violates constitutional guarantees for free development, inviolability of dignity and protection of privacy of an individual''. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Organizations working on human rights respond to the criminal case of Giorgi Mamaladze. They point out violation of fundamental standards of the right to a fair trial and call on the President of Georgia to grant him a pardon. ''Independence and objectivity of a judiciary system are measured particularly correctly by decisions taken on cases of political interest, it is regrettable that national courts have failed to pass this test of impartiality and compliance with standards of human rights in the case of Archpriest'', - is noted in the joint statement. Read more… Source:The website of the Human Rights Center in a social network

Tbilisi. The Tbilisi City Court did not satisfy a lawsuit of parents of Temirlan Machalikashvili and considered that the State Security Service did not violate presumption of innocence of Temirlan Machalikashvili. ''The decision was announced today, on February 5, in the Tbilisi City Court. Interests of plaintiffs were represented by ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center'' (EMC). In public statements, made at various times regarding a special operation carried out in the Pankisi Gorge on December 26, 2017, the State Security Service indicated criminal connections of Temirlan Machalikashvili in the affirmative manner. While legislation of Georgia assumes a person innocent until accusing court verdict is announced against him/her'', - is stated on the website of the organization in a social network. Read more… Source:The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Center made a presentation of its annual report at the conference hall of Human Rights House Tbilisi. ''The report of the Human Rights Center reviews developments in Georgia in 2018 in a legal context. The purpose of the report is to evaluate quality of response of various governmental agencies to violations of human rights, efficiency of justice and implemented legislative or systemic changes that are supposed to be directed towards introduction of international standards of protection of human rights on a national level'', - is stated on the website of the organization in a social network. Read more… Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) responds to facts of harassment committed by police against members and activists of the community opposing construction of a cascade of hydroelectric power plants in the Pankisi Gorge. The organization calls on the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia to refrain from practicing police control of local residents and arbitrary restriction of freedom of expression. Read more... Source: emc.org.ge