Tbilisi. European Union releases the joint letter addressed to the goverment and people of Georgia. “The COVID-19 pandemic and associated economic crisis is unfolding at an unprecedented pace and has pushed the world economy into a recession. The impact will be worse than the global financial crisis and economic damage is mounting across all countries. As an open economy that relies on tourism, trade, and remittances, Georgia is particularly vulnerable to this pandemic.  To overcome this pandemic, we need a coordinated health, social, and economic policy response. We, the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Union and the European Investment Bank, the Federal Republic of Germany through KfW, the French Republic through the Agence française de Développement, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank Group are working together to ensure rapid support to Georgia and are currently discussing a substantial financial relief package to help the authorities respond effectively to this unprecedented crisis. Many other development partners are similarly preparing support packages for the people of Georgia. As Georgia’s Coat of Arms so appropriately puts it, there is truly ‘strength in unity’”. Read more… Source: eeas.europa.eu

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) responds to the resolution of the Government of Georgia N204 of March 30, 2020, restricting public transportation in order to reduce spread of the new coronavirus in Georgia. The organization calls on the Government of Georgia to take respective steps to ensure transportation of those employed to their work places.  “Taking into account needs of those employed, on the one hand, while on the other hand, for smooth continuity of economic activities, we urge the Government of Georgia to apply its extraordinary authority and instruct employers to provide their employees with transportation means within the duration of the state of emergency, considering their transfer to and from the work place, as well as to support employers respectively in case it is necessary”, - is stated on the website of the organization.  Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

March, women's month – USAID/Zrda would like to present project's women beneficiaries - Gvantsa Absandze, USAID/Zrda-supported hostel and café owner from Samegrelo. “My brother was the one to have an idea for entering hospitality business and then all family got involved. Nowadays Art House Café and BUEDD Hostel are the bestsellers among the tourists. Friendship with USAID/Zrda gave us the opportunity to offer additional wow services to our guests and from now on everyone has chance to participate in the Ceramics and Pottery Masterclasses,” says Gvantsa Absandze, USAID/Zrda-supported hostel and café owner from Samegrelo. Read more... Sourse: The program's page in a social network

Tbilisi. What is the role and importance of social entrepreneurship and how EU-funded project works for the economic and social development in Georgia? Read more... Source: Eu's page in a social network

Tbilisi. Public Defender Responds to Protests Launched by Residents of Shukruti Village of Chiatura Municipality.  Residents of the village of Shukruti say that Georgian Manganese LLC, during the mining activity, damages the environment, roads and their houses. They have been blocking the Shukruti mine in protest since February 17, 2020 but don’t have any result.  ‘The Public Defender of Georgia calls on the relevant agencies to use all the resources to identify the causes of damage and to conduct result-oriented negotiations with the company. The Public Defender also calls on the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development to mediate and personally engage in the negotiations between the Shukruti population and the company to protect the locals’ rights to property and a healthy environment’, - Is noted in the statement of the Public defender.  Read more…   Source: http://ombudsman.ge

Kakheti. “Improving health and educational development possibilities for disadvantaged mothers and children” is the title of the project through which socially disadvantaged babies in Kakheti received their gift sets. This project was also implemented by the EU-funded Kakheti Regional Development Foundation. In 2018, a total of 60 beneficiaries have been supported in Akhmeta, Gurjaani and Telavi municipalities. “The EU has been financing this project since 2016. The partner organisations are the “Innovations and Reforms Centre” and “Europe Justice and Human Rights International Justice Institute”. The main objective of this project is to help women and children. 60 gift packages have been handed out; we have only two more to deliver. This year’s supply is almost complete, but the project will continue next year and 60 gift packages will be handed out again. The first criterion for receiving this support is that the family has to be disadvantaged. Some families may not have this status, but based on the family conditions, they can [still] benefit from this,” - explains Tamara Bekauri, Director of Kakheti Regional Development Foundation. She also says that, in addition to the gift sets, the EU funded training courses where mothers received both interesting and essential information about how to care for their babies. Read more… Source: https://eeas.europa.eu

Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia shares a statement on Baghdati Municipality Tragedy.  ‘Unfortunately, child poverty and inadequate living standards have remained unresolved problems for years, which in some cases endanger the health and life of children. The child protection and social system fails to protect children from extreme poverty. The programmes offered by the State to families living in poverty are not oriented to outcome, individual needs or timely prevention; therefore, the socio-economic situation of such families basically remain the same over the years. Under the current social policy, it is problematic to satisfy even the basic needs of children living in poor families’, - is mentioned in the statement  Read more…  Source: http://ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes a blog post: State has no information about the number of homeless people. “The sole function of the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia defined by legislation within the field of the policy of homelessness is to maintain a unified registry of homeless people registered at local self-government bodies, however this duty is not performed in practice. Considering all this, it is impossible to determine the scale of homelessness in the country”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Open Society Georgia Foundations has presented two studies. One is about provision of services by the state in regard to taking care of welfare of people and prevention of their homelessness, while the other - describes international standards of eviction and those mechanisms, which offer dignified living conditions to evicted citizens. “Eviction is a problem for a lot of families in Georgia. Due to absence of a proper health care system or other coercive circumstances, people often use their only dwellings as collateral to take credit, thus risking to remain homeless. However, eviction should not be the cause of homelessness if a social security system of the state is human-oriented, meets international standards of eviction and provides appropriate services to citizens”, - is noted in the statement released by the Foundation. Read more… Source: https://osgf.ge

Tbilisi. The Open Society Georgia Foundation presented today a report of a study, which demonstrates how the state budget is formed and allocated to needs of people with disabilities in 5 municipalities of Georgia. The document describes engagement of people with disabilities and their representatives in the process of drafting local budgets and programs; analyzes effectiveness of budget spending, assistance, services and programs funded for people with disabilities. Along with provision of gaps, the document contains recommendations to the state on how to improve planning of the budget and programs, and increase participation of people with disabilities in this process. Read more… Source: https://osgf.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes an article of Mariam Shalvashvili: Precarious being of Azerbaijani female workers. “In the conditions of precarious work people are often employed temporarily (daily or for a few weeks or months), this type of work does not include various guarantees for those employed, the most important of which is that employees have no feeling of stability and they do not even know whether they will have to work next day or not. The work of women occupied at greenhouses is difficult not only physically, women never know in advance whether their hand will again be needed in a few days in the greenhouse or not and how much they will be able to earn during the following days”. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) responds to the protest of Tkibuli miners.  “We consider that the complicated situation, occurred in Tkibuli, is the responsibility of the state and it fully reflects condition entailed by complete neglect of toughest challenges faced by the City over the years. This condition threatens the future of not only people employed at shafts but the entire region as well. Despite numerous demands, the state is still missing development plans for Tkibuli and other industrial cities, thus keeping those employed at the company and population of the region in complete uncertainty and ambiguity”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

 In August 2019, the “Women’s Economic Empowerment in the South Caucasus” project provided opportunity to 21 vulnerable women of Shirak and Gegharkunik regions to advance their skills in sewing and tailoring.  „Two workshops were conducted by the specialists of the Burda Academy Yerevan. The participating women took part in masterclasses on how to start a sewing business, in fashion stylist, and in networking closing event with several Armenian designers. "Women’s Economic Empowerment in the South Caucasus” is a project of UN Women, implemented in three countries of the South Caucasus with support from the Swiss Cooperation South Caucasus and the Austrian Development Agency The Armenian segment of the project is implemented by UNDP in Armenia in partnership with the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Armenia and in close collaboration with UN Women Georgia”, is noted in the statement.  Read more… Source: Social network

Tbilisi. Public Defender made a Statement on the Death of a Minor Worker on 16 July 2019.  ‘The situation of safety at work remains a major challenge in the country. Improvement of the alarming situation is significantly hindered by the restrictions imposed for labour inspectors on the one hand, which will be lifted only from September 2019, and by the lack of human and financial resources of the Labour Conditions Inspection Department on the other hand’, - is mentioned in the statement.  Read more… Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. ''Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association'' and ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center'' (EMC) respond to a strike organized by workers of the Rustavi Metallurgical Plant.  ''The strike aims at realization of basic labor rights and obtaining minimum guarantees for social security. Organizations call on employers and the state to ensure execution of labor legislation and protection of labor rights of those employed'', - is noted in the statement. Read more... Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. With the conference today, we boosted discussion over the issue of Homelessness and State Policy for Housing. ''Homelessness and housing exclusion has long been inadequately recognized within political and social spaces. Today’s gathering of major actors gave opportunity to assess state policy on central and local level, analyze and address homelessness from human rights angle and seek solutions for challenges''. Read more… Source: The webpage of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. The Office of the Public Defender of Georgia releases a statement in regard to the International Day of Solidarity of Workers. "May 1 is the International Day of Workers, the Public Defender once again calls on the Government this day to take appropriate measures to address problems existing in the field of labor rights”, - is noted in the statement, - "growing statistic of casualties and injuries at work place is especially concerning. 59 people died and 199 were injured as a result of industrial accidents in 2018... There are no respective measures applied to take care of health of employed people, improvement of their qualification, provision of trainings in first aid. Besides, no sanitary-hygienic norms are observed... Monitoring of requirements stipulated by labor laws shows that in most of the cases duration of working hours is incompatible with terms stipulated by contract; rules of provision of annual leave and remuneration are violated... Labor rights, particularly those of vulnerable groups – women and disabled people, in terms of adhering to principles of equality are breached... The Public Defender, within the frames of her mandate, continues to study the state of protection of labor rights in the country and will apply all available means to improve existing situation”. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center'' (EMC) demands from the government to take immediate actions in order to create a decent work environment for those employed and releases a special statement. ''... Despite elaboration of a respective supervision mechanism and tightening legislation, ineffectiveness of execution mechanisms and postponement of a deadline of enforcement of important legislative regulations for the future put lives and health of employees at risk daily'', - is noted in the statement released by EMC. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Civil society organizations continue to support social workers and release a special statement. ''Signatory organizations once again call on the Ministry of Internally Displaced People from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia, while negotiating with social workers: to realize how important is the work, performed by social workers, for both the country and interests of different vulnerable groups; to ensure improvement of working conditions of social workers as much as possible in accordance with their requirements;'' Read more... Source:gyla.ge