Tbilisi. The ''Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association'' will present a draft of amendments, to be made into the parliamentary rules, to the Permanent Council on Open and Transparent Governance. The amendments are related to the implementation of commitments initiated by the organization into the Open Parliament Georgia Action Plan 2015-2016. The amendments to the rules have been discussed with the Parliamentary Council and the Advisory Board members and their recommendations have been considered during the elaboration process. In full… Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia publishes a blogpost: "A draft law on the Constitutional Court damages interests of constitutional justice and does not correspond to international standards”. ''... It has crucial importance to make sure amendments do not create a sense that the reform, initiated by the government, is conditioned due to dissatisfaction, caused by the content of specific decision of the Constitutional Court and is a kind of a negative reaction of the ruling political force to the activities of the Constitutional Court'' – is stated on the web-page of the organization. In full… Source:www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. We welcome the legislative initiative of the Members of Parliament, Tamar Kordzaia and Tamar Khidasheli, on the definition of sexual harassment and introduction of a relevant sanction in the Administrative Code. ''It is important that this initiative shares the Public Defender’s recommendation and results of the study about the extent of sexual harassment, the covered nature of the problem and the importance of legislative regulation. Unfortunately, sexual harassment is still a spread, but tabooed problem that threatens the well-being of men and women, reduces the quality of work and diminishes the quality of gender equality. Together with the existing attitude in the society, the lack of legislative regulation hampers identification of the problem and appropriate response to it'', is noted in the statement. In full… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. The 2015 parliamentary report notes that the Public Defender had repeatedly addressed the Minister of Corrections with a recommendation to close the penitentiary facility N7 due to its grave living conditions. ''According to the reply received from the Ministry, they cannot make a decision at this point on the complete liquidation of the facility, but it is planned to significantly reduce the number of prisoners in the facility in the near future and to distribute them to other appropriate institutions; it is also planned to completely rehabilitate the facility, to abolish its ground floor and to significantly reduce the limit of prisoners. It should be noted that in February 2016, 19 inmates were transferred from the facility N7 to the facility N6'', is noted in the statement. In full… Source: www.ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association files an appeal at the Constitutional Court against a discriminatory rule for funding Muslims from the state budget. ''The resolution of the government does not oblige the Armenian and Catholic Churches to set up one legal entity to get funding, even though the Armenian and Catholic Churches have the same schism (split) between each other as both the Shias and Sunnis. The Armenian and Catholic Churches can obtain funding without uniting, while the Sunnis and Shias must form a common legal entity of public law or representative council'' – is stated on the web-page of the organization. In full... Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Head of  ''Young Barristers'' set a precedent on a high-profile civil case with JSC ''ProCredit Bank''. ''The Supreme Court of Georgia has already made a decision on the case of an individual released from the Bank based on signs of religious belief among other reasons. For the first time in the history of Georgia, on a practice of labor disputes and a case of dismissal from banking sphere, the Supreme Court of Georgia has pointed out that one of the three reasons for releasing the woman from the Bank has been a decision made on religious grounds'' – is stated on the web-page of the organization. In full... Source:barristers.ge

Tbilisi. Nino Gvenetadze, Chief Justice of Georgia, and David Stonehill, USAID’s Democracy and Governance Office Director, opened the presentation of High Council of Justice monitoring findings On April 25, 2015. Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association and Transparency International - Georgia presented High Council of Justice Monitoring Report #4. The report analyses the legislation and normative base and the activities of the Council on the selection/appointment of judges, transfer of judges, transparency of the work of the Council, disciplinary proceedings against judges, etc. The monitoring revealed the following important findings: The reporting period revealed many deficiencies in the work of the Council – the process of selection, appointment and transfer of judges was not transparent, raised doubts about their objectivity and neutrality; the Council was not as pluralistic as in the previous reporting period; the system of judicial accountability remained ineffective; minimum transparency of the evaluation of probationary judges was not ensured, etc. In full… Source: gyla.ge

Kakheti. On April 22, ''Article 42 of the Constitution'' held a public discussion on "facilitation to elimination of all forms of discrimination in Georgia - current situation and future prospects". ''Main issues of the discussion were: defaults of anti-discrimination legislation and mechanisms; approach of the state to the fight against discrimination'' – is stated on the web-page of the organization in a social network. In full… Source: The web-page of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association responds to the transfer of the case of Ekaterine Mishveladze from the Prosecutor’s Office to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. ''GYLA considers that the transfer of the case of Ekaterine Mishveladze to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for investigation raises doubts about the independence and effectiveness of the investigation from the initial stage'' – is noted in the statement of the organization. In full... Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Public Defender Echoes Recent Media Reports (about Annual Report) ''Recently, purposeful distortion of the assessments and problems depicted in the chapter on religious freedom of the Public Defender's annual report has acquired a systematic nature. In particular, according to media reports, the Public Defender demands ban of school tours to churches, which is not true'', is noted in the statement. In full… Source: www.ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International – Georgia publishes a blogpost: ''Election of the Rector of Georgian Technical University is against the legislation of Georgia''. ''In general, restriction of the term of a university head (rector) by legislation aims at preventing management of a university by one and the same person for an indefinite time, ensuring as the autonomy of a higher education institution, as well as the participation of academic staff, scientific personnel and students in decision-making and implementation control processes. Mentioned purpose of law remains unchanged despite the change of legal form of a university. Accordingly, justification of the fact of election of Archil Prangishvili on the same position for the third consequent term by the change of legal form of the university is against the objectives of the law on "Higher Education'''' – is noted in the statement of the organization. In full… Source:www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The campaign ''Justice Demands'' starts meetings. ''Basic requirement of the campaign is to stop staffing of judiciary corps in a way of an unfair, nontransparent and unconstitutional process and to establish immediately a transparent, fair and reasonable system for appointment of a judge'' – is noted in the joint statement. In full… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. On April 15 and 18, 2015, the Public Defender addressed the Chief Prosecutor to launch investigations into cases of illegal detentions. The Public defender considers that in the mentioned cases the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs violated the requirements of the Constitution and the Administrative Code of Georgia. In full… Source: www.ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. On April 14, 2016, the Constitutional Court of Georgia upheld the Public Defender's lawsuit regarding the compliance of a legislative regulation with the Constitution concerning the so-called "wiretapping". ''The Constitutional Court shared the Public Defender’s position and held that technical possibility of the State Security Service to obtain personal information in real time, to administer it and have direct access to it, contains excessive risks of interference with the person’s right to privacy'', is noted in the statement. In full… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. The campaign ''Justice Demands'' publishes a petition, the recipients of which are the government of Georgia, the authorities of judiciary, the council of justice. ''We, signatories of the petition, appeal to the high council of justice and demand to immediately stop staffing of the judiciary corps in the way of illegal, nontransparent and unconstitutional process''…, the petition says. The petition, called ''Don’t Control Judiciary'', is open to anyone, who agrees with its storyline and would like to join it. It has 4972 signatories by this time. Petition… Source:The web-page of the campaign in a social network

Tbilisi. On April 6-7, 2016, a meeting was held with journalists on the issue of creation of an independent investigation mechanism at the initiative of Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili. The recommendation on the creation of an independent investigative mechanism was prepared by the Public Defender in 2014. However, in spite of its great importance, the recommendation has not been implemented yet. ''The Public Defender reviewed cases of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment committed by law enforcement officers and emphasized the need for and models of an institutionally independent investigation mechanism. He highlighted the shortcomings of the current law in terms of the investigation of similar crimes, as well as the established practice of impunity'', is noted in the statement. In full… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. The Coalition provides an opinion on the process as a result of which the President of Georgia presented several candidates to fill the Supreme Court’s vacant seats. ''We believe that the following recommendations shall be considered in the process of nomination of judicial candidates for the Supreme Court in order to overcome the current crisis in the judicial system and ensure effectiveness of the reforms. Openness and transparency of the selection process for the Supreme Court shall be institutionalized in order to establish a good practice; The process of selection of candidates shall be open and transparent. This will ensure active involvement of the public and discussions on these issues in order to promote democratic values, respect to human rights and ideas of equality in the highest instance of justice system; Under present circumstances, the Parliament of Georgia shall consider the facts that have become public in relation to one of the nominated candidates before making a decision with respect to the candidates for the Supreme Court membership”, is noted in the statement.  In full… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. ''First of all, we would like to note that the Coalition welcomes and supports this significant reform. In the event of its successful and adequate completion, it will be one of the most successful and critical reforms carried out in recent years. By implementing it Georgia will finally reject the outdated Soviet Code of Administrative Violations, the existence of which, in this form, not only grossly violates human rights and freedoms but also represents a normative act inconsistent with the current Georgian legal framework. The flaws of the Code of Administrative Violations, and, in particular, inadequate procedural guarantees and imperfect fulfillment of the right to fair trial, were repeatedly addressed both at the national and international levels. That is why we believe that the steps taken by the state for elaboration of the legislation in this area are meaningful and positive, and hope that the current reform will be soon completed successfully'', is noted in the statement. In full… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association publishes a blogpost of Nona Qurdovanidze: ''How to select a chancellor''. ''After the fact that a few days ago the events developed at the Tbilisi State University (TSU) were followed by a conclusion of the Internal Audit Department of the Ministry of Education and Science, to which the TSU Academic Council responded with a conclusion too, I decided to find out myself - how to select a chancellor'' – is stated on the web-page of the organization. In full… Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association publishes an article: ''Women victims of domestic violence that again have been put in danger by a court''. ''The monitoring of criminal trial processes (the monitoring was conducted from February 2015 through October 2015) showed that courts sometimes have inadequate approach to the cases of domestic violence and the alleged perpetrators are punished by them with very light sanctions'' – is stated on the web-page of the organization. In full… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The organizations, members of the Partnership of ''Free Choice'', held a press conference at the Prime Time Press Club. The topic of the press conference was planned legislative changes and access to information during the election period. ''The Parliament has already passed amendments to the Law on Broadcasting, which states that: Authorized licensed television stations are obliged to broadcast programs in the state language only. In case of final approval of the mentioned change, informing ethnic minorities, in particular, will become problematic'' – is noted in the joint statement. In full… Source:The web-page of the organization in a social network