Georgian Women’s Movement launches a lengthy campaign on the case of a 14-year-old dead girl #NinisGamo (DueToNini) Read more…

Tbilisi. Civil society organizations express their concern regarding a hardest case of suicide of a 14-year-old girl in Kobuleti Municipality and call on state agencies to investigate the incident in a timely manner. “Within the framework of the investigation, there should be examined responsibilities of all possible bodies/officials that had an obligation to support the victim as well as to carry out an investigation in the crime committed against her.  This case demonstrates hardest social practices of violence against women as well as signs of criminal indifference and inefficiency of police and social institutions. Despite numerous tragic cases of juvenile suicide, the state has not shown its willingness to make radical changes in existing policies, it pays insufficient attention to development and implementation of a suicide prevention strategy in general. The system remains extremely indifferent in terms of elaboration of an adolescent care policy as well as social and psychological support mechanisms”, - is noted in the joint statement. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Georgia Fair Labor Platform responds to the fact of non-payment of a deserved labor remuneration to twelve workers, employed during construction of a hotel in Gonio, considering it as theft of their salaries committed by the company “Labau Gonio” LLC. “Workers state that despite completing work, the employer company still does not pay their deserved salaries. Current salary indebtedness in favor of employees is about GEL 27 000.  We call on the Labor Inspection Office to start systematic work to eliminate an unlawful practice of misappropriation of labor remuneration of workers (stolen wages) by employers in Georgia and, within the framework of the new mandate, while inspecting labor rights of employees at their work places, set as one of the priority areas identification and legal responsibility of those employers who have applied the practice of stolen wages as a norm”, - is noted in the joint statement. Read more… Source:gyla.ge

Ajara. “Protect Batumi Boulevard” society protests against a plan of “Ambassador Batumi” Ltd to build a 16-story hotel on the old boulevard and publishes a manifesto for signatures: “Stop destruction of Batumi Boulevard”.  “Despite the fact that the 16-story hotel is completely inappropriate for the boulevard and directly contradicts legislation, as well as threatens and reduces the cultural and historical value of it, the project has already been approved by the Adjara Cultural Heritage Protection Council while the head of the Adjara Cultural Heritage Protection Agency intends to give his approval on its implementation.  It is our duty to stand up against this disorder and protect Batumi Boulevard from destruction. Following the above, we demand:  1. Stop construction of the 16-story hotel on the territory of Batumi Boulevard immediately and revoke an issued permit.  2. Suspend the issuance of a permit for any construction on the territory of the boulevard until a development plan of Batumi Boulevard is approved”, - is stated in the text of the manifesto.  At this stage, the mentioned manifesto is signed by about 3500 people.  Read more…  Source: manifest.ge

Tbilisi. In 2019, following the initiative of the members of the Gender Equality Council of the Parliament of Georgia, and with the support of USAID-PROLoG, the Government passed legislative amendments to regulate sexual harassment in the workplace and public spaces.  According to the amendments, the employer became obliged to take measures for equal treatment of all employees, as well as to include provisions on the prohibition of discrimination in internal regulations, and to ensure their fulfillment.  Read more…   Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. The Public Defender makes a statement on the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights for Georgia in the case of Georgia v. Russia (II).  “The above ruling of the European Court of Human Rights is of great legal and historic importance for Georgia. By this decision, the Court confirmed that the Russian Federation had exercised “effective control” over the territories of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and the buffer zone from 12 August to 10 October 2008. After this period, Russia's strong presence on the territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as well as the South Ossetian and Abkhazian de facto authorities’ dependence on and subordination to the Russian Federation, confirms that the Russian Federation continues to have "effective control" over these territories. At the same time, based on the court ruling, the Russian Federation has a legal obligation to ensure the safe return of internally displaced persons to their homes”, - Is mentioned in the statement.  Read more…   Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers” Association prepared a document – “Strategic litigation against the construction of large hydropower projects”.  “Large hydropower projects especially affect local population, change their living conditions as well as have an obvious and inevitable impact on the environment. “Analysis of construction projects shows that the process of issuing permits by the state is carried out with improper involvement of local residents, procedural and substantive shortcomings, which causes fair protests of the population”, - is stated in the document.  Read more…  Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. “Rights Georgia” addresses the Government of Georgia and demands to stop the extradition of a citizen of Georgia from Italy to Russia. “Rights Georgia” appeals to relevant authorities of Georgia to take effective steps in order to stop the extradition of Boris Tsiklauri, a citizen of Georgia detained in Italy, to the Russian Federation and return him to his homeland”, - is noted in the statement, - “Rights Georgia” calls on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia to take effective and timely steps to stop the extradition of Tsiklauri; the Embassy of Georgia in Italy - to provide support to the Tsiklauri family in the process of obtaining available legal assistance. “Rights Georgia” expresses its readiness to represent interests of Tsiklauri before the European Court of Human Rights once domestic legal mechanisms in Italy are exhausted”. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

The EU Spokesperson makes a statement on the judgement of the European Court of Human Rights. “The ruling clearly concludes that after 12 August 2008 the Russian Federation, exercising effective control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, violated several provisions of the European Convention of Human Rights”, - is mentioned in the statement, - “Achieving justice and accountability is an important part of conflict resolution and the EU calls upon the Russian Federation to ensure the proper follow-up of the ruling. The European Union is fully committed to supporting conflict resolution, which also requires efforts to address the legacy of past conflicts”. Read more…  Source: eeas.europa.eu

Tbilisi. U.S. Embassy in Georgia published a statement on Judgement of the European Court of Human Rights. “In the state-to-state case of Georgia v. Russia on the 2008 Russia-Georgia War, the Court ruled clearly in favor of Georgia and found Russia responsible for violating multiple articles of the European Convention of Human Rights, including by detaining and torturing individuals, and denying Georgian citizens the right to return to their homes“, - is mentioned in the statement, - “The Court’s ruling adds further weight to the international community’s demand that Russia cease its blatant violations of Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Russia's attempts to control and exploit the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia through borderization, arbitrary detentions, restrictions of movement across the administrative boundary lines, and establishment of socio-economic and military "agreements” between Russia and the two Georgian regions are particularly concerning and unacceptable”. Read more…  Source: The page in the social network

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center publish an overview of the January 21 decision of the European Court of Human Rights related to the August 2008 war. “On January 21, the European Court of Human Rights published a historic decision on the case of Georgia v. The Russian Federation, which contains an appraisal of issues related to the responsibility of the Russian Federation for practices of breach of human rights during and after the August 2008 war. In regard to this case, the European Court of Human Rights discussed the legal liability of the Russian Federation within the occupied territories for the first time and assumed that Russia has an actual control there due to the deployment of Russian military troops in these territories, political, military, humanitarian support to de facto authorities and agreements signed with them as well as other assistance practices. Therefore, the responsibility for facts of violation of rights in these regions falls within the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. In this case, the European Court found that the Russian Federation breached a number of rights, including those to the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment, life, the prohibition of unlawful detention, privacy, movement, and property”. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association explains a decision made by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights on January 21, 2021, in regard to violations committed by the Russian Federation during the August 2008 war. The explanation covers all Articles, which Georgia was arguing with Russia about, and the consequences that the Strasbourg decision entailed. In the submitted complaint Georgia was affirming that Russia, applying it as an administrative practice, facilitated/allowed its armed forces and separatist groups under their control to carry out chaotic and disproportionate attacks on civilians and their property. Overall, the complaint concerned the violation of 8 Articles of the European Convention. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

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. Human Rights Center evaluates activities of a new department of the Prosecutor’s Office . The Human Rights Center has published an analytical document: “Vague perspectives on restoring justice – Evaluation of activities of a department on the investigation of the crime committed in the process of legal proceeding at the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia”. The document of the Human Rights Center contains a review of cases of former political prisoners and other affected, which are part of case management of the organization and on which the new department of the Prosecutor’s Office, in turn, has been working for years: so-called Kintsvisi case, the case of Vakhtang Maisaia, the case of Davit Adeishvili and others. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

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. Transparency International Georgia publishes the research report on Forms of Narrow Specialisations in Georgian Common Court System.  „Legal disputes in Tbilisi City Court and Tbilisi Court of Appeals are narrowly specialised in all spheres. According to the official explanation, narrow specializations help judges in time management and case administration. However, unfortunately, in many cases, specialization is created without justification. Furthermore creating a specialization, among other problems, increases the risk of manipulating the distribution of cases“. Read more…  Source: transparency.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. On December 11, the Constitutional Court of Georgia satisfied a lawsuit of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association in regard to the case – “Giorgi Gotsiridze v. the Parliament of Georgia”. “The subject matter of the dispute in the case was the normative content of the first paragraph of Article 1502 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which precluded possibility of temporary placement of posters, slogans, banners by the owner or with the consent of the owner for a short period of time within the framework of a spontaneous action at those sites that are not allocated for such a purpose”. Read more…  Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary responds to a draft decree, published on the website of the High Council of Justice on December 1, 2020, which is supposed to regulate the process of selection of Supreme Court judges in the Council. Organizations consider that the proposed rule will not formally ensure carrying out of an open and transparent process, besides, it will significantly restrict members of the Council from getting actively engaged in an interview process and posing questions to a candidate at their own discretion.  “We consider that all regulatory modifications in the judiciary system are superficial and can not qualitatively change the situation existing in the system”. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Coalition for International Criminal Court welcomes a decision of the Directorate of the Trust Fund for Victims at The Hague Court to start implementation of its support mandate to assist victims of the August 2008 war in Georgia. “According to information released by the Trust Fund, the program is designed for those affected by the 2008 war who live in IDP settlements and on both sides of the border line. The program envisages assistance of a number of types, including medical treatment, psychological rehabilitation and material support to improve living conditions. At this stage, this program will be implemented during 3 years. As the Trust Fund clarifies, additional detailed information about the program will be published after further consultations with the Government of Georgia, civil society and victims of the August war”, - is stated on the website of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association. Read more… Source: gyla.ge