Tbilisi. According to information that the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) releases, in its decision of December 25 related to the case – “Giorgi Keburia v. the Parliament of Georgia”, the Constitutional Court has taken positions of the plaintiff into consideration in the majority of cases and declared unconstitutional those norms of the Criminal Procedure Code, which allow to pass a verdict of guilty on the basis of evidences obtained through operative information only. The Constitutional Court also defined that while assessing lawfulness of a search, performed due to urgent necessity, court has to take into account only circumstances prevailing at the time of the search and does not have to pay attention to the outcome of the search. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) has begun systematic gathering of information on high-level alleged corruption related violations that have been revealed in recent years and left without adequate response.  “Our goal is to create a periodically updatable information resource that allows us to track these violations and observe the real scale of high-level corruption. In recent years, there has been revealed a high-level so-called “elite” corruption and improper response to it as one of the main challenges for Georgia in terms of corruption. Conclusions of local civil society, evaluations of international organizations, results of a number of global ratings and public opinion surveys, conducted in Georgia, indicate existence and severity of this problem”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) submitted comments concerning a bill on amnesty, initiated by Mikheil Sarjveladze, a member of the Parliament of Georgia, to the Committees on Human Rights and Legal Affairs. “In the circumstances of a strict drug policy over the years, the act of amnesty will have a positive impact on rehabilitation/re-socialization of people convicted of drug crimes. However, it is important to get the parliament start working on systemic changes in the field of drug policy in time, as well as arrange norms stipulated by an article on drug crimes of the Criminal Code”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association publishes a study conducted together with the Foundation for the Support of Legal Education – “Equality policy in the general education system”. Full version of the study... Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. GCSD is presenting the first thematic guidebook in the Georgian language on dealing with violent extremism - “Countering Violent Extremism – An Introductory Guide to Concepts, Programming, and Best Practices”. The guidebook covers the multifaceted and advanced approaches in the field of combating violent extremism and radicalization. Accordingly, it is intended for public officials as well as representatives of civil society, media and academia. The publication was developed in collaboration with the Hedayah Center, Search for Common Ground, and the European Union, translated by GCSD and adapted to the Georgian reality. The guidebook can be found here... Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) publishes a report on a study: Forced marriage - legislation and practice. “The study has revealed that in Georgia, victims of forced marriage are women. The problem is especially acute in the Kvemo Kartli region. This is where investigations into forced marriage related issues are most frequently launched. By introducing a special norm on forced marriage into the Criminal Code and qualifying it as a criminal offence, the requirement of the Istanbul Convention has been met. However, conducting preventive activities related to this issue, carrying out effective awareness-raising works within society and providing result-oriented response to already occurred facts remain to be problematic”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Gender Informational Portal publishes an article by Lela Khomeriki: Modern technology-facilitated gender-based violence - a new form of violence against women and domestic violence. “Women living at risk of violence appeared isolated in the same space with an abuser. During the pandemic, like in other countries, the scale of domestic violence increased in Georgia too. Modern technologies offer new ways of prevention of gender-based violence and response to it. However, at the same time, there has emerged a new problem - use of technologies by abusers to keep victims under surveillance and control. This type of gender-based violence is so prevalent that today, technology-facilitated gender-based violence is considered as one of the forms of abuse along with forms of physical, economic or sexual violence”, - is stated in the article. Read more… Source: ginsc.net

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia publishes the research report on Forms of Narrow Specialisations in Georgian Common Court System.  „Legal disputes in Tbilisi City Court and Tbilisi Court of Appeals are narrowly specialised in all spheres. According to the official explanation, narrow specializations help judges in time management and case administration. However, unfortunately, in many cases, specialization is created without justification. Furthermore creating a specialization, among other problems, increases the risk of manipulating the distribution of cases“. Read more…  Source: transparency.ge

This report presents an update to the CSO Meter report produced in 2019 to assess enabling environment forcivil society organisations (CSOs) in Georgia. The CSO Meter is a tool developed to assess the civil society environment in Eastern Partnership countries. It consists of a set of standards and indicators in 10 different areas that measure both law and practice.  Report…

Tbilisi. The present report provides results of monitoring carried out by the Gender Department of the Public Defender's Office in all state shelters and crisis centers operating in Georgia. In particular, Gender Department of the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia, with the support of the UN Women, carried out monitoring of all state shelters and crisis centers in Georgia for the victims of domestic violence and trafficking in 2019. The monitoring team payed visits to the shelters of Batumi, Kutaisi, Gori and Signagi, as well as the crisis centers of Tbilisi, Gori, Kutaisi, Ozurgeti and Marneuli. Additionally, the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia monitored all state shelters and crisis centers operating in Georgia in 2020 in order to check the shortcomings identified during the monitoring in 2019 and implementation of the issued recommendations. The present report reflects the problems identified as a result of the monitoring. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

The web portal 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. UN Women has launched a new online campaign: Indifference virus kills. “Within the framework of the online campaign and at the initiative of the UN Women, 6 audio plays have been created, authors of which are Georgian writers Nestan Nene Kvinikadze and Lasha Bugadze. In the plays, various forms of violence against women and domestic violence are presented through scenes and situations as close to reality as possible”. Read more… Source: georgia.unwomen.org

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia's (TI Georgia) observation of the parliamentary elections from July 1, November 22, 2020 showed that the misuse of administrative resources during electoral processes is still problematic for Georgia. Ineffective investigation of violence, the politicization of public institutions, including election commissions, and mobilization of the employees of budgetary organizations by the ruling party for election campaigns, the use of investigative agencies to discredit political opponents, and other vicious tendencies remain unchanged from election to election. Read more…  Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Take a look at the Presentation of an interim alternative monitoring report on the implementation of the Public Administration Reform Action Plan for 2019-2020.  On December 23, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) together with the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) presented results of an alternative monitoring report on the implementation of the Public Administration Reform Action Plan (PAR) for the first six months of 2020. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association submitted its comments in regard to amendments to the Law on Political Associations of Citizens to the Parliament. “Suspension of state funding for parties in accordance with a draft, initiated by the ruling team, is perceived by the organization as an arbitrary punishment inflicted by the Government on the opposition. GYLA calls on the Parliament to take into account goals and destination of state funding for parties, prevent appearance of those norms in the legislation, which are unjustified and disproportionately limit political parties, as well as refrain from adoption of the submitted bill”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Rondeli Foundation, with the support of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, implemented the study – “Impact of Anti-Pandemic Restrictions and Government Anti-Crisis Measures on Employment, Incomes and the Poverty Level in Georgia”. The study discusses the peculiarities of the pandemic economic crisis in Georgia. Based on the simulation analysis, an assessment of the expected impact of anti-pandemic restrictions and government anti-crisis measures on employment, income and poverty levels for the period 2020-2021 was prepared. Check out the full research down bellow…  Source: www.gfsis.org

Tbilisi. EMC believes that the Short-term and long-term effects of the second wave of anti-crisis programs raise questions. According to the opinion at the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC), coverage of new anti-crisis programs and their long-term impact, including how new credit commitments are going to be distributed to future expenditures of the budget, raise a lot of questions. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes a document in an easy-to-read format – “Rights of patients placed in a psychiatric institution”. “The document will enable people with disabilities (especially those with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities), their family members and the wider public to receive information on such issues as voluntary and involuntary psychiatric care, rights of people placed in a psychiatric institution and means of their protection”. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Institute for Development Freedom of Information (IDFI) has overviewed current developments and challenges in the energy sector of Georgia including November 2020. “Energy sector is strategically important sector for the economy which has significant socio-economic impact on the society and while energy independence is important for the countries sustainable development, IDFI will analyze and publish future trends in the sector periodically”. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The EU-funded monitoring of media coverage of 2020 parliamentary elections in Georgia is implemented by UNDP in partnership with three Georgian civil society organizations: the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics, Internews Georgia and CRRC-Georgia. It covers 43 different media outlets, including 12 television stations, 10 radio stations, 8 print newspapers and 13 online editions. In addition to electoral news reporting, media monitoring looks into the ways that Georgian media organizations connect with their readers on Facebook and examines how Georgian television stations are covering foreign influence on Georgian electoral processes. Read more… Source: www.ge.undp.org

Tbilisi. As the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) clarifies, the Constitutional Court has satisfied the constitutional lawsuit of Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, the plaintiff, and declared unconstitutional the norm, which restricted a prosecutor to get copies of criminal case materials for a complainant. “Interests of the plaintiff in this case were defended by GYLA and Amiran Giguashvili, a lawyer. Prior to making this decision, the complainant could get familiarized with case materials at the Prosecutor’s Office or an investigative body under the supervision of a relevant prosecutor or investigator”. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Today the whole world is focused on containing the second wave of COVID-19 outbreak. In these challenging times accurate information is crucial but pro-Kremlin disinformation is trying to undermine the trust in vaccines. The list of disinformation about vaccines is very long. See below some of the recent disinformation narratives compiled by EU vs Disinformation and check out an infographic with the full list here... Source: eu4georgia.ge