Shida Kartli. On February 9-10, the training was held in Gori as part of the project "Advocacy of Child-Oriented School" of the Civic development Institute in "Theoretic and practical aspects of class governance". Training was delivered in line with the accredited module. Along with diverse training materials, the participants have received the book prepared by the Institute – "Guide to a Child-Oriented School". Source: cdi.org.ge

Tbilisi. Winners of the "EU Journalism Prize 2012" have been identified. Journalist of "Georgia Today” Maia Edilashvili has received the award for the best investigation article. The prize for the best TV and radio story was awarded to journalist of "Monitor" Salome Tsetskhladze. Blogger Giorgi Kikonishvili was awarded for the best web page, blog and the social network profile. Source: Media.ge

Tbilisi. The developments taking place on Friday by the National Library in connection with the President's speech were widely covered by the large Georgian TV companies. Transparency International – Georgia has focused on the aspects of coverage and the statement released on this issue on February 12 says that the stories prepared by several TV companies were biased."TV broadcasters have also gone back to old habits, which after all resulted in politically biased coverage. "9th Channel" and "Imedi" have covered the confrontation in the edited stories in favor of the "Georgian Dream", while "Rustavi 2" - in favor of the "National Movement". "Maestro" and "Public Broadcaster" have offered to audience more or less balanced reports" – says the statement. For the full text. Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi."Civitas Georgica" has held the meeting on the state of pre-school education and legislative initiatives. Meeting participants have talked about the importance of alternative kindergartens, quality of pre-school education, program, needs of children and teachers and the municipal strategies of pre-school education. Member of the parliamentary majority Tinatin Khidasheli has attended the meeting, who talked about the legislative initiative and expected changes aimed at regulating the pre-school education, pursuant to which the pre-school education must become all-public and universal. The project, within the framework of which this meeting was organized, is funded by the UN Children's Fund Source: civitas.ge

Tbilisi. The League of Free Debates invites students to participate in the Georgian championships in political format debates. Those interested in participation can send as individual as well as team applications. Deadline for filing the applications in February 25. For the full text. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. The Coalition for "Media Advocacy" welcomes the creation of ad hoc council for transition to digital broadcasting in the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, with participation of the civil society. Yet, the Coalition expresses concerns over the slow pace of work, – says the statement released by the Coalition on February 12. For the full text. Source:media.ge

Imereti. The Kutaisi Education, Development and Employment Center announces the competition as part of the "Civic Education and Teacher Training Program" titled "Get to know him, he's a hero". The schoolchildren of the 9-10-11-12 grades of public schools of the Imereti Region involved in the Program are eligible to participate in the competition as individually, as well as in teams. Competition participants must deliver presentations on the prominent or less known civil heroes. Deadline for submitting the works is March 9. For the full text. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. "Transparency International – Georgia" has posted the weekly audio podcast on its web site.Topics of the February 12 edition are: meeting of the Speaker and the President, developments by the National Library, summoning of MPs to the Prosecutor's Office, initiative on regulating the official and national clothing, Nadirashvili's speech on nepotism and the problems of ethics in the Parliament. Podcast of parliamentary news – 12 February. Source: transparency.ge

Imereti. On February 12, the Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission has met with the NGO and media representatives.At the meeting the Chair of the Commission Guram Chalagashvili talked about GNERC's activiites and the role of the Commission in the energy and water supply system. In addition, the Commission members have focused on the tariff policy in Georgia, feedback on the quality of services and relations that the Commission has with local and international organizations. The Commission plans to hold similar information meetings in the future as well.

Tbilisi. 18 NGOs have submitted to the Prime Minister of Georgia the set of recommendations on the action plan for "Partnership for Open Governance". It includes various proposals on how to make the work process of the Government of Georgia more transparent, while the information about it more accessible to the broad public. Recommendations. Source: blog of the Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information.

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association and Transparency International – Georgia have released the monitoring report of the High Council of Justice. The report covers the period of March-December 2012, during which the monitoring focused on the transparency of appointment and assignment of judges, disciplinary proceedings and the Council's activities. According to the monitoring results, NGOs state that the processes were not duly transparent and certain pieces of information were not available, thus hindering the research process. For the full text. Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Regional Center for Research and Promotion of Constitutionalism delivers the targeted qualification raising courses for journalists. "Lessons in Constitutionalism" will be held in March, April and May. Delivered lectures and practical exercises will relate to real events and positions of parties participating in the drafting/examination of the draft constitutional amendments. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy has presented the second monitoring report of the post-election processes. The report includes information on staff changes in the self-governments, protest rallies and the legal persecution against the self-government servants. "We believe that the current situation once again illustrates the need to carry out the self-government reform in the nearest future, in order to ensure tangible independence of self-government and non-interference in issues within its competence", the organization has stated. For the full text. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. The Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development has published the short video lectures in Georgian on the logical framework analysis. This model is actively used for elaboration of projects, and it is divided into three parts.The first part covers the description of the method, the second part focuses on drafting the problems analysis, and the third part will assist you in formulation of respective objectives based on the problems analysis. Overall, this presentation will give customers an opportunity to get familiar with the significance of this method and the needs of applying it. Video lecture – Description of method Video lecture – Drafting of problems analysis Video lecture – Analysis of objectives Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. Up to 300 publications were added to the library of the Boll Foundation during the last year. Overall, the library includes over 2,000 literature publications of various formats: books, brochures, periodic editions, CDs in German, English, Russian and Georgian languages.The library is open for the students and representatives of academic circles, who can get familiar with the modern literature in social sciences, as well as in the areas of human rights, democracy, ecology and sustainable development, gender equality, transformation of conflicts and rethinking the Soviet past. The Catalogue. Source: georgien.boell-net

Tbilisi. The United Professional Unions of Georgia have presented to the NGO sector the set of comments and recommendations on the amendments and supplements to the Labor Code. According to the Chairman of the United Professional Unions Irakli Petriashvili, the Ministry of Justice and the United Professional Unions have agreed on certain issues in relation to amendments to the Labor Code, but there are issues that the parties have differing opinions on and the agreement is not possible so far.In addition, the discussion was held between the representatives of the United Professional Unions of Georgia and the lawyers of NGOs around the comments and recommendations on the amendments to the Labor Code presented at the meeting. For the full text. Source: humanrights.ge

Samegrelo. At the press-conference held on February 11 in the Zugdidi Office of Transparency International - Georgia, the facts of infringement upon property rights in Anaklia were discussed.According to the organization's lawyer Ana Kochua, residents of Anaklia have signed the documents on transfer of their property to the state as a result of pressure from the Prosecutor's Office. Part of citizens were summoned to the Prosecutor's Office.Transparency International - Georgia calls on the Chief Prosecutor's Office of Georgia to launch investigation into the facts of pressure on citizens by the Prosecutor's Office. For the full text.

Samtskhe-Javakheti. As part of the Civic Education and Teacher Training Program, the conference was held in the Borjomi Public School #3 on "From Davit to Tamar".Schoolchildren of the Public School of village Arali of Adigeni Municipality were the initiators of the conference. The civic club members of 8 public schools have participated in the conference. The works of schoolchildren were presented, out of which three best works were identified. To raise their level of literacy, the civic clubs of winner schools were awarded with the reading literature, while all presenters have received certificates for participating in the conference.The conference aimed to support the club initiatives and to make various civic clubs involved in the Program friends with each other.

Samegrelo. Representatives of the newly founded NGO, the Democracy Development Center "Mermisi" have talked about the organization's objectives and tasks in the Zugdidi Office of Civic Engagement Center on February 11.The organization plans to monitor tenders announced by the Gamgeoba, as well as measures carried out based on these tenders. To this end, "Mermisi" intends to execute the memorandum of cooperation with the Zugdidi Municipality Gamgeoba.According to the organization's members, apart from monitoring of the self-government authorities, they also work on the restoration of Georgian-Abkhazian relations and projects on the use of public diplomacy. NGO "Mermisi" was founded last December.

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association has presented the monitoring report on the pre-election environment, polling day and the post-election period on February 11. The report covers the results of monitoring carried out from 1 August 2012 including 20 October 2012 (GYLA started observing the pre-election processes quite early, since 1 January 2012 and evaluated the pre-election environment in its two interim reports).As already noted, today's report covers the pre-election, polling day and post-election period from 1 August. The report focuses on the procedures of examination of complaints and summarization of results during the pre-election period, polling day and after the elections. The Report. Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Young trainers of SIQA have delivered the seminar on the Karl Popper debate format for the students of TSU on February 9. 25 participants got familiar with various types of formal debates and discussed the Karl Popper format in details. Model demo-debates were organized as part of the event. The seminar was organized within the framework of the project of ELSA - European Law Students' Association, which foresees organizing the tournament of debates among the Tbilisi-based universities.

Tbilisi. The Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information has echoed the developments by the public library on February 8 with a statement. "We believe that restricting the freedom of assembly and expression is totally unacceptable. We call on the law-enforcement agencies to ensure the protection of rights of Georgian citizens regardless of their political opinions to freely, unrestrictedly and publicly express their position and opinions", says the statement. The organization urges the law-enforcement agencies to investigate what happened and hold responsible as those accused of committing unlawful actions, as well as the employees of the Ministry of Interior who had failed to duly observe lawful order. For the full text. Source: idfi.ge