Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia responds to imposition of an obligation of non-disclosure on the defense party in the case of murder of Giorgi Shakarashvili. The Public Defender considers that unjustified imposition of an obligation of non-disclosure on the defense party in a given situation may entail violation of the right to equality of the parties. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Training for Trainers with participation of common courts judges was hold by USAID.  Training was led by international and Georgian experts and its topics were - enhancing justice through gender equality, eliminating sexual harassment in Georgian judiciary.  Read more…  Source: The page in the social network

Tbilisi. The Project is pleased to present a comprehensive study prepared by its senior experts, Eka Lomtatitdze on duty of the High Council of Justice to reason its decisions.  The purpose of the study of Georgian legislation and relevant case law is to identify the acts of the HCOJ (as a collegial body), in respect of which the reasoning is required. The relevant practice of the Constitutional Court and the Qualification Chamber of the Supreme Court is also examined. Study  Read more…  Source: The page in the social network

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) responds to the fact of dismissal of employees from Adjara Public Broadcaster and considers that their dismissal is one more obvious example of persecution of employees having critical attitude towards Director and the management of Public Broadcaster.  “Based on the initial legal evaluation, we consider that the decision of Director of the broadcaster is a legally unjustifiable one, which, in turn, clearly shows the approach of the management of the broadcaster to neutralize critically minded journalists of the broadcaster by all possible means and apply the most tough sanction like dismissal to punish them exemplarily”, - is noted in the statement released by EMC.  Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Part of civil society organizations releases a statement in regard to a verdict of guilty handed down against Giorgi Rurua by the Tbilisi City Court. “The ongoing criminal case against Giorgi Rurua attracted attention of media, public and political spectrum since the day of his detention. In parallel with the court proceeding, and especially during the last period of time, critical statements were made by representatives of partner states of Georgia more frequently. In these statements, directly or indirectly, the ongoing investigation against Giorgi Rurua has been associated with political motives of the Government. Taking this into account, it should be noted that one of the conditions of the March 8 agreement was to not use justice for political purposes, part of which was also the case of Giorgi Rurua”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. EMC published an infographic - Implementation of the Judicial Strategy and the Action Plan.  “Based on the requirements set forth in the EU-Georgia Association Agenda, on May 29, 2017, after nearly a year of work, the High Council of Justice of Georgia approved the 2017- 2021 Judicial Strategy and its Implementation Action Plan for 2017-2018. Both monitoring process shows that the High Council of Justice does not pay sufficient attention to thorough implementation of the Strategy and the Action Plan and often concrete activities are only formally fulfilled, while its substantive mission – qualitative improvement of administration of justice, remains unattended by agencies responsible for implementation of the Action Plan”, - is told in the information the EMC published.  Read more  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. On July 30, 2020, the Constitutional Court of Georgia rejected the constitutional claims of the Public Defender of Georgia, which concerned the rule on the selection of Supreme Court judicial candidates by the High Council of Justice for the submission to the Parliament of Georgia.  “It is extremely alarming that the Constitutional Court did not consider our constitutional claim and did not repeal the norm that allows incompetent and dishonest judges to be nominated as judicial candidates of the Supreme Court to the Parliament of Georgia against the constitutional requirements”, - the Public Defender said, - “The 30 July decision of the Constitutional Court harms the most important principles of transparency of justice and trust towards the judiciary, which are directly related to the protection of fundamental rights in Georgia”.  Read more Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. “Rights Georgia”, with the support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), has launched a new project that serves to ensure legal protection and empowerment of foreign migrants living in Georgia. Within the framework of the project, “Rights Georgia” is going to study gaps, existing in foreign migrants rights related legislation and services, and prepare recommendations to eliminate them; provide free legal consultancy to migrants and represent them at court, as well as take care of raising their legal awareness. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

The European Court of Human Rights has received and assigned a case number to the application prepared by the Human Rights Center.  The Human Rights Center applied to the ECtHR regarding the violations of Article 6.3 and Article 13 of the Convention. A principle was violated vis-a-vis the applicant according to which with a purpose of safety of a person, the person shall be notified about the reasons and status he/she is summoned to the investigation bodies in order he/she could envisage the legal consequences of non-appearance.  Read more  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes a viewpoint of Ekaterine Skhiladze – “Father and mother fight with daggers: Impact of the pandemic on violence against women and domestic violence”. “In Georgia, in the circumstances of the new coronavirus pandemic, challenges of systemic character, existing in the field of prevention of violence against women and domestic violence, as well as protection and assistance of victims, have further aggravated. Complicated economic situation, loss of jobs, closure of child care facilities, restriction of traffic have hit women the most of all. The caregiving burden of women in families has increased, their economic situation has deteriorated, and risks of domestic violence due to longer stays with abusers have increased”, - is stated in the publication. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. On July 22, 2020, GYLA submitted its written opinions to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in regard to fulfillment of so called “Cases of Identoba Group” related commitments, made by the Government of Georgia in the form of general measures. In the submitted document, along with relevant recommendations, GYLA presented a detailed analysis of problems, existing in this regard, to the Committee of Ministers. According to information published by GYLA, implementation of these recommendations by the state is important for proper and effective execution of cases of Identoba Group, as it ensures both restoration of violated rights of victims, in particular, as well as justice, and improvement of situation in regard to rights of the LGBT+ community and Jehovah’s Witnesses, living in Georgia, in general. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

The European Commission and Europol launches new project to strength the capacity of Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova & Ukraine to fight organised crime more effectively. The project will contribute to reducing crime and creating a safer living space for citizens in the region. Read more  Source: The page in the social network

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) responds to violent conflicts occurred during the last period of time and calls on the Ministry of Internal Affairs to carry out systemic reforms in a timely manner. According to the appraisal of the organization, “changes, made in recent years, have not become the basis for establishment of a truly depoliticized, accountable and human rights-oriented law enforcement system. There is still a feeling in the society that there are dangers of influencing law enforcement agencies, risks of biased investigation, impunity and expectations of low accountability of the law enforcement system to the public”. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. According to an information of the UN Women Georgia, the Parliament of Georgia adopted a package of amendments to the Law of Georgia on Elimination of Domestic Violence, Protection and Support of Victims of Domestic Violence and other accompanying laws. “According to the changes, it will be possible to establish a GPS electronic monitoring system to track high-risk DV offenders. The technology provides an early warning system that enables law enforcement to intervene before a crime is committed”. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) presented Report N14 on monitoring of criminal proceedings. “The report serves to identify practical and legislative gaps, as well as positive trends, through attending criminal proceedings and analyzing revealed cases. It contains criminal proceedings related matters within the period from March 2019 to February 2020, that is when GYLA carried out monitoring of 2744 court hearings. Besides, it reflects key trends from the beginning of monitoring to date”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. On July 7, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) presented the High Council of Justice monitoring report N8 (for 2019).  "The document focuses on such issues as:  Nomination of Supreme Court judges;  Appointment of judges in the first and second instances;  Chairpersons of courts;  The report contains recommendations, however, according to the opinion of GYLA, implementation of these recommendations can be successful only in the circumstance if the “clan” at the council can no longer control a decision-making process”.  Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) responds to a strike announced by social agents. The organization considers it alarming that the Ministry of Health, as an agency responsible for protection of labor rights and promotion of social dialogue in the country, refuses to create basic working conditions for its employees and fails to ensure a fair and equal environment for negotiations. EMC calls on the Ministry of Health to meet fair demands of social agents. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The undersigned organizations would like to respond to the statement of H.E. Hubert Knirsch, the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Georgia, posted on the embassy’s official Facebook page on June 25. The statement was in response to the Georgian NGOs’ critical assessment of Ms. Sopio Kiladze’s nomination for the membership to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Ms. Kiladze is the member of the Parliament of Georgia. We believe that the state-nominated candidate in Georgia vastly lacks personal and professional integrity and is notorious for her openly confrontational attitude to the civil society that is critical of her public statements and work. There have been myriad of well-documented instances of Ms. Kiladze’s verbal abuse of human rights defenders and activists, homophobic and discriminatory public statements, public display of selective approaches to human rights protection, particularly with regard to the LGBTQI community and children. This has been the common practice of the candidate to such an extent that the civil society had to resort to the various forms of open protest on several occasions[i]. Various international and local organizations and the media have reported these facts. We would, therefore, like to underline that the statement made by the NGOs is not an attack of a personal nature, but the candid assessment of the facts that disqualify the nominated candidate from taking the CRC membership. It is not only desirable, but also the duty of the civil society organizations to call out such a lack of integrity, selective application of human rights by the candidate and disregard of the procedures by the nominating state. Read more… Source: phrgeorgia.wordpress.com

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Center publishes a document on legal analysis of criminal cases related to June 20-21 developments. “The purpose of the document, is to make legal evaluation of criminal prosecution facts and criminal cases against various people, initiated after developments of June 20-21 last year, based on international practice and taking into account Georgian specifics. Read more… Source: humanrights.ge

Tbilisi. According to a survey ordered by Transparency International Georgia, a public opinion inquiry revealed that population is aware of general problems existing in the justice system and, at the same time, has a proper perception of systemic shortcomings. “47% of society consider that there is an influential group (clan) within the judiciary system, while 84% of these people believe that this group is supported by current members of the Government”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes material: Ensuring public engagement in police activities. The organization considers that “for a democratic country it is important to ensure public engagement in the process of enhancement of police supervision and, based on a good practice, supports establishment of public engagement councils in Georgia as an independent external mechanism. Above councils will be allowed to review complaints, submitted against the police, along with other authorities”. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Coalition for Euro-Atlantic Georgia member organizations respond to the intention of possible assassination of Giorgi Gabunia, a journalist, and consider it as a Russian plan to destabilize Georgia. “In its reports, the State Security Service also emphasizes a threat posed by the Russian soft power. On this background, taking a journalist as a possible target can be considered as an action directed against security of the country and towards possible destabilization. We, the signatory organizations condemn actions taken by representatives of Russian authorities and those under their control against sovereignty of Georgia and its citizens. We call on the Government of Georgia to conduct an investigation transparently, ensure engagement of experts from friendly countries in it and provide public with complete information regarding the planned crime”, - is noted in the joint statement. Read more… Source: transparency.ge