Tbilisi. Civil society organizations respond to facts of interrogation of lawyers of the family of Tamar Bachaliashvili in the presence of a magistrate judge, as well as seizure of a personal mobile phone of Mikheil Ramishvili within the framework of an investigation launched on the ground of the fact of falsification of evidences by the Prosecutor’s Office. CSOs consider that these actions might be acknowledged as deliberate attempt to use justice for other purposes, in particular - to influence the position of the family of Bachaliashvili and defenders of her rights. “We call on the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia to remain in the legal space, immediately stop any type of interference in the activities of lawyers and respect their professional independence”, - is noted in the joint statement. Read more… Source: gdi.ge

Shida Kartli. An inter-agency commission on prevention of violence against women and/or domestic violence is going to be established at the City Hall of Gori Municipality. The commission will be headed by Paata Ivanishvili, Deputy Mayor of Gori. The project, which made it possible to implement this idea, is initiated by the Women's Information Center. As Elene Rusetsky, the head of the organization, explains, this is an unprecedented case when a group composed of representatives of various institutions is involved in the process of resolving similar issues at the municipal level. Prior to Gori, an inter-agency commission was set up in Zugdidi. It is intended to facilitate establishment of similar groups in other cities of Georgia as well. Read more… Source: ginsc.net

Tbilisi. With the support of UN Women, Public Defender's Office has conducted online seminars on gender-sensitive reporting and media standards. Participants of the seminar have been introduced to the standards of ethical and non-discriminatory, gender-sensitive reporting including femicide reporting. Journalists have discussed existing challenges in mainstream media related to the gender-sensitive reporting and received recommendations. Read more…  Source: The page in social network

Tbilisi. Sapari succeeded in the case of Nana Gogaladze, a victim of systematic domestic violence, who was brought to trial for wounding her offensive husband. Through the efforts of the organization, there have been revealed circumstances for legitimacy of the necessary repulsion, interrogated a number of witnesses, and carried out certain investigative actions in the case. As a result, the Tbilisi City Court qualified the case as a necessary repulsion and ruled out a decision to acquit Nana Gogaladze. The accusing party appealed against this verdict and demanded to declare Nana Gogaladze guilty as well as to punish her under Article 117 of the Criminal Code. The Tbilisi Court of Appeals rejected the appeal of the Vake-Saburtalo District Prosecutor and left the first-instance decision of acquittal in force. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Caritas Georgia presents the report “Needs of Vulnerable Groups and Social Care, which is based on first-hand information provided by our beneficiaries.  The goal of the report is to work and invite the attention of all actors in the sphere of social care and protection in Georgia to the systematic problems that people living in poverty have.  Read more…  Source: The page in the social network

Europe Foundation published a post about positive examples in Ozurgeti Municipality where budget related-issues were resolved through a participatory principle  “GIFT (Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency) has declared 10 principles of public participation in fiscal policy to implement citizen-oriented budgeting policy. One of these principles is SUSTAINABILITY”, - Is mentioned in the post, - “There are some positive examples in Ozurgeti Municipality where budget related-issues were resolved through a participatory principle helping to institutionalize public participation in fiscal policy. Founder of Progress House Mindia Salukvadze is sharing his experience of collaboration with local government and some positive results he has seen in Ozurgeti municipality”.  Read more…  Source: Page in the social network

Tbilisi. On September 24, 2020, the Public Defender of Georgia and the Council of Religions of the Public Defender of Georgia presented recommendations drawn up in 2020 concerning the challenges relating to freedom of religion and religious minorities. The event was supported by the Promoting Integration, Tolerance, and Awareness (PITA) Programme, which is being carried out by the UN Association of Georgia (UNAG) with the financial support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Read more…  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) published the statement.  “Based on the appeals of “Institute for Development of Freedom of Information” and “Media Development Foundation” the Constitutional Court of Georgia, by its decision of June 7, 2019, ruled that the provisions of the Law of Georgia on Personal Data Protection, specifically Article 5 and paragraphs 1 and 3 of Article 6 were unconstitutional as they prohibited access to the full text of court decisions delivered within the scope of public hearings by Common Courts of Georgia. According to the constitutional court, any decision rendered in the process of adjudication should be open unless there is a substantiated necessity to restrict its accessibility. The Court declared the disputed norms void from May 2020 and thus gave the Parliament of Georgia time to harmonize existing legislation with the requirements of the Constitution, but the Parliament has not adopted appropriate legislative amendments within the prescribed time frame. Although no changes have been made to the legislation to date, from May 1, 2020 the provisions of the Law of Georgia on Personal Data Protection, that restrict access to the full text of court decisions delivered within the scope of public hearings by Common Courts of Georgia, are abolished”, - is mentioned in the statement, - “IDFI requested the full text of the judgments rendered in May 2020 from several common courts. In response to our requests, courts stated that they are obliged to protect the personal data contained in the judicial acts from disclosure, therefore, they cannot provide us with the full texts of court decisions (without personal data being redacted)”.  Read more…  Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi.Handbook is elaborated with the support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Project “Citizen Participation in Municipal Budgeting” is implemented within the frames of Eastern Partnership Regional Fund for Public Administration Reform.  Practical Handbook on Participatory Budgeting

Tbilisi. In support of women's empowerment, UN Women has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Agricultural and Rural Development Agency of Georgia.  The overall objective of the Memorandum of Understanding is to provide support to women, especially vulnerable women through special economic empowerment programs developed by the Agricultural and Rural Development Agency.  Read more…  Source: Page in the social network

Human Rights Center, in the frame of the project “Free Legal Advocacy and Human Rights Monitoring After the COVID-19 Pandemic”, organized field visits to the project targeted regions of Imereti, and Kvemo Kartli.  The project regional lawyers met citizens and informed them about the free legal aid Human Rights Center can offer them to advocate their breached human rights.  Read more…   Source: Page in the social network

Racha-Lechkhum-Kvemo Svaneti. LDA Georgia is still holding meetings with the members of Civic Advisory Councils and public servants in Tsageri and Lentekhi municipality within the framework of the grant “ Racha-Lechkhumi and lower Svaneti Regional Development Initiative”. All the main inter-municipal initiatives which can be implemented by neighboring municipalities were discussed at the meeting.  „Racha-Lechkhumi and lower Svaneti Regional Development Initiative” is undertaken within the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) “Fostering Regional and Local Development-Phase 2” project, with financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) and the Government of Georgia.  Read more…  Source: Page in the social network

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. EU4Justice is pleased to introduce a new publication (GEO) on selected issues of EU law.  Read more…  Source: Page in the social network

Tbilisi. Election coverage has become more diverse in recent years, but analytical depth is lacking and some outlets resort to gender stereotypes. These are some of the findings released today by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from the first 11 weeks of monitoring of mass media coverage of the upcoming parliamentary elections.  The monitoring 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. It also looks into the ways that Georgian media organizations connect with their readers on Facebook, analyzing what kind of electoral news gets most of the social media outreach, including through the Facebook pages associated with political parties, officials and politicians. A separate report prepared by CRRC-Georgia examines how Georgian television stations are covering foreign influence on Georgian electoral processes.  Media coverage of the Georgian political landscape has expanded to cover a wider range of political parties and actors than in past elections. However, the monitoring also showed that media coverage is largely shaped by the political agendas of the contending forces, focusing on only a few issues and failing to provide in-depth information on topics of potential public interest.  The interim reports released today cover 11 weeks of the pre-election period, from 15 June through 31 August.  Read more… Source: eeas.europa.eu

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes analytical material: Cybersecurity reform in Georgia: Current challenges, international practices, and recommendations. “Legislative changes, initiated by Irakli Sesiashvili, a member of the Parliament of Georgia, completely modify the architecture of cybersecurity of the country and arrange critical infrastructure management related issues in a new way. Based on studies of international standards and practices, we would like to emphasize issues that need to be refined and taken into account to help ensure more secure cyberspace”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more…  Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. As Myth Detector informs, on September 18, Zurab Makharadze, one of the presenters of a program of Alt-Info, a Facebook page, spoke about the next United States presidential election. “According to him, the victory of Donald Trump in the United States presidential election will cause anger within Antifa, an international movement, which, as he himself states, is funded by the Open Society Georgia Foundation (so-called Soros Foundation). The statement of Alt-Info, as if the Open Society Georgia Foundation finances the Antifa movement, is disinformation. Antifa, an anti-fascist movement with leftist ideology, is an active participant and organizer of political processes that currently take place in the United States. As PolitiFact and Snopes, fact-finding organizations, as well as the New York Times and Forbes note, there is no evidence that George Soros and/or his organization finance organizers of a protest/disorder in the United States”, - is stated in the material spread by Myth Detector. Read more… Source: www.mythdetector.ge

Tbilisi. A new Handbook on legal issues of domestic violence and violence against women for law students is initiated with USAID/PROLoG’s support. “The aim of drafting the handbook is to create a comprehensive teaching material, to collect all existing legislation on domestic violence and violence against women as well as commentaries theron in order to make it easily accessible for law students”. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Adjara. The thermal screening of the drivers and passengers continues at the entrances of Batumi. The activity is carried out by more than 30 Red Cross volunteers. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes a podcast, in which there are discussions about mono-industries as well as diversification of the economy, opportunities of employment policy, and its effectiveness in such regions. "If we generate the ratio between the number of people employed in the mining sector and the total labor force, we will see that Georgia does not represent an economy dominated by an extractivist labor market. However, on the other hand, the fact that there are no other alternative employment opportunities in mono-industrial regions makes this sector of the economy extremely important in mono-industrial and similar resource-dependent regions”. Read more… Source:emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Check out latest publication of GIZ Law Program: “Commentaries on the Civil Procedure Code of Georgia”. The book is published by the project "Better Commercial Law and Legal Practice in Georgia”, which is co-financed by the European Union and German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ). Only the electronic version of the book will be available and can be downloaded from the link bellow… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Samegrelo. On September 18, certification of the participants of the Blueberry Farming Consultant training course was held. The course is implemented within the Dual Vocational Education Program. 23 internally displaced people and the conflict-affected youth residing in the Samegrelo region participate in the program. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network