Samegrelo. CSO "New generation – New Initiative" has organized the opening of the European Corner in Poti, implemented as part of the project "Georgia in Europe". Meeting participants were also briefed about the EU and the project "Georgia in Europe".At the first stage of the project "Georgia in Europe", NGO "New Generation – New Initiative" organized the auto-tour on the European Neighborhood Policy and the Georgia-EU integration, where during the meetings with the population seminars were delivered concerning the process of Georgia's Euro-integration and the EU in general.The project is implemented in partnership with the organization "European Partnership for Democracy" (EPD) and financial support of the Netherlands.For the full text.Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Adjara. USAID, USDOI and CENN have organized the meeting-discussion on December 5 in the Batumi Civic Engagement Center, aimed to raise public awareness on the protection and preservation of wild nature. Through brief presentations and films, focus was made on concrete cases of illegal trade in wild nature and the general biodiversity management issues. In addition, the event has involved the participants in an interactive discussion for sharing the views on the preservation and conservation of biodiversity.

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association echoes the developments in village Tsintskaro of the Tetritskaro District and reminds the state and especially the law-enforcement agencies of their obligation to protect the freedom of religion of the citizens and to get involved in the current confrontation between the Christian and Muslim populations to regulate the situation.GYLA also calls on the representatives of legislative body, in view of their constitutional status, to be extremely cautious with their actions and statements to bring them in line with the Constitution of Georgia. The Statement. Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information has carried out the monitoring of online resources of the Georgian judicial authorities, which included the determination of the quality of information posted on official web pages of the Georgian judicial authorities and the technical shape (online accessibility) of the web pages.17 official web pages of the Georgian judicial authorities were selected as part of the monitoring. Following the completion of monitoring by the Institute, each court has received respective monitoring papers depicting the statistical data on the research of official web pages of the judicial authorities, identified problems and respective recommendations. For the full text. Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International has released the Corruption Perceptions Index for 2012, in which Georgia was awarded 52 points on a 100-point scale, where the lowest point - 0 stands for highly corrupt, and 100 - for the highly clean public sector.In the rankings Georgia shares 51st place with the Seychelles, but is ahead of several EU-member states, including the Czech Republic, Latvia, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria, and is slightly behind Rwanda, Lithuania, Costa Rica and Hungary.The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) measures the perception of corruption in the public sector in 176 countries. For the full text. Source:transparency.ge

Adjara. On December 3, the youth organization Art Way has organized in the Batumi's "European Square" the exhibition and sale dedicated to the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Presented at the exhibition were the paintings and ceramic works of persons with disabilities, as well as the craftwork of schoolchildren of the studio "Tanadgoma" (assistance, support) functioning with the Public School #2. Employees of the City Hall and the Ministry of Health, Education and Culture of Adjara, as well as the CSO and media representatives have visited the exhibition.

Samegrelo. On November29, the representatives of the EUMM (European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia) Zugdidi Office have held the 26th coordination meeting for the international and local NGOs. At the meeting the Open Environmental Civic Initiative (OECI) informed the participants about the project "Sustainable Forest Management in Georgia".The Open Environmental Civic Initiative is implemented in 7 regions of Georgia with the financial support of the Austrian Development Agency. The initiative aims at contributing to the reformation of the Georgian forestry sector by enhancing the capacities of the authorities and the civil society and developing the issue-focused dialogue. Source:CENN

ShidaKartli. The youth center functioning with the association "Gori Club of the Disabled" and the youth center operating with the Ozurgeti Union of Young Teachers have jointly celebrated December 3. Children from Ozurgeti have visited the Gori Youth Club, where the Gori and Ozurgeti based children with disabilities have jointly made the symbolic blue-violet ribbons.In addition, children from Ozurgeti performed the play on the persons with disabilities and their problems. Following its completion, the youngsters moved to the KaraletiIDP settlement, where the painting competition was organized together with the IDP children.The event was organized as part of the "Advancing National Integration in Georgia" (ANI) project, implemented by the United Nations Association of Georgia (UNAG), with support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Tbilisi.EWMI G-PAC met with the representatives of analytical organizations, where the improvement strategies of public policy studies were discussed. The discussion evolved around three major issues: creation of integrated mutual evaluation system, establishment of ethical and quality standards for analytical organizations, and improvement of cooperation between analytical organizations and the government. In addition, the participants discussed why the analytical organizations have failed to have any impact on this or that political decision of the former government.Ten analytical organizations have participated in the meeting. For the full text. Source:ewmi-gpac.org

Tbilisi.On December3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Everychild Georgia has organized a charity event titled "Special skills of children with special needs”. The children having special needs, their host parents and the teachers of the children’s homes have participated in the event. The paintings and craft works of children with disabilities were exhibited, and musical performances were held at the event.The charity event aimed at drawing public attention to the life of children with disabilities, their needs and skills, as well as at activating the population for them to participate in the social integration of children with disabilities.The First Lady Sandra Roelofs, representatives of the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Welfare, UNICEF and international and local NGOs have attended the event. For the full text. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Samtskhe-Javakheti. To introduce the "Box of civil initiatives and events”, the staff members of the Akhaltsikhe Youth Center have met on November 30 with the civic education teachers and civic club members of village Uravela Public School of the Akhaltsikhe Municipality. They were provided with the "Box of civil initiatives and events”, in which over 2 weeks the schoolchildren will throw the ideas of annual action plans. In 2 weeks the box will be opened up, the annual action plan of the youth center and the civic clubs will be planned, and the memorandum between the civic club members and the Akhaltsikhe Youth Center will be executed.

Samegrelo. Association "Dea” has organized the celebration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3 in Zugdidi with the event of solidarity. Take this road – was the title of the event, as part of which the march of citizens was organized from several streets. The event, in which the students, NGO and state sector, and ordinary citizens have participated apart from the persons with disabilities, aimed to unite the civil society."This is not a political event, this is a solidarity event for sharing the state of persons with disabilities and promoting equal rights, environment and opportunities”, – said the member of association "Dea” IvetaTsitashvili.The solidarity event was ended with a flash-mob (wheelchair dance) of students from the ShotaMeskhia University. Irakli Jikia, one of the students who went to the event sitting in a wheelchair has noted that he had difficulties in moving around the city as the relevant infrastructure is missing. He also said that he went to the event in a wheelchair to express his solidarity. After the flash-mob the students have flown the kites.

Imereti. On December 2, the Kutaisi Youth Center (KYC) has organized the model UN session on "Iran’s nuclear program”. 25 delegates participating in the model UN session have discussed the ways of solution of issues related to Iran’s nuclear program and formulated them in a resolution.Model UN is the imitation of the work of the bodies within the UN system – the Economic and Social Council, the Security Council, General Assembly, etc. Participants play the roles of the member states and discuss the issues currently on the agenda of the UN. Participants have a great opportunity to see how the decisions are made at international level and how the multilateral diplomacy and the UN work.The event was held as part of the "Advancing National Integration in Georgia” (ANI) project, which is implemented by the United Nations Association of Georgia (UNAG), with support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). For the full text. Source: the organization's page in the social network. 

ShidaKartli. This year the civic clubs have traditionally celebrated December 1 - the World AIDS Day. They have carried out various activities: a training, an event, discussion, film screening and discussion. Representatives of the Gori and Kaspi school-based civic clubs have attended the information meeting at the invitation of the Public Health Center of the Gori Municipality, at which the education seminar was delivered for the schoolchildren based on mutual cooperation between the association "Biliki" (path) and the Gori Public Health center.After visiting the Public Health Center, the civic club members have organized the march in the city streets with the symbolic red bands and slogans "AIDS not transmitted through friendship". The march was joined by the representatives of organization "Step towards Future", who have distributed in the city together with schoolchildren the brochures on the AIDS prevention topic.

Adjara. On December 2, the youth organization Art Way has staged the flashmob in one of the central streets of Batumi. The activity aimed to inform through art the broad public about the problems of the blind.Against the background of music, flashmob participants moved around the street with their eyes covered. At the end, guided by the group "Tvalkhiluli" (with open eyes), they gathered at the central place, where the actors read out the phrases from Morris Meterlink's play "The Blind", expressing the spiritual condition of the blind.This activity was implemented as part of the project "Re-Animation", which is financially supported by the "East-West Management Institute".

Guria. On November 28, the Guria Youth Resource Center has presented a new project to the representatives of local NGO and media organizations.The project titled "Promoting the Reintegration and Development of Juvenile Delinquents on Probation" was funded by the EU.The project aims to promote democratic processes and its tasks are the promotion of reintegration and resocialization of juvenile delinquents on probation; creation of effective institutional mechanisms and guidelines for improving the state of juvenile delinquents on probation.The Guria Youth Resource Center will implement the project in partnership with the Union for Democratic Development of Georgia.

Tbilisi. The founder of the Open Society Foundations, the financier and philanthropist George Soros has paid a private visit to Tbilisi on December 1-2. As part of the visit, George Soros met with the management of the "Open Society - Georgia" Foundation – the Executive Board and the Director. In addition, to discuss the existing political reality, George Soros met with the political leaders – President Mikheil Saakashvili, Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili and the Speaker of Parliament Davit Usupashvili. At the meeting, the management of the Foundation and George Soros have summarized the Foundation's work in recent years and discussed the future priorities. For the full text. Source: osgf.ge

Tbilisi. The civil society organizations "The Rights' School" and "The House of Tolerance" released the statement and expressed discontent in respect to the situation of the recent month concerning the religious and ethnic minorities in Nigvziani and Tsintskaro. "The Rights' School" and "The House of Tolerance" find it unacceptable that the state does not react to the information on the breach of constitutional rights and criminal offences, and thus still undermines the safety of hundreds and thousands of Georgian citizens", - says the statement. The Statement. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Adjara. On December 1, the youth organization Art Way has organized a theatricalized event in the Batumi streets – "Touch and See". The event aimed at calling on the city to provide necessary infrastructure for the movement of the blind. The event focused on the request to provide audio traffic lights and bus stops and install the information stands printed in the Braille print. The Batumi youth troupe, members of the Art Way club, NGO representatives and other volunteer youngsters were imitating throughout the city with megaphones the audio auto stops and traffic lights. Information flyers were disseminated as part of the event and the society was informed about the problems of the blind.

Samegrelo. In relation to the World Aids Day on December1, CSO "Xenon" has invited the CSO representatives working on the HIV/AIDS problem to the session hall of the Zugdidi Municipality. According to the Head of "Xenon" Nino Janashia, the Zugdidi-based organizations working on HIV/AIDS problem join the national campaign launched in relation to the World Aids Day - Getting the Challenges to Zero. The campaign implies that by 2015 the world faces a new challenge - to get to zero the new cases of HIV infection, discrimination and mortality.

Tbilisi. CSO "Radarami" launches the contest "Read and Get Involved in a Dialogue", as part of which the organization offers to devoted readers a chance to write impressions and opinions on one of the four (or all four) books already published by Radarami. Persons participating in the contest must send the book overviews at info@radarami.org or write on the Facebook page. The "Radarami" staff and Facebook will reveal the most interesting 5 reviews. Five winners will be awarded with a set of "Radarami"-published books. In addition, upon interest these persons will be involved in the presentation campaign of the new books in various regions of Georgia. For the full text. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Samtskhe-Javakheti.As part of the Civic Education and Teacher Training Program, a round table dedicated to the World Aids Day was organized on December 1 in the Akhaltsikhe Youth Center with participation of the Samtskhe-Javakheti based partner schools, where the civic club members have presented the paintings on the topic of HIV/AIDS. After the presentation, the video on the transmission of HIV infection developed by the civic club of the Akhaltsikhe Public School N6 was demonstrated, resulting in the discussion on the topic. Paintings dedicated to the World Aids Day will be exhibited until the end of the week in the Akhaltsikhe Youth Center, following which the 3 best paintings will be selected and the authors will be awarded.