Tbilisi. The Civil Society Institute has published a guide for social enterprises and non-entrepreneurial legal entities.  Legislative acts of Georgia do not recognize such terms as a social enterprise and social entrepreneurship, however, there are entities that operate in Georgia and carry out social entrepreneurship. Interested people have the opportunity to carry out social entrepreneurship both via setting up a legal entity under private law and taking into account an established international experience. A social enterprise refers to those legal entities under private law that are functionally considered to be social enterprises and economic activities of which imply primarily the achievement of social goals. According to the legislation of Georgia, civil society organizations, which are meant to be non-entrepreneurial (non-commercial) legal entities, along with their main activity are authorized to perform any activity that is not prohibited by law, including an ancillary entrepreneurial activity. As a matter of fact, an ancillary entrepreneurial activity may or may not be that of a social entrepreneurial nature. This guide is intended for both social entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurial (non-commercial) legal entities.  The guide covers issues related to legal management, financial accounting-accountability, and tax administration of legal entities under private law.  The guide is developed by the Civil Society Institute (authors: Levan Paniashvili, Chief Lawyer of the Institute, Davit Tivishvili, Financial Manager of the Institute) in collaboration with Social Enterprise Alliance and with the support of the International Center for Non-for-Profit Law (ICNL). Guide... 

Tbilisi. ISFED mobile app is up and running. Download here: iOS… Android... ISFED mobile app is bilingual and targets every interested person who wants to receive information and notifications about the election process, pre-election monitoring, ISFED's election day activities etc. App users will also be able to report incidents. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. On October 9, there were conducted a presentation of a 10-point concept of judicial system reform and a signing ceremony, initiated by non-governmental organizations. “The concept was developed taking into consideration observations and studies of a number of years of the non-governmental sector. It aims at functional and systemic improvement of judicial system, enhancement of independence of judges and introduction of democratic mechanisms of internal governance. The document was signed by 8 political subjects, thus pledging to implement reforms given in the concept as soon as the new parliament is convened after the 2020 parliamentary elections. At the same time, it should be noted that the concept does not require constitutional changes”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

The European Court of Justice, Europe’s highest court, has ruled that ‘lex CEU’ violates Hungary’s commitments under the WTO, and infringes the provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union relating to academic freedom. The judgment from the European Court of Justice in Commission v Hungary (C-66/18) related to the Hungarian law amending the 2017 Law on higher education. The Court agreed with the European Commission that Hungary has breached WTO law, EU law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union “relating to academic freedom, the freedom to found higher education institutions and the freedom to conduct a business.” Today’s decision means that Lex CEU is no longer applicable. CEU is free to operate its US degree programs in Budapest. It is also an important moral and legal victory as well as a historic victory for academic freedom in Europe. Read more... Source: www.ceu.edu

Tbilisi. Civil society organizations of Georgia respond to the fact of detention of Iveri Melashvili and Natalia Ilychova, former members of the Border Delimitation and Demarcation Commission of the Government, by the Office of Prosecutor General on October 7. “We consider that the time of launching the investigation, the pre-election context, signs of selective approach during the investigation process and populist statements, made by leaders of the ruling party violating the presumption of innocence, raise suspicion that the investigation serves political motivations and aim at misleading citizens of Georgia as well as discrediting political opponents”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Green Alternative considers it illegal to build a park on the territory of the former hippodrome without consulting the public and proper evaluation. “It should be noted that the Tbilisi City Hall already violated requirements of the legislation of Georgia when it initially made the most important decision for the environment of the city and residents of Tbilisi, and only then informed public about it. The City Hall thus violated requirements of the Aarhus Convention, which states that participation of the public should be ensured at an early stage when options are open and the public has the opportunity to participate in it effectively; while the results of public participation should be paid due attention. We call on the Tbilisi City Hall to comply with requirements of the legislation of Georgia and to not start illegal works on the territory of former hippodrome”. Read more… Source: greenalt.org

Shida Kartli. The Gori office of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association defended 2 people who were unlawfully dismissed from the Akhaltsikhe Municipality Assembly as a result of merging of the local self-government community and the city in 2017. “Both of them worked at the Akhaltsikhe Municipality Assembly for years before the reorganization of the self-government. They got dismissed while their positions were not abolished as a result of the reorganization. By the decision of the Supreme Court of Georgia, orders on dismissal were annulled, while the defendant was imposed to reinstate dismissed employees to the similar position and pay a compensation for the lost remuneration”. Read more… Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes an article of Mariam Shalvashvili: Muslim women of highland Adjara. “The purpose of this two-part article is, on the one hand, to emphasize that Islam is an integral part of daily life in Adjara and to show its importance. While on the other hand, to prevent conversion of all aspects of life to and their explanation by religion, therefore, dominant discourse challenge, prevalent in the West, is the main line of articles. These articles are an attempt to provide a little more knowledge about the Adjara region and Muslim Adjarians - to describe conditions, in which highland Adjara resident women live: unequal economic situation, tough working conditions, inaccessibility to health and education, as well as isolation characteristic of a geographic and cultural periphery, besides, to show how agency of Muslim women is manifested”. Read more… Source:emc.org.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. On Behalf of CDD Deputy Head of the Election Observation mission - Paata Kvavadze participated in a special working group - the initiative of the Central Election Commission (CEC) to discuss the voting of Georgian citizens who are in quarantine, as well as the voting of Covid-19 infected people who are in special facilities. Read more… Source: the organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. On October 7, there was made a presentation of a new study conducted by the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) and the Media Development Foundation (MDF). The study contains evaluation of media market risk ratings in Georgia and refers on the analysis of 24 Georgian-language media sites. “The study, conducted in April-July 2020, is based on a disinformation risk assessment methodology developed by GDI. Georgia is among those 10 countries, which were evaluated in 2020 using this methodology”. Read more… Source:www.mdfgeorgia.ge

Tbilisi. Public Defender and Councils of National Minorities and Religions of Public Defender release the statement. “We urge all citizens of Georgia - all those who value peace and security in Georgia and in the region - to refrain as much as possible from using hate speech on ethno-religious or other grounds, including via social networks. We call on the media to be careful with disseminating the kind of information that may fuel or even slightly escalate tension between ethnic groups. We call on the state agencies to actively cooperate with representatives of relevant ethnic groups, community and religious leaders and organizations in order to maintain and strengthen tolerant environment in our country and in the region”. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. On October 31, 2020, elections of the Parliament of Georgia, wheelchair-bound voters will have the opportunity to vote at any adapted polling station, set up on the territory of the relevant majoritarian constituency. To do so, they must apply to the relevant district or precinct election commission no later than October 25. Information on adapted polling stations can be found on the CEC website... Read more… Source: the website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. “Media Advocacy Coalition” considers that the campaign, carried out against “Pankisi Community Radio”, cannot be left without a proper response and that the Government is obliged to take immediate measures in regard to both investigation of the occurred incident and the October 6, 2020 statement of the radio, which further reveals planned steps aiming to interfere in journalistic activities unlawfully. Read more… Source: The website of the Coalition in a social network

Tbilisi. The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy has set up a Godo Election Bot - Facebook chatbot to talk about Election Day procedures, the electoral system, irregularities, techniques of fighting against disinformation and etc. To activate the chatbot, go to the page of Godo... and send a private message. Read more... Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. As Myth Detector informs, on October 3, one of the Armenian-language Facebook pages posted a video spreading news as if the Borjomi railway station is used to deliver military equipment to Azerbaijan. The video contains shots taken from a vehicle displaying buildings, railway, trucks and several tanks. “The publicized video does not evidence that there takes place transportation of military equipment from the territory of Georgia to Azerbaijan. Furthermore, it is also difficult to identify where and when the video was taken. Both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Armenian Embassy in Georgia deny the disseminated news”. Read more… Source:www.mythdetector.ge

Tbilisi. In September 2020, Sophio Rusetski and Tamar Tskhovrebadze, representatives of the Gender Department of the Public Defender's Office of Georgia, held remote informational meetings with members of the Gender Equality Council of Shida Kartli municipalities (Khashuri, Kareli, Kaspi, Gori). The purpose of the meeting was to get information about the challenges faced by the Gender Equality Councils during the novel corona virus pandemic and the problems that have arisen in the municipalities. Poverty and complicated social situation were named as major challenges. Increase in the cases of domestic violence and the prejudices and stereotypes of the society were also discussed at the meeting. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. USAID/Georgia announced the Georgia Information Integrity Program, a new five-year initiative designed to help Georgia build societal resilience against disinformation. Through 2025, USAID is partnering with the Government of Georgia and others to develop a comprehensive, “whole-of-society” approach to protecting Georgia’s information space. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a blog post: Disinformation spread in Armenian and Azerbaijani media in regard to the position of Georgia on the Karabakh conflict.  Despite the fact that Georgia maintains neutrality over the military conflict taking place between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh, there is misinformation in regard to the position of Georgia actively spread in Armenian and Azerbaijani media.  Disseminated disinformation includes news about Georgia providing a path to military equipment sent from Turkey to Azerbaijan. There periodically appear Georgian and Russian-language posts, in which Georgia is accused of the above-mentioned action. Following to spread of similar disinformation, the situation in Javakheti has become tense several times. ”While on September 30, Karen Ohanjanyan, an Armenian politician and Leader of the “Republican Party of Nagorno-Karabakh”, posted disinformation of the same content on his Facebook page accusing Georgia of providing a path to military supplies sent from Turkey to Azerbaijan and stated that Javakheti should declare independence from Georgia. The statement of Ohanjanyan is a clear example of the extent of disinformation in regard to Georgia in the Armenian information space”. In the circumstances of an information war, the organization calls on the government to enhance communication with the local population, international partners, make sure they are informed about developments taking place in the region, declare the official position of Georgia on neutrality and steps taken by the country.  Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. As Myth Detector informs, on October 3, 2020, Tvalsazrisi ge published an interview with Nona Agdgomelashvili, a therapist and astropsychologist, titled: “You must know that face mask has categorical contraindications! Alarm of Doctor Nona Agdgomelashvili”. In the material, the respondent talks about the disadvantages of using a face mask and notes that face masks can intoxicate humans with carbon dioxide. According to her, face masks maintain their effectiveness only in a sterile environment and not, for example, in public transport. “The statement, as if a face mask can intoxicate humans with carbon dioxide or its use is effective only in a sterile environment, is not true. As the World Health Organization instructs, the face mask is one of the effective means in terms of self-protection against the virus and plays an important role in preventing the spread of the disease if it is used with full adherence to recommendations and accuracy”, - is stated in the blog post. Read more…   Source: www.mythdetector.ge

Tbilisi. MAC Georgia announces open registration for the Importance of play online Zoom training, scheduled for October 13th and 16th. This training is designed for teachers and other professionals working in kindergarten. The training includes the following topics: Importance of play and its role in child development; Types of play; Basic safety skills; Using play as a way to increase independent living skills in children. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia is responding to the illegal detention of a Georgian citizen, Irakli Bebua, by the occupation regime on the occupied territory of Abkhazia. “According to reports, Irakli Bebua burnt a flag of the de facto republic. In addition, the de facto law enforcement agency accuses him of intentionally destructing property and illegally possessing ammunition. Given the nature of the action allegedly carried out by Irakli Bebua, it is likely that the de facto authorities artificially aggravated charges against him. Given all of the above, the Public Defender calls on the Georgian Government to strengthen efforts, with the help of international organizations, to release Irakli Bebua from illegal detention”. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge