Tbilisi. The Public Defender makes a statement about the World Down Syndrome Day. "The message of the World Down Syndrome Day 2019 is "Leave no one behind", which implies equal opportunities for all people with Down syndrome in the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, their right to live in an equal environment, enjoy continuous personal development, equal opportunities for education, healthcare, working and living environment, and engagement in public life”, - Public Defender mentions, - "Providing the above-mentioned opportunities for people with Down syndrome remains a problem in Georgia. Even through certain steps have been taken, the absence of services tailored to these people’s individual needs, promotion of their personal development, deficiencies in the realization of their fundamental human rights and freedoms ramain to be problematic in the country”. Read more…  Source: The web-page of the organizations

Tbilisi. ''Coalition for Equality'' critically appraises a legislative initiative of Irakli Sesiashvili, Chairman of the Defense and Security Committee of the Parliament of Georgia. According to the appraisal of the Coalition, the initiative entails obvious deterioration of legislation in the field of freedom of religion and deprivation of the right to postponement of a mandatory military service of clergymen of all other religions, except those of the Orthodox Church. Read more... Source:gyla.ge

The web portal www.csogeorgia.org releases a weekly newsletter of grants competition, contests, vacancies, fellowships and tenders for civil society organizations and for any interested person. Newsletter... 

Chairwoman of the Georgian Farmer's Association Nino Zambakhidze attended the Women's Global Development and Prosperity initiative launch at The White House where she spoke about how Millennium Challenge Corporation - MCC grant changed her life. Read more… Source: U.S. Embassy Tbilisi, Georgia

Zemo Svaneti. Transparency International Georgia always tries to help locals living in a remote area and offer help in various aspects. This time, on January 30-31, within the framework of the Mobile Legal Clinic we visited villages of Mestia municipality - Khaishi, Tchuberi and Nakra, our lawyers provided individual assistance to residents who met obstacles in the land registration process. ''The meetings confirmed that the problem of land registration in Zemo Svaneti is acute. The most upsetting and distressful of the problems are connected to the recognition of ownership of land that had been passed down from generation to generation - lands for which they hold no documentation to attest their legal ownership rights. The lawyers of our organization continue to try to solve this problem at the legislative level'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: The webpage of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. GYLA publishes the opinions on the draft law ''Social Entrepreneurship'' to Parliament of Georgia. ''GYLA welcomes the proposal of the members of Parliament of Georgia on the necessity to provide a uniform legislative regulation for social entrepreneurship issues, which should provide legal and financial guarantees for social enterprises, support social enterprises in the country and promote new enterprises with social goals. GYLA considers that the initiated bill needs substantial improvement in order to ensure the compliance of a legislative regulation with international and EU standards in the field of social entrepreneurship'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Professional development of civil servants in Georgia and the role of educational institutions in this process were the focus of a discussion on 24 January 2019 attended by the international experts and representatives of the Georgian ministries, training centers and civil society. ''Saba Buadze, Head of the Anti-Corruption Direction at IDFI, presented some key findings of a research conducted in 2018 to examine different factors that affect a system of professional development of civil servants, such as the capacities and experience of the state and private educational institutions, existing legislative framework in Georgia and the situation in the ministries'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Placement of a hotel and any other type of building in Vake Park is unacceptable for the majority of city population. ''Such an approach to the issue will cause irreparable harm to the ecological environment that is in a critical condition even without this, as well as neglect the demand of the society and create a damaging precedent for protection and development processes of ecosystem services in the future. Besides, we underline that the disputed area is within the borders of Vake Park, represents a recreation zone and allowing construction on it contradicts both law and public interest'', - is noted in the joint statement. Read more… Source:The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Center extends its condolences to the families of those deceased due to explosion in a residential building on January 16 in Didi Digomi. The organization expresses its readiness to provide free legal assistance to those affected by the explosion. Read more... Source:The website of the organization in a social network

The National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia (NALAG) started consultation meetings regarding a draft National Strategy for Decentralization in Regions of Georgia. ''Meetings were opened by Executive Director of the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia. David Melua talked about importance of the project and stated that these meetings aim at conducting a dialogue between central and local governments regarding decentralization issues and considering interests of a local government in the new strategy for decentralization'', - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more... Source:nala.ge

The web-page of Civil Society Organizations wishes you happy holidays. At the same time we hereby inform you that CsoGeorgia.org will resume its work from January 8.

Tbilisi. From January 15, 2019, Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF) will start receiving online grant applications. According to the new rule, online applications should be filled out and submitted through the Apply section of the Foundation’s website. Under the new rule, the Foundation chooses direct contact with references rather than recommendations provided in a written form attached to the project. The recommendation should refer to both a project and an applicant. In full  Source: The organization’s webpage

Tbilisi. Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies releases a publication: Russian Footprint in Georgian Elections. ''Informational confrontation (''Информационное Противоборство''), the main effect of which is the formation of perceptions and actions of the target audiences, is one of the ways for the Kremlin to dominate the international arena. One of the important directions of informational confrontation is attacks on the institutions and systems of foreign states, discrediting democratic forms of governance and key political figures. Starting from the 2014 cyber-attacks against Ukrainian election system, cyber operations have been used with more-or-less success against the US and French Presidential elections, as well as the German Bundestag elections'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.gfsis.org

Tbilisi. ''Transparency International Georgia'' has completed a three-month internship program and awarded certificates to participants. The organization expresses its gratitude to the interns for cooperation and extended assistance. Read more… Source:The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies releases publication: Territorial Dispute in North Caucasus: Unprecedented Protests in Ingushetia. ''The rallies in Magas demonstrates the growing unrest in North Caucasus. Since his early years, Putin has managed to cleanse the political spectrum of North Caucasus from the political opposition, civil society as well as an Islamic insurgency, which has created a political vacuum. The improvement of social media combined with the poverty and harsh economic conditions in the region could create the fertile ground for the future protests,'' is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.gfsis.org

The web portal www.csogeorgia.org releases a weekly newsletter of grants competition, contests, vacancies, fellowships and tenders for civil society organizations and for any interested person. Newsletter...

Tbilisi. ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center'' (EMC) conducted a research - ''Under the security gaze: history, politics and religion in the Pankisi Gorge''. According to authors of the thesis, the aim of the research is to explore a genealogical line of "marking the Pankisi Gorge as a threat”, on the one hand, while on the other hand, to attempt to pose lifestyle of Pankisi inhabitants versus dominant mentality rule. Read more... Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Anchoring Sustainable Development by Rule of Law NGO representatives gathered to talk about RIA+ as a tool for NGOs to ensure more inclusive policy making in light of 2030 Agenda implementation. ''Discussion enabled attendees to increase their understanding on the importance of RIA as a useful tool to improve policy process as well as learn more on 2030 Agenda/#SDGs and its relevance to RIA.'' Read more… Source: The webpage of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. On October 23-14, a two-day training was conducted on ''Management and Development of Homeowners’ Association,'' in the office of Charity Humanitarian Center (CHCA). The training was conducted by trainers Sophio Kupatadze and Gia Chumburidze from the Education Development and Employment Center (EDEC). The participants of the training were young leaders living in IDP communities. ''The training covered the following issues: the basics of homeowners’ associations, registration and formation of HOA’s, the rights and obligations of members of HOA’s and of a chairperson, private and shared property, maintenance and development of shared property, accountability and transparency, the development of shared property of members of HOA’s, finances of HOA’s, small business management and others. At the training, successful Georgian and German cases of HOA’s were shared with the participants,'' is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: The webpage of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Georgia foundation strategic and international studies  Published the publication of the expert Mamuka Komakhia: „Who Forms and Who Implements the Kremlin's Policy in Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali Region". The publication… source: gfsis.org

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia (TI) considers that OGP Summit on Good Practice Was Held with Poor Practice. "The organizational costs for the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit in Tbilisi have amounted to at least 1.79 million GEL. The majority of these expenses were financed from the Government Reserve Fund, which goes against the purpose of the Reserve Fund, as well as the principles of good governance and OGP", - marks TI. In full  Source: The organization’s webpage

Tbilisi. Part of civil society organizations addresses both Mayor and Chairman of the Assembly of Tbilisi City in regard to intended construction in the Digomi forest-park. ''We demand to reject issuance of a new building project agreement and permit for construction on the territory of the Digomi forest-park; in accordance with the statement of Tbilisi City Mayor, grant the building-construction of KIA Motors, located on that territory, the status of inappropriate building; within the framework of a new draft master plan, extend the status of landscape-recreation zone throughout entire territory of the Digomi forest-park'' - the statement reads. Read more… Source:emc.org.ge