Tbilisi. On December 19 director of Institute for Development of Freedom of Information, Giorgi Kldiashvili conducted a lecture about Stalinism and mass repressions for high school students. This event was attended by the members of Leadership House. The aim of this meeting was making the young generation familiar with the epoch and assessing the events that took place back then. Source:idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia has recently appealed and stopped 4 tenders announced by Marneuli Municipality to buy 5 passenger vehicles with total value of GEL 270,000. "The technical specification document for one of the tenders had a clearly visible KIA logo. The document was later updated, and no longer has the car manufacturer’s logo – but the specification for the tender remained the same. It is a violation of procedures to have overly narrow specifications that would result in only one company being able to sell the cars that meet the criteria, a risk we see for all four tenders.  All of these tenders are public and available via online web platform - Tendermonitor.ge Source:the organization's page in the social network

Adjara. As part of the School of Democracy, BekaMindiashvili has organized a seminar on December19 in the Public Defender's Batumi Office for the students, local CSOs, media outlets and representatives of state agencies. Topic of the seminar was "Religion and Democracy". Meeting participants have discussed interrelation of various religious denominations with various political ideologies, as well as the situation in the South Caucasus in this respect.

Tbilisi. The Tbilisi Sakrebulo has responded to the study of the Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information. The organization has posted the Sakrebulo's response in the social network. For the full text (geo) Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Adjara. IRMS has organized a focus group on December 19 in the Batumi Civic Engagement Center as part of the Good Governance (G3) Program. Meeting participants have discussed the degree of accessibility of public information for the CSOs. Local representatives of the third sector have talked also about problems that they encounter when requesting public information from public institutions, as well as the protracted procedures, which is a preventing factor for interested legal entities during the implementation of various projects.

Tbilisi. On December 19, students of the Georgian University have painted a wall of the "Doctors' House" cafe located in the territory of the Iashvili Children's Hospital. The event was held as part of the project "Students for Supporting Social Entrepreneurship". Source: page of the Center of Social Entrepreneurship in the social network.

Adjara. The "DoroteaParkeli" Charity Fund and the students' initiative group have organized a charity event on December 19. Warm clothes were collected in front of the Adjara Government House for the homeless and socially vulnerable families. Event participants could donate money as well. According to the organizers, there are up to 150 homeless in Batumi, and they spend nights in the street or in various shelters. This youth initiative is supported by representatives of various CSOs and state agencies.

Tbilisi. A sitting of the Ethics Commission was held in the Georgian Bar Association, at which attorney-at-law Tsitsino Tskhvediani was elected as the new Chair of the Commission. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. Under the auspices of the "Georgian Young Constitutionalists' Association", a round table was organized on the "Constitutional-legal guarantees of protection of the state symbols". The Association  has presented for discussion the results of the study on constitutional practices of foreign states on the norms regulating state symbols. Further, focus was made on the culture of using state symbols among the society. Representatives of the State Council of Heraldry, non-governmental sector and other interested persons have attended the event. In relation to the above the Association intends in the nearest future to hold consultations with representatives of the Parliament of Georgia and start developing the draft constitutional law. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center has organized the screening of a film as part of the "Civil Activism Platform". The documentary - "Underground Children" - was shown in the Newton Free School, public school of village Karaleti and the Tbilisi Public School #129. The film demonstrates the results of the abortion policy introduced by Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania. Afterwards the schoolchildren had a discussion on the topic. In view of the schoolchildren's assessments and issues raised by them, the Platform participants will develop an analysis in the near future on the reflexes of youngsters from various social groups in respect of this problem. Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Chairman of the Georgian Bar Association and the attorneys-at-law have organized a special press-conference.According to Zaza Khatiashvili, "a new wave of persecution against the corpus of attorneys in Georgia has started ... a fact of pressure on attorneys illustrates that the Economic Adviser of the Prime Minister Gia Khukhashvili has abused his office for his own activities ... functions of Economic Adviser of the Prime Minister do not include participation in private disputes." For the full text.(geo) Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. Georgian Human Rights Organizations voice their position on the ongoing reforms in penitentiary system and the developments in prisons for the past months. "We consider that prison conditions and protection of prisoners’ rights has increased considerably as a result of activities implemented in penitentiary system for the past year. Though, in view of torture and inhuman treatment that was inherited by the new government from its predecessor, important challenges still remain, including the negative stereotype and mistrust of public. These problems may be resolved only by restoring trust through implementing concrete activities and by establishing human rights protection culture in the system With a view to attain the goal, one of the key amendments will be to grant prison monitoring authority to NGOs..." For the full text Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. On December 19, Georgian Young Lawyers' Association held presentation of the research on proactive disclosure of public information providing information about current trends in Georgia, as well as the international practice. The research examines individually activities implemented in terms of guaranteeing proactive disclosure of public information, request of information in an electronic form and its disclosure by the Chancellery of the Georgian Government, all the state Ministries, offices of the state Ministers and randomly selected 18 legal entities of public law under their subordination within the period of September 1, 2013- December 10, 2013. Furthermore, the document also describes the conditions of public agencies’ web-resources and examples from the international practice. For the full text Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International – Georgia has released another audio podcast of weekly parliamentary news. Interested persons can get familiar with the following topics: another confrontation in the Parliament: time to regulate parliamentary ethics; CSO day in the Parliament; key areas of the draft Local Self-Government Code; the Parliament building in Tbilisi is being renovated, but it is unclear where will the Parliament resume working during the spring session. Podcast (geo) Source:transparency.ge

Mtskheta-Mtianeti. With support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) delivers a training on December 17-21 covering the following topics: communication, leadership, gender equality and human rights. The training is delivered in Gudauri, with participation of members of the Gender Equality Network and the women representatives of political parties functioning in Georgia. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. CSO "Young Barristers" calls on the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia to launch investigation based on the statement of former Prime Minister IvaneMerabishvili. According to "Young Barristers", "Merabishvili's statement provides legal grounds to launch investigation and only impartial investigation will be able to exhaust the issue and meet the public interest." For the full text(geo) Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Kakheti. The Association of Municipal Service-Providers has organized under the UN auspices a meeting on December19 concerning the gender budget issue. CSO representatives and the female members of municipality Sakrebulos of the Kakheti Region have attended the meeting, key objective of which was to get familiar with the budgeting processes and take into account the population's interests.

Tbilisi. National Democratic Institute (NDI) released a survey- "Public attitudes in Georgia". The survey, was fielded by the Caucasus Resource Research Centers (CRRC) on November 13-27 and was funded by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The survey was conducted through nationwide face-to-face interview with 3,915 respondents. The survey, which shows respondents’ attitudes towards broad range of policy and current issues, also includes ratings of political parties and this segment of the survey will be released on November 20. For the full text Source:civil.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia presented its final report on misuse of administrative resources during 2013 Presidential elections. "The monitoring of the period from 1 July to 12 November 2013 revealed that, compared with the Parliamentary Elections in 2012, there was a considerably lower number of instances of the use of administrative resources for electoral purposes during this period. This made the pre-election period seem more calm and competitive". For the full text Source:transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Georgian Democracy Initiative (GDI) released a statement on the recent information disseminated by Ivane Merabishvili. Organization "expresses its grave concern on the inadequate response of the Georgian authorities on the information revealed in the statement made in the courtroom by IvaneMerabishvili on 17 December and calls upon the authorities to immediately launch the criminal investigation on those facts.  In addition the authorities should conduct prompt investigation with maximum transparency to respond to all questions of high public interest. Timely withdrawal of all CCTV recordings from relevant institutions is of utmost importance and we do home that the recordings will not be destroyed and later will become accessible to the public as well", says the statement. For the full text  Source:gdi.ge

Tbilisi. The Forum of Georgian Youth Organizations was opened up in Expo-Georgia on December 18. The Forum is held since 2007 and the number of participants increases from year to year. This time, representatives of up to 140 youth organizations participate in the two-day Forum, which aims to promote constructive dialogue between representatives of the state and non-governmental youth organizations, exchange information on the activities of participating organizations, achieve coordination and deepen the partnership.The Forum is organized with support of the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs of Georgia. For the full text. Source: page of CSO "SIQA" in the social network.

Tbilisi. The Georgian Bar Association has released the position of the organization's Chairman Zaza Khatiashvili on the statement made by Ivane Merabishvili. "On December 17, the civil society has heard the shocking statement of the former Interior Minister and Prime Minister Ivane Merabishvili about inhuman pressure exercised on him. ... time has come for the civil society to wake up and look with a critical eye at the facts of violence carried out by the new authorities," says the statement. For the full text(geo) Source: the organization's page in the social network.