Tbilisi. A two-day training in "Cooperative Advocacy" was delivered on May 29-30 for the community organizations operating in Georgia. The training was organized by the "Community Development Resource Center" functioning with the Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia. The training covered issues such as the notion and concept of protection of civil interests; types of advocacy and a strategic communication model; experience of the European states; examples of advocacy, etc. Source: the organization's web page in the social network.

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy published a research Representation of Women and Gender Balance in Local Self-Government Sakrebulos in Georgia on May 30, 2014. ISFED requested information about members of Sakrebulo from 64 Municipality Sakrebulos of Georgia. "There are total of 1550 members in Sakrebulos  of 59 municipalities and 5 self-governing cities of Georgia, majority of which are men – 88,9% (1378) while women make up 11,2% (171) of Sakrebulo members". For the full text Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. Non-Governmental Organizations released a statement. "It was reported in recent days that candidates of various opposition parties, who had declared about their participation in elections through party list or majoritarian seats, have been withdrawing their candidacies as a result of pressure. Various opposition parties talk about such facts and provide NGOs with relevant information. Victims mostly do not specify as to who was pressuring them. Substantial doubt arises that pressure on the opposition candidates aims to cancel registration the party lists, especially when similar facts set a kind of trend already. At this stage we are aware of such cases reported in ten districts of the five regions", says the statement. For the full text Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center has met with representatives of the Dukhobor community living in village Gorelovka. The meeting aimed to study the rights of the Dukhobor community and evaluate prospects for rendering legal aid to them. "Primary assessment of the condition of the Dukhobor community demonstrated that problem of integration is their huge concern," says the organization's page. For the full text Source: emc.org.ge

Imereti. Representatives of the "Sokhumi" Foundation have met on May 27 in the Kutaisi Civic Engagement Center with the Kutaisi Mayor candidate women and the single-seat MPs. Various CSO representatives, members of the IDP Advocacy Council and IDPs have attended the meeting. The audience was informed about the study, according to which water supply was identified as a key problem of IDPs.At the meeting the mayor candidate women have presented pre-election agendas, while IDPs have talked about problems and their priorities.

Guria. Student-Youth Council, newspaper "Guria Moambe" and the Development and Democracy Center implement the project: "We Go to Elections! You Come as Well!".The project is supported by the "Center of Electoral Systems Development, Reforms and Training". As part of the project, "Guria Moambe" launches a cycle of programs through which the newspaper readers and web page viewers will have an opportunity to obtain information on the local self-government elections.The program guests will include nominees to the Sakrebulo, as well as the mayor and Gamgebeli candidates. Debates will be organized through a Livestream between the Ozurgeti Mayor candidates. Newspaper readers and the web page viewers will have a possibility to pose questions to candidates ahead of and during the meetings.

Adjara. Public Council has organized a meeting on May23 in the conference hall of the Batumi Sakrebulo with the Infrastructure Service of the Batumi City Hall, at which the draft mid-term plan of the Batumi budget for 2015-2018 was discussed. Local population, members and leaders of the Public Council as well as CSO representatives have attended the meeting.

Kakheti. At the initiative of the Journalist Network for Gender Equality, the Telavi Civic Engagement Center has hosted the public debates of the Telavi Mayor candidates. All seven candidates registered in the mayor elections were invited to participate in the debates. They have answered the questions of CSOs and citizens. The meeting was organized as part of the project "Elect the City Mayor", which aims to improve the degree of democracy of the 2014 local self-government and the mayor elections through the informed electorate.

Lechkhumi. The Gender Equality Network has organized a meeting in Tsageri to support women candidates participating in the 2014 local self-government elections. At the meeting women nominees have presented their agendas and discussed their future plans. The meeting in an active dialogue regime was attended by women candidates from Tsageri and Lentekhi, as well as various public group representatives. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Imereti. Transparency International - Georgia has presented to public the results of another study in the Kutaisi Civic Engagement Center. As part of this study the organization inquired into the public opinion on the work of local authorities. Total of 1918 citizens were interviewed Georgia-wide.

Tbilisi. The Charter of Journalistic Ethics has released an interim media monitoring report. On April 1 the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics has started monitoring 7 national television channels (public broadcasters - Public Broadcaster of Georgia, Adjara TV and private broadcasters - Imedi, Kavkasia, Maestro, Rustavi 2 and Tabula) and 6 regional broadcasters (25th Channel Adjara, Gurjaani (Kakheti), Kvemo Kartli TV (Kvemo Kartli), Odishi (Samegrelo), Rioni (Imereti) and Trialeti (Shida Kartli)). This monitoring period covers 1-30 April 2014. For the full text. Source: qartia.org.ge

Kakheti. At the initiative of the public union "Citizen Assembly", a meeting was organized in the Telavi Civic Engagement Center with the Telavi Mayor candidates.Representatives of CSOs and civil service, as well as students and interested citizens have attended the meeting. The city's mayor candidates have informed the audience about their election priorities.

"International Center for Civic Culture" has organized discussions on May 21 in the Akhaltsikhe and Telavi Civic Engagement Centers over the local self-government reform and the significance of the self-government elections.The meetings were organized as part of the "Good Governance Georgia" Program under the aegis of the US Agency for International Development.Representatives of the "International Center for Civic Culture" have informed the attendees about amendments to the Self-Government Code, followed by a question-and-answer meeting.Similar meetings will be held as part of the project in 26 cities.

Tbilisi. The "Bethlehem District Festival" was organized on May 18 in the Bethlehem District. It has already become a tradition and developed based on one of the projects of ICOMOS Georgia - "Community-Based Revitalization of the Bethlehem District". The community of the Bethlehem District has offered to the festival guests various interesting and diverse programs, including the exhibition-sale of paintings and handcraft items, and seminar in the botanical garden about the art of flower-growing. As part of the festival, the space was dedicated to the Sakdrisi topic. Photo exhibition of tools discovered in the Sakdrisi mine was organized and the books in the Georgian and foreign languages were exhibited, which talk about this extremely important archaeological site; photos taken at the Sakdrisi support events were also exhibited.

Tbilisi. Studio "Re” has released the film: "Public Initiative – Jvari Municipality”. The film is about the initiative of the rural population of the town of Jvari in the Tsalenjikha Municipality and its adjacent villages. "The population sees the separation from the Tsalenjikha Municipality and formation of an independent unit as a way out from the grave socio-economic problems. They think that the finances and labor in the Tsalenjikha and Jvari zones in the Municipality are not distributed fairly,” says the film promo. The film. Source: page of the Open Society - Georgia Foundation in the social network.

Kakheti. At the initiative of the Kakheti Civil League, Telavi Civic Engagement Center and the Civil Advisers’ Council, a public hearing over the local self-government activity report for 2013 was organized in Telavi.Representatives of the Municipality Sakrebulo and Gamgeoba have presented the previous year activities to the audience.Journalists, CSO representatives and interested citizens have attended the meeting.

Imereti.On May 13th a training "Participation and Monitoring in Self-Government Processes”  was held for the members of Kutaisi Youth Centre. The aim of the training was to inform the youth about self-government’s activities and decision-making process. Another topic was the upcoming elections. The project is supported by UN Association in Georgia and USAID. Source:the organization's page in the social network

Samtskhe-Javakheti.Civil Society Institute initiated in Akhaltsikhe a project "Informed Young Voters”. The projectis for students and aims to make the youth more active and involve them into self-government.Within the framework of the project the youth will create texts and video blogs. Second stage will be about effective initiatives for Akhaltsikhe. Third stage will be the discussion between the candidates and the youth.

Samtskhe-Javakheti. CSO "Union of Democrat Meskhetians" has developed with partner organizations the draft resolution of the Akhaltsikhe Municipality Sakrebulo. In case the draft is adopted, the Deputy elected by the population will be obligated to present to his/her electorate a report every 6 months on implemented and planned activities, etc. In order for this draft resolution to be initiated at the Sakrebulo session by means of the petition procedure, signatures of 1% of voters residing within the Municipality are required. The organization calls on the public to sign the petition. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. On April 24, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) released its first interim report of the monitoring of June 14, 2014 local self-government elections of Georgia. ISFED is carrying out the monitoring in all election districts of Georgia by means of 73 long-term observers (LTOs), who have undergone previous adequate preparation and training for the monitoring. For the full text Source:isfed.ge

Tbilisi. Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association has already started the 2014 Local Self-Government Pre-Election Observation. GYLA implements the observation through the regional branch offices in 8 regions: Adjara, Guria, Imereti, Shida Kartli, Kvemo Kartli, Mtskheta-Mtianeti, Samegrelo and in the capital - Tbilisi. The goal of the observation is to support fair and transparent electoral processes; to ensure that the election administration members, electoral subjects and the public servants abide by the electoral legislation and the internationally recognized democratic standards during the pre-election period.  In addition, GYLA aims at informing the citizens of Georgia and the international community of the shortcomings and violations relating to the 2014 Local Self-Government pre-election processes. For the full text Source:gyla.ge

Kvemo Kartli. On April 14, in Rustavi, at self-governing city Rustavi Sakrebulo meeting, a draft prepared in the frames of the project "Accountable Self-Governance” was discussed. According to the draft the Sakrebulo member must present quarterly report to the voters. Besides this the document includes the design and procedures of the reporting. Besides the abovementioned, in the frames of the project, it is planned to grow public  awareness and information accessibility regarding the mentioned decision and afterwards special campaign is planned to be conducted. The joint project "Accountable Self-Governance” is being created as a result of the Self-Governance Reform and Regional Development Group, created in the frames of the R-CSN project. Source:cida.ge