Adjara. The Adjarian Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports has invalidated the permission certificate on the rehabilitation of the cultural heritage monument issued by the Director of the Agency for Protection of Cultural Heritage of Adjara. In particular, the case concerns the permission issued in respect of the cultural heritage monument located in Batumi at 39 Zubalashvilebi Str., based on which it was planned to rehabilitate the monument and construct a modern residential building. Part of Batumi-based NGOs has filed a complaint with the Adjarian Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, requesting the suspension of the order. The Ministry has issued the order, under which it has invalidated the Agency's permission on the rehabilitation of the cultural heritage monument.

Kakheti. The Telavi Office of the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association has met with the journalists on October 2 concerning the electoral topics. The meeting aimed to inform the audience about the developments and additions made to the Election Code.

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia released a blog post - "GNCC Candidates – Is there the risk of conflict of interests?".  "The Parliament has to fill a vacancy for one Commissioner at the Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC), the telecom and broadcasting regulator. The work and perception of the GNCC leadership in past years has at times been undermined by apparent cases of conflict of interest that were never sufficiently addressed. Thus, TI Georgia decided to  conduct basic public record due diligence on these candidates", says the blog post. For full text Source:transparency.ge

Samegrelo. As part of the coalition project – "Citizen Participation for Democratic Self-Government", a public lecture was delivered in the Zugdidi Teaching University. The key issues of local self-government and citizen participation were discussed at the lecture. The project is supported by the Eurasia Partnership Foundation. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

KvemoKartli. On September 30, SIQA has organized the seminar "Be Sober when Driving" in the Marneuli Civic Engagement Center for the members of civic clubs of the Bolnisi, Gardabani and Marneuli schools, led by the representative of organization "Georgian Alliance for Safe Roads". The seminar aimed at raising the schoolchildren's awareness on drunk-driving and reducing the car accidents caused by drunk-driving. In addition, several informative videos on the road safety were shown. Seminar was interactive and a short discussion has taken place among the schoolchildren. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Samtskhe-Javakheti. A meeting was held on October 1 in the Akhaltsikhe Civic Engagement Center with the Youth Ambassador to the United Nations Organization TornikeZurabashvili. The meeting aimed at studying the youth problems nation-wide and consequently presenting them at the UN General Assembly and the Committee sessions, which will overall facilitate youth participation in the decision-making process. Local NGOs, students and schoolchildren have participated in the meeting. The Youth Ambassador will deliver a speech in the UN on October 6 and discuss problems that the Georgian youth faces.

Kakheti. A meeting was held in the Telavi State University as part of the project – "Higher Education Policy – Student Vision", attended by the students, teacher-professors and the administration staff. The meeting was organized by the "Georgian Young Constitutionalists' Association" and the "Georgian Young Sociologists' Association". Discussed at the event were significant aspects of university education such as: a legal status of higher education institutions; university funding system; decentralization of governance; academic freedom in the Georgian education sector, etc. The project "Higher Education Policy – Student Vision" is implemented as part of the Policy, Advocacy and Civil Society Development in Georgia (G-PAC) program of the East-West Management Institute (EWMI).

Adjara. A meeting was held on October 1 in the Batumi Civic Engagement Center with the Adjara-based NGOs on "Tuberculosis is Curable". The meeting was held at the initiative of the Health Promotion and Education Foundation. The information campaign on tuberculosis aims to inform the public on the disease. The activity was launched in Kutaisi and covers entire Georgia.

Samtskhe-Javakheti. "Take Care of Yourself! Take Care of Me! Take Care of Everybody!" - as part of the project of NGO "Women's Hope" bearing this title, a cleaning event was organized in the yard of the Akhaltsikhe Public School #2 and its adjacent territory. The project "Take Care of Yourself! Take Care of Me! Take Care of Everybody!" is implemented by the NGO "Women's Hope" with funding from the Czech company "Neserhut", which works on ecological problems. As the organizers have explained, the event aimed to liquidate and clean a spontaneous garbage dump by the school, as well as to activate the youngsters and involve them in the environment protection process. The schoolchildren, students and the eco-club members have participated in the event.

Tbilisi. Open Society Georgia Foundation, Local and international human rights advocates initiated a large-scale survey after one year from the dissemination of video footages depicting torture of prisoners.  The survey will look into motives of torture and inhumane treatment in Georgian prisons and its role in the justice system of Georgia. 1200 respondents will take part in the survey, of which 600 are former prisoners.Survey results to be unveiled in the first half of 2014. The research group is made of local and international NGOs working on human rights issues. For full text Source:osgf.ge

Tbilisi. ISFED, Georgian Young Lawyers' Association, Transparency International - Georgia and JumpStart Georgia have set up the elections portal of Georgia in the virtual space. The web page created jointly by the NGOs provides an opportunity to observe the elections online, as well as to see the results of all elections held after 2008 by means of various indicators. The portal: www.electionsportal.ge Source: page of ISFED in the social network.

Samtskhe-Javakheti. "Be Ready to Face the Dangers" - with the contest bearing this title the youngsters from Akhaltsikhe have echoed the International Day for Disaster Reduction. At the initiative of the civic club, the contest was held in the Akhaltsikhe Public School as an intellectual game at the end of September, with participation of all schools of the city. The event, which aimed to raise the schoolchildren's awareness on this issue, was held in three rounds. Special jury has revealed the winner team - the 1st Public School. A team from the Akhaltsikhe Scholl #5 was the runner-up. Winners were awarded with certificates and prizes.

Tbilisi. On September 30, Tbilisi Marriot Hotel hosted a conference "Eurasian Union - A Threat on the Way to the Integration to Europe". Conference participants evaluated Georgia's foreign policy and considered ways to avoid Russian pressure. During the conference NGOs made a statement in response to "Russia's increasing pressure on the Eastern Partnership states, which has especially grown in the run-up to the Vilnius Summit".  "It has become apparent that each Eastern Partnership country has to opt for customs union or EU integration", says the statement. For full text Source:osgf.ge

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) has presented the study - "Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the EU Member States". During the presentation EMC has informed the audience about institutional reforms that the EU member states have undertaken to implement the Convention and harmonize the country's internal institutional model with the Convention's principles. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. Feradi info publishes a visualization of relations between the State and the Church. JumpStart Georgia visualized some of the facts from mutually beneficial State-Church relationship in Georgia. Visualization  Source:feradi.info

Tbilisi. The portal european.ge, which was set up as part of the project of organization European Choice for Georgia, has uploaded Davit Adeishvili's publication "Khudonhesi Project and the Challenges of Sustainable Energy (Popular Memorial)". The publication (geo) Source:european.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International – Georgia released the weekly audio podcast of parliamentary news. Listeners can get familiar with audio materials of debating by the Legal Committee on the Law on the Police, as well as the audio materials concerning the draft Law on Common Courts, legislative initiative of transparency, amendments to the Labor, Code, etc. Podcast of Parliamentary News – 30 September (geo) Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The National Center for Democratic Development has released a statement on the amendments to the Law of Georgia on the "Rules of Exit from and Entry into Georgia by the Citizens of Georgia". "Believing that a person and his/her rights are the core values of the democratic society, in view of the public safety objectives and the values of a democratic state, we call on the Parliament of Georgia to actively cooperate with the NGO sector and to involve in the law-making process so that our society does not end up in the environment where the "state interest" is a priority over an individual and his/her rights", the statement says. For the full text.(geo) Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. The day of the Georgian martial arts and attire was held on September 29 with the support of the Children and Youth Development Fund. The project was funded as part of the second grant competition of the Children and Youth Development Fund and various cultural events were carried out within its scope. The Federation of the Georgian Martial Arts "Shavparosnebi" was the organizer of the event. The event included the march, martial modeling, archery competition, "Mkerdaoba", test of power, the Georgian handball rugby, and other traditional Georgian games. The festival was held in Georgia for the first time and one of its key goals is to popularize Georgian culture. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Shida Kartli. Charity Humanitarian Center "Abkhazeti" is continuing to work actively in eight schools in Gori Municipality villages to establish and develop the school clubs within the frames of the project "Youth Participation and Development".  In each target school 7 educational clubs have been established and they will work in one special class room. The logos and titles will be designed for each school with the active participation of students. The students will independently design the logos, identify the titles and receive the support of their peers through voting process. The best logos and titles selected through the voting system will be indicated in the entrance of the relevant school clubs. The best logo and title has been so far revealed for Akhaldaba school club. The contest in other schools will be held throughout the next week. The project "Youth Participation and Development" is funded by USAID and implemented with the support of UNICEF. Source:the organization's page in the social network

Adjara. A media camp - "Media and Journalist - Profession and a Professional" was held in Chakvi on September 26-29, with participation of 15 members of civic clubs of the ShidaKartli schools. The participants were divided into 5 groups and each of them was trained in various sectors of media: TV, radio, photo journalism, media direction. At the camp closing evening ceremony the teams have presented a television program, newspaper, radio story, photo story and an online story. Source: "Biliki's" page in the social network.

Samegrelo. On September 30, the members of the Youth Center "Ortus" of Association "Atinati" have presented the Youth Center to the schoolchildren of the Zugdidi Public School №12. The meeting aimed at informing the attending teenagers and teachers about the activities of the Youth Center. Following the presentation and a brief discussion of the Center's activities, interested schoolchildren have joined the project. Source: the organization's page in the social network.