Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association supports the strike of social workers and demands to launch real reforms in order to ensure decent working conditions for them. ''It is sad reality that over the years there have not been carried out real reforms in the direction of social protection, respectively, the quality and efficiency of work of the Social Service Agency remains a problem for a long period of time'', - is noted in the statement released by GYLA. Read more... Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Week dedicated to the World Down Syndrome Day was opened on March 18 at the "Open Society Georgia Foundation” with a presentation of the first Information Center for parents of children having disabilities. "Parents Information Center” will serve as the first psycho-emotional aid center, which assists parents and those families that have children with a delay in development in their foster care. Beginning from March 19, there will be launched a hot line, through which interested people will obtain comprehensive and competent information regarding services available in Georgia. Read more… Source:https://osgf.ge

Tbilisi. ''Transparency International Georgia'' calls on the management of Public Broadcaster to not worsen social or labor conditions of those employed. ''Intention of the management, which will practically reduce salaries or abolish social benefits of employees, is inappropriate practice and, on the one hand, contradicts the essence and goal of the accumulative pension reform, while on the other hand, worsens labor conditions of employees of Public Broadcaster'', - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source:The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. ''Georgian Democracy Initiative'' (GDI) submits a suit to the Constitutional Court of Georgia demanding abolishment of forced engagement of citizens into the pension system and suspension of its functioning until a decision is made on the case. ''GDI considers that obligatory engagement into the accumulative pension system and imposition of a compulsory contribution into the pension fund unjustifiably restrict property rights of an employed, while for an employer it equals to deprivation of a property'', - is noted in the statement released by GDI. Read more... Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. The Tbilisi City Court partially satisfied a lawsuit of ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center'' (EMC) submitted against ''Biblus'' on behalf of one of those employed. The court ordered ''Biblus'' to reinstate the unlawfully dismissed Consultant and pay compensation of forced loss. Read more... Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Transparency International – Georgia reviews an amendments to the law of Georgia on Labour Safety. ''According to the legislative initiative, starting from 1 September 201, the law of Georgia on Labour Safety will apply not only to the dangerous, heavy and hazardous labour and labour in dangerous conditions but to all sectors of economic activity,'' is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center'' (EMC) publishes an analytical document, which contains a review of a social housing program of Tbilisi City Hall and challenges related to it. As the document shows, ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center'' provides a number of recommendations as a follow up to the extent of a problem and need of long-term housing services in response to it. Read more... Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia addressed the Mayor of Akhmeta Municipality with a recommendation to take timely and complex measures for the improvement of situation in kindergartens. The monitoring carried out by the Public Defender's Office showed that situation in the kindergartens of the villages of Kistauri and Zemo Khodasheni, as well as Akhmeta kindergartens N5 and N6, is quite difficult; learning environment is inadequate; the kindergartens lack safety, physical-infrastructural and hygienic conditions. In full  Source: The Public Defender’s webpage

Tbilisi. Part of civil society organizations releases a statement regarding the tragedy that took place in the Mindeli mineshaft in Tkibuli. ''The state should ensure operation of an efficient and effective labor supervision system in the shortest possible time, while the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia has to carry out an investigation on the incident in time and effectively and inform society about the progress of the investigation proactively'' – is noted in the joint statement. Read more… Source: www.osgf.ge

Tbilisi. From now on, SOS Children's Villages Georgia can be supported through the online platform. Help children lacking care and socially vulnerable families. Read more… Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. On June 18, 2018, the Consultative Council for Promotion, Protection and Monitoring of the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities held its 15th meeting. At the meeting, the Head of the Department of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities presented information about the implemented and planned activities in the direction of protection and monitoring of the rights of persons with disabilities. Special attention was paid to the topic of mental health, challenges in the field of inclusive education and the importance of taking into account the needs of persons with disabilities at the local level. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. The Public Defender annually speaks about the rights of these persons, which has remained a challenge in Georgia for years. ''Among the problems are realization of the right of persons with disabilities to health and social protection, provision of adequate rehabilitation/habilitation services for children and adults with disabilities, realization of reproductive and sexual health rights for women/girls with disabilities. An important challenge is access the physical environment. It is problematic for persons with disabilities to enjoy public facilities, educational institutions, municipal transport or road infrastructure throughout the country''. Read more…  Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Social protection programmes can better identify poor families with children though poverty still remains a challenge, UNICEF’s new Welfare Monitoring Survey says. ''To reduce child poverty a comprehensive social protection system is needed and child benefits should be expanded in amount and in coverage. At the same time family support services and child care needs to be expanded in Georgia to support families with children''. Read more…  Source: unicef.ge

Tbilisi. On June 5, 2018, Public Defender Nino Lomjaria met with the drivers of Tbilisi Metro who are on strike and promised them full legal aid. The Public Defender termed the court's decision to restrict the drivers’ right to strike during non-working hours for an indefinite period of time as unprecedented and comical. The Public Defender's Office will submit an amicus curiae brief in the nearest future to review the norms of national and international laws related to the right to strike. In addition, the Public Defender addresses the Tbilisi Transport Company and the Tbilisi municipality and offers them Public Defender's involvement in achieving consensus with the Tbilisi Metro drivers. Read more... Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Public Defender Nino Lomjaria, together with members of the Special Preventive Group, monitored Tbilisi’s public school No 202 (boarding school for blind children). The school provides boarding services to children with visual and other accompanying impairments within the framework of the special education program. The Public Defender met and talked with schoolchildren, teachers and other staff of the school, and examined the school’s physical environment. Many violations have been identified as a result of the visit, which impede the efficient realization of the right to education of children with disabilities. It is problematic to equip the school with proper educational and support resources, control the quality education, prepare the beneficiaries of the boarding house for independent life and inclusion in the society. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes a documentary film: Subway under ground and above ground. ''Those employed say that structure of the subway looks like an army formation and its employees have to live with a military schedule. Today subway employees are demanding fair compensation, because their remuneration has significantly reduced due to increase of price of consumer basket and depreciation of lari'' – is stated on the website of the organization. Read more... Source:emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. According to the information spread by ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center'' (EMC), the state has refused again to grant social assistance to the family of the late Amiran Kvirikashvili. As family members state, suicide of Amiran is connected with police officers conducting interrogation with him, as well as threatening and intimidating him. After the death of Amiran Kvirikashvili, payment of a social assistance to his family was suspended, even though they did not have any economic improvement, and only 10 lari supplement was kept to support security of a juvenile member. The organization considers that ''an automated and practically uncontrolled system of granting social assistance, practiced by the state, leaves a lot of families without any state support unjustifiably and unfairly''. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. On March 18, 2018, Tbilisi Civil Court restricted the rights of the employees of ,''Tbilisi Transport Company'' to strike.  ''The aim of the metro workers’ strike was to require dignified work conditions and payment. GYLA believes the decision of the court to be unsubstantiated and contradictory to the constitution of Georgia and to the international standards/tools of the Human Rights, noteworthy Georgia is a part of mentioned international standards. The decision also contains a number of errors, which is the reason for the unfair restriction of the underground train drivers’ constitutional write of strike'', is noted in the statement. Read more…  Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. ''The decision of the Tbilisi City Court, which restricts Metro drivers (NNLE Unity 2013) to the right to strike, is a harmful and dangerous precedent for labor rights'', - states the Public Defender of Georgia. The statement, which was made by the Public Defender due to restricting Metro drivers to the right to strike, contains a review of circumstances related to this fact and decisions made by the court. Read more… Source: The website of the Public Defender

Adjara. On May 11, 2018, the Constitutional Court of Georgia fully satisfied a claim of EMC concerning the case – ''Tamar Tandashvili, a citizen of Georgia, against Government of Georgia''. With this decision the Court revoked norms of the rule of forming a unified database of socially vulnerable families approved by a Government Decree, which norms restricted people, living unlawfully in a space owned by the state, to use their right to apply for a social allowance and, respectively, receive the allowance in spite of identified needs.  Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. On February 17, 2018, the Public Defender of Georgia appealed to the Director of the Social Service Agency with a recommendation and requested him to reimburse for the social assistance that had been confiscated from a citizen in favor of the budget and legalized by law. The Social Service Agency implemented the Public Defender’s recommendation and made a decision to to pay the 500 GEL, incorrectly transferred by E.B. to the treasury account, back to him/her. In full… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. GYLA defended blind V.K. whose registration in the database of socially vulnerable people had been cancelled due to the fact that a declaration, containing information about the person, was not complete. GYLA, on behalf of the disabled person, addressed the Public Defender in 2017 and requested to determine the fact of discrimination. The Public Defender detected discrimination on the ground of disability and elaborated respective recommendation for the Ministry of Health. Read more… Source:The website of the organization