Samtskhe-Javakheti.A discussion meeting on "European integration of Georgia and prospects and challenges related to the Association Agreement" was organized in the conference hall of the Union of Democratic Meskhetians. Representatives of the Akhaltsikhe Youth Civil Center, CSOs and local media outlets have attended the meeting. The event was organized by the Georgian Institute for Strategic Studies with support of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. CRRC Georgia responds to the May 23 announcement of TV3, in which the channel disagrees with the evaluations written in the first report of television monitoring conducted by CRRC Georgia.CRRC Georgia welcomes the interest of televisions with the monitoring results and expresses readiness to answer all questions related to the monitoring project and results. As part of the media monitoring project, CRRC will release three more reports and give a press conference on monitoring results together with other civil society organizations involved in the project. Source: crrc.ge

Tbilisi. Public Defender of Georgia addressed the Constitutional Court of Georgia with the claim and requested "to find unconstitutional provisions of the Law of Georgia on Operative Investigation Activity which entitles law enforcement agencies right to have permanent accession to the telecommunications and physical communication lines, mail servers, networks, and to other telecommunication connectors, as well as right to place/install a relevant hardware and software facilities and finally copy relevant databases for future use". For the full text Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. The School of Liberalism has hosted the discussion - "Should religious confessions be funded from the budget?". The School members have presented arguments in favor of and against funding religious confessions from the budget. Following the parties' positions, mentor Davit Zurabishvili has summarized and analyzed the arguments. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. The Architects' Initiative Group addresses the Tbilisi Mayor nominees. "Prior to the self-government elections we would like to remind you of unjustified practice pursued in previous years in the city - majority of implemented projects does not meet the objectives and requirements of the city's spatial-territorial development. As a result, current situation in Tbilisi requires immediate assistance and remedying. We believe this is mostly caused because of incomplete integrated city development plan, frequent and unjustified amendments to it, and total ignorance of independent professional opinion," the appeal says. For the full text. Source: www.change.org

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia released a blog post - "Georgian Co-Investment Fund’s 2014 projects: Further transparency needed”. "TI Georgia believes that it is important for GCF to publicly announce which individuals invest in GCF projects alongside Bidzina Ivanishvili. While GCF can achieve positive benefits for the Georgian economy and job creation. The level of transparency that we recommend GCF provides is important in order to attract investors, whether they wish to co-invest with the Fund or in a project that may be in competition with a GCF-backed project. Moreover, this openness will allow us, the public, and other investors to monitor the current government and the economy effectively", says the blog post. For the full text Source: transparency.ge  

Tbilisi. "Civil Initiative" has organized the daisy charity event on May 29 in the streets of Tbilisi. The organization's members have sold the flowers in the Tbilisi streets. With the raised amount youngsters plan to make the mobile discussion cinema-club. The organization will hold discussions in the villages of the Sighnaghi Municipality. Source: the organization's 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. A new project was presented on May 29 in the School for the Blind and Partially Sighted Children. With support of the Children and Youth Development Fund, the Association of the Blind Women and Children of Georgia has published in the Braille script the spiritual literature and presented them to the schoolchildren.At this stage, over 100 blind youngsters will benefit from the published literature. Total of 63,000 Braille pages were printed. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Imereti. On May 29, the Parliament of Georgia has backed at the first hearing of its extraordinary session the amendments to the law concerning secret surveillance during the investigative actions. Amendments are made to several laws simultaneously. Second and third hearings in the Parliament are planned on June 24 and 25, after the elections. For the full text. Source: media.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information has released public information obtained from the Central Election Commission, including the data on the staff list, e-mail correspondence, representative and business trip expenses, vehicle fleet, etc. For the full text. Source: opendata.ge

Adjara. Youth CSO of persons with disabilities "Changes for Equal Rights" has organized various events on May 29 in Batumi, aimed at focusing on the problems of the blind. Photo-exhibition was organized in the first half of the day, which displayed the environment adapted to the persons with disabilities. The photos mostly depicted buildings, which the persons with disabilities can access only with the help from others. After the exhibition, a blindfolded march was organized in the streets. At the end of the day a short movie was shown in the Civic Engagement Center, which depicts the life of successful blind people. Members of the volunteer club functioning with the organization have planned and implemented these events.

Kakheti. Representatives of the "Open Society - Georgia" Foundation have met with students of the Telavi State University on May 29.Employing youngsters in the media sales area was a key topic of discussion. Focus was made on problems experienced by the current media market, such as: creation by online media resources and independent television studios of media content expressing public interest, improvement of skills required for the development of media as business, as well as raising the level of journalistic standards and media literacy.

Tbilisi. The Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information has released the blog post - "Peculiarities of the Facebook Page of the Interior Minister". "The review of the Facebook page of the Minister of Interior of Georgia Aleksandre Chikaidze has identified the trend of abundant positive comments only. This has been discussed recently in the social networks as well. We got interested in this fact and tried to check the personal Facebook pages of authors of these comments. Monitoring has revealed with high probability that these users are created and managed by one person or group of persons. It is also clear that the majority of authors of these comments does not use these Facebook accounts for personal interests and has created them for concrete purposes only," says the blog post. For the full text. Source: eparticipationge.wordpress.com

Tbilisi. Association "Anika" has organized on May 29 the summary presentation of the project "Free Legal Aid for Persons with Disabilities in Tbilisi and Gori".Representatives of the state and various private structures and organizations have attended the event. Project heads and lawyers have informed invited guests about the project developments, examples of delivered advocacy and court hearings, presented results achieved as part of the project and discussed the developed recommendations. Source: the organization's page in the social network

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia released Gigi Chikladze's blog post - TI: "CEC makes right decisions on the registration of mayor nominees”. "On May 20 the Central Election Commission of Georgia (the "CEC") has rejected the complaints of the "National-Democratic Movement" and the electoral bloc "Non-Parliamentary Opposition (Kakha Kukava, Pikria Chikhradze)" requesting the revocation of registration of the authorities' nominees for the Poti and Rustavi Mayor elections. Irrespective of the fact that the CEC has applied the approach different from its decree rendered a month ago on the revocation of registration of the mayor nominee Irakli Okruashvili, we find these decisions to be fair and compliant with requirements of the law", says the blog post. For the full text Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Public Defender released a statement. "The PDO (Public Defender’s Office) and a NPM (National Preventive Mechanism) carry out regular monitoring about human rights situations in the penitentiary institutions. ...At this time, I would like to comment on the dismissal of a head of the Department of Corrections and inform the society about my position. I consider that the dismissal of the head of Department of Corrections and an appointment of a new head will not change an existing situation in the penitentiary system, since there still remain many problems and many questions are unanswered", says the statement. For the full text  Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information has released public information obtained from the Georgian National Communications Commission, which includes data on the staff list, representative and business trip expenses, vehicle fleet, etc. For the full text Source: opendata.ge

Kakheti. Telavi Office representatives of the Young Lawyers' Association have organized information meetings on May 29 in Lagodekhi. The meetings mainly focused on the presentation of a new project, under which the organization will render free legal aid to citizens of Georgia in emigration.

Tbilisi. On June 4 "Identoba" will organize the second Georgian student conference on LGBT issues. At the event up to ten students from various accredited universities will present their researches and works on the status of LGBT persons in the regions of Georgia and the capital. The conference will cover topics such as the role of secondary professions in respect of LGBT issues, bullying at schools, assessment of homophobia in Tbilisi and regions, cultural and religious attitudes towards LGBT issues. For the full text. Source: identoba.com

Kakheti. Representative of the Public Defender of Georgia has met with CSO and media representatives on May29 in the Telavi Civic Engagement Center. The meeting aimed to analyze the situation of human rights and freedoms in the region and get familiar with current problems.