Tbilisi. On December 2, the Embassy of the Netherlands in Georgia awarded the winners of the Local Human Rights Tulip 2021. The HRC Shida Kartli regional office coordinator, lawyer and human rights defender Aleksi Merebashvili received the second award of the Embassy. “The women – victims of the gender violence, internally displaced people, inhabitants of the villages alongside the ABL and victims of the harassment from the side of the law enforcement bodies managed to fight for their rights against the state institutions and harassers”. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) publishes a study: “The right of disabled children to education during COVID-19”.  “The document aims to:  assess access of children with special educational needs to the right to education and its effectiveness;  identify existing challenges on the basis of analysis of the legislation of the country and international acts;  overview steps taken by the state to materialize the right to education in the conditions of the pandemic”.  Read more…  Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Part of civil society organizations responds to the fact of creation of the mechanism for implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by the Government. “We call on the executive authority to spend maximum efforts to ensure effective functioning of this institution and its further refinement. Undersigning organizations are critical about creation of this mechanism with the seven-year delay so that there have not been provided proper guarantees for its effective functioning”. Read more… Source: socialjustice.org.ge

Tbilisi. Hurie Abashidze was nominated for this award by the Rondeli Foundation. “Hurie is a really outstanding human rights activist from Khulo. She defends rights of Muslim women, supports them in employment, works on protection of cultural heritage and development of a regional community, as well as takes care of community mobilization of young people living in local villages and their participation in self-government”, - is stated on the website of the Netherlands embassy in Tbilisi on a social network. Read more... Source: The website of the embassy on a social network

Tbilisi. Within the #16Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, UN Women in cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia is organizing a workshop aimed at developing the workplace sexual harassment prevention and response mechanism. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes an article “Online informational manipulation: experiences, challenges and examples of international practice”. “On the background of informational waves and their increasing manipulation in the contemporary online space, agreement on facts and circumstances is one of the main challenges. International practice shows that the role of the state is not limited to just development of regulations, but also includes enhancement of strategic communications existing in dialogue with civil sector, in introduction of media literacy into the national educational program, as well as in state structures”. Read more… Source:idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary considers the appointment of four Supreme Court judges by the Parliament to be unjustified and damaging. "The Coalition believes that the existing rules for the selection and appointment of judges are fundamentally problematic, as they do not sufficiently mitigate the risks of internal and external influences on the process. At the same time, the Parliament makes a final decision based on a single-party vote, in the absence of a broad political consensus. Consequently, in this context, the appointment of four Supreme Court judges further reduces the already deficient trust in the justice system". Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. With the assistance of “Rights Georgia”, a citizen of the Islamic Republic of Iran, won a dispute with the Public Service Development Agency (PSDA) regarding a short-term residence permit. Read more... Source: rights.ge

The web portal CsoGeorgia.org releases a weekly newsletter of grants competition, contests, vacancies, fellowships, and tenders for civil society organizations, and for any interested person. Newsletter...

Tbilisi. The Partnership for Human Rights (PHR) publishes a document, which is designed for girls with disabilities (hereinafter referred to as “disabled”), their parents, care takers and families who face challenges while identifying needs related to the age of maturity of disabled children. Download the document... Source: phr.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) conducted presentation of a website - www.historyproject.ge at the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia. “The website accommodates articles, archives and memory studies, news, historical facts, quizzes, books, a photo-video gallery and a database of archival documents, which contains those related to specific events”. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Statement of Irakli Kobakhidze in regard to constitutional amendments is appraised negatively. Part of civil society organizations in Georgia considers that the statement of Irakli Kobakhidze, Chairman of the “Georgian Dream”, in regard to suspension of review of constitutional amendments and possible refusal to reduce the electoral threshold is detrimental to the democratization process of the country. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Equality Week was held in Georgia on November 15-24, 2021, with the aim of informing the public of the importance of equality and the available legal mechanisms to combat discrimination. “Within the framework of the event, the Eastern Georgia Division and the Equality Department of the Public Defender's Office held 30 information meetings with students of higher education institutions, schoolchildren, teachers and young people living in Tbilisi and 5 regions of Georgia (Kakheti, Mtskheta-Mtianeti, Shida Kartli, Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli). At the meetings, Public Defender’s representatives spoke about the forms of discrimination, as well as the regulations and mechanisms available in the country for the protection of rights. It should be noted that in the regions populated by ethnic minorities, meetings were held in the languages of ethnic minorities”. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. On November 27-28, a seminar on child rights for parliamentarians and the Permanent Parliamentary Council on Child Rights was organized by the Parliament of Georgia and UNICEF. “The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, its basic principles, and general implementation mechanisms were discussed at the seminar”. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

Tbilisi. An organization “Partnership for Human Rights” (PHR) has contested the idea of granting a lifelong “green status” to COVID survivors in court. “The organization urges the Tbilisi City Court to issue an interim measure instructing the Government to make a “scientific evidence-based decision” in regard to “green passports”. Read more… Source: The website of the organization on a social network

Tbilisi. Media Advocacy Coalition responds to the fact of injury caused to a cameraman of TV Company Kavkasia. On November 29, while covering a rally taking place in front of the Tbilisi City Court, a cameraman of TV Company Kavkasia lost consciousness. According to him, he had allegedly been sprayed with pepper spray in his eyes. “Unfortunately, representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have again failed to perform their duties properly and it still remains a problem to have police ensure security of the media during coverage of rallies. Media Advocacy Coalition calls on the Ministry of Internal Affairs to take into account the high public interest in the process and provide appropriate conditions for representatives of the media thus allowing them to perform their professional duties freely, without harm to their health or having their rights violated”. Read more… Source: The website of the organization on a social network

Tbilisi. The Public Defender and an organization “Rights Georgia” have published a special report, which demonstrates results of monitoring of legal proceedings carried out at Tbilisi and Rustavi city courts. Project researchers monitored interrogation of women victims of domestic violence in 30 criminal cases. “Insufficient awareness about rights and support services is one of the complications that women victims of domestic violence face during interrogation in court”. Read more… Source: rights.ge

Tbilisi. Media Advocacy Coalition member organizations consider that cases brought against “Mtavari Channel”, a broadcaster having the critical editorial policy, and its representatives are alarming. “While the tendency of sanctioning makes us anticipate that the Communications Commission aims to block the broadcaster and change its critical editorial policy. Unfortunately, the Communications Commission continues to apply a controversial practice related to regulation of content of the broadcaster, as it has been revealed during sanctioning of broadcasters on the ground of obscenity. Besides, with its new decision, the Commission attempts to limit the opportunity for civil activists to criticize the Government and have a chance to disseminate their opinions, different from those of the ruling party, through the media”, - is noted in the statement. Read more... Source: The website of the organization on a social network

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Center publishes an analytical document: “The right to a fair trial in cases of administrative offenses”. “The present document identifies and appraises the problems that have been revealed by the Human Rights Center during its monitoring of trials related to cases of allegedly politically motivated administrative offenses”. Read more… Source: hrc.ge

Tbilisi. There was held a forum of community leaders in order to demonstrate activities of community organizations and present their achievements to society. “During the forum, society got acquainted with new, interesting community initiatives. Besides, representatives of international, non-governmental and governmental organizations, providing grants, introduced their capabilities to community organizations. The forum was conducted with the support of the European Union and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation within the framework of the “Civil Society Initiative” project. Read more… Source: The website of the organization on a social network

Tbilisi. The Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a study, which contains a review of the legal environment regulating personal data protection and cybersecurity in cyberspace. “The study provides evidence-based recommendations referring on the best European legal frameworks”. Read more... Source :idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Biltmore Hotel Tbilisi joins #16 Days of activist against gender based violence. The Biltmore placed an orange banner on the screen of the tower as a sign of solidarity. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network