Children and young people could feel the impact of COVID-19 on their mental health and well-being for many years to come, UNICEF warned in its flagship report today. “According to the latest available estimates, more than 1 in 7 adolescents aged 10–19 is estimated to live with a diagnosed mental disorder globally. Almost 46,000 adolescents die from suicide each year, among the top five causes of death for their age group. Meanwhile, wide gaps persist between mental health needs and mental health funding. The report finds that about 2 per cent of government health budgets are allocated to mental health spending globally”. Read the press release... Source: www.unicef.org

To mitigate the socio-economic impact of the COVID induced crisis, USAID/Zrda supported Samvel Margariani and helped his “Family Corner” purchase various hiking and leisure equipment such as home audio system, projector, tents, hammocks, tennis table, portable fridge, GoPro, etc. „USAID/Zrda assisted travel value chain players to adapt their services and working procedures in line with the new Covid-protocols and initiated a subsidiary program encouraging former partner enterprises and individual entrepreneurs. To this end, Zrda allocated a total financing pool of GEL 300,000, shortlisted and awarded 14 entrepreneurs, up to 30,000 Gel per award, to help them retain jobs, commence new tourism activities and stay competitive on the market“. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

Tbilisi. A new handbook - “Constitutional Justice” has been added to the online library of USAID-PROLoG - Promoting Rule of Law in Georgia Activity. Read more... Source: The website of the organization on a social network

Samegrelo. The new home for the elderly in the village of Rukhi provides care services for the vulnerable older people of conflict-affected communities. “Most of its residents had been living without fundamental care or had experienced domestic violence”. Read more… Source: www.ge.undp.org

Tbilisi. The UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities #UNCRPD is a critical tool to ensure social, economic, and legal protection. It is the legal protection of people with disabilities and supports their inclusion and integration in society. “Georgia is establishing an Inter-Agency Committee to serve as a responsible agency and coordination mechanism in the UNCRPD implementation”. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

Tbilisi. On 2 October, local elections took place in Georgia. The European Union commends the Georgian citizens for exercising their democratic right to vote in these elections, as well as the dedicated electoral staff and observers, considering the challenging context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We welcome the fact that a full-fledged International Election Observation Mission was deployed.  “This mission concluded that the elections were generally well administered – though characterised by hardened polarisation –, that contestants were able to campaign freely in a competitive environment, and that the Election Day proceeded in an orderly and transparent manner. It also highlighted important shortcomings, notably widespread and consistent allegations of intimidation, vote-buying, pressure on candidates and voters and an unlevel playing field. In addition, the significant imbalance in resources and an undue advantage of incumbency further benefited the ruling party. Underrepresentation of women in the campaign demonstrates a need for greater commitment to ensure adequate representation in politics”. Read more… Source: eeas.europa.eu

Tbilisi. Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association within the framework of the Short-term Observation (STO) Mission provides the public with information about the events happening during the polling and the counting of votes.  “According to GYLA, procedural irregularities were observed at the various stage of the Election Day. The tense atmosphere in a number of polling stations during the day may have affected both the behavior of voters and the monitoring of the process itself. In some precincts, GYLA was deprived of an opportunity for monitoring; The facts of violating election regulations were revealed after the closure of polling stations too”. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Social Justice Center publishes a document that contains an analysis of visions of political parties in regard to implementation of social policy. “The COVID-19 pandemic further aggravated the socio-economic situation of population and forced them to confront toughest problems, including extreme socio-economic vulnerability, food shortage, homelessness. The role of municipalities in solving these problems is substantial - it is the local government that has to study challenges of population thoroughly and carry out effective interventions tailored to their needs. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused irreparable damage to the socio-economic situation of citizens, pre-election programs of political parties do not envisage specific ways to overcome emerged difficulties”. Read more… Source: socialjustice.org.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, and the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics publish a joint report: Joint assessment of the pre-election environment of the 2021 municipal elections in Georgia. “As a summary, it can be stated that the pre-election environment was more or less competitive. All parties were able to run the election campaign, however, the ruling party enjoyed a greater advantage due to mobilization of administrative and other types of resources on its side. The pre-election environment got affected by a high number of facts of political pressure, threats, and dismissal from work or forced resignation, as well as by ineffective investigation of such cases by relevant state agencies”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Rights Georgia presents a blog post of Nana Mchedlidze, an expert in international law: Compulsory vaccination does not violate human rights. “The purpose of the article is to inform society about an existing European standard on obligations of the state and rights of people in regard to the vaccination, which standard is compulsory for 47 member states of the Council of Europe, including Georgia”. Read more… Source: rights.ge

Tbilisi. According to the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), recommendations of the Venice Commission on amendments to the Law on Electronic Communications have not been fulfilled yet. “IDFI calls on the Parliament of Georgia, the Government of Georgia and the Georgian National Communications Commission to take respective steps to reflect recommendations of the Venice Commission and ensure that both the evaluation of impact of regulation is prepared as well as the Law on Electronic Communications is brought in compliance with the conclusion of the Commission”. Read more... Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. According to the World Bank, in 2020, Georgia obtained the highest score in Regulatory Quality out of six dimensions assessed, which is also the highest result achieved by Georgia in this dimension over the years. However, regress is detected in almost all other areas. The evaluation of Georgia in the dimension of Voice and Accountability fell below half of the maximum rating; as for Political Stability, the country constantly has the lowest score in this dimension, which is not even close to half of the maximum rating. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Social Justice Center publishes a document that presents an evaluation of pre-election programs and visions of political parties in regard to needs of ethnic minorities and regions densely populated by ethnic minorities.  “Unfortunately, the interest of political parties in communities of ethnic minorities is still low and it is almost impossible to find visions and ways for their specific needs, concerns and interests oriented changes in the programs”. Read more… Source: socialjustice.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) prepared the second interim report of a long term observation mission for the 2021 local self-government election. “GYLA registered cases of voter bribery, unlawful participation in agitation and use of administrative resources performed in favor of the “Georgian Dream”, as well as some opposition parties and independent candidates. The challenge remains to be attribution of government projects to people and affiliation of them with the party, which blurs the lines between the state and the party”. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Due to the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information political competitiveness is one of the essential signs of a representative democracy, which mainly is determined by political parties’ financial. In Georgia, the issue of political finances is regulated by various legal acts at the legislative level, among them, the Organic Law of Georgia on Political Unions of Citizens and the Election Code. “According to the legislation political parties have equal access to financial resources. Nevertheless, in practice, the ruling party's donations exceed the financial resources of the opposition parties. Taking into consideration the fact that obtaining funding from private sources is a challenge for opposition parties and a large part of their revenues comes from state funding, the real competition is not guaranteed in practice”. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a blog post: Death as the main narrative of the election campaign in Georgia. “Manipulation with the topic of death is not new for the Georgian political space. In 2012, first time in Georgia, the authority was transferred through elections, however, the election campaign at the time was again not aimed at political debates and voter awareness, but at moral delegitimization of opponents. ... If in the 1990s and early 2000s the topic of death and manipulation with it in the political arena was mainly linked to politicians and people related to politics, nowadays manipulation with this topic no longer has such a filter and death of a person of any age, origin or social representation can easily be used in political controversy, especially during the pre-election period”. Read more… Source: idfi.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 Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) has submitted an application to the Prosecutor General’s Office on behalf of 9 affected journalists demanding to investigate actions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs during developments that occurred on July 5-6. “Despite the fact that GYLA has been calling on the Prosecutor’s Office so far to assess how effectively mobilization of police forces was planned and implemented in order to avoid/prevent violent developments, the investigation in this regard still does not take place. Up to this time, the investigative body works just to reveal criminal acts committed by certain individuals, which is insufficient”. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. On September 28, 2021, Public Defender Nino Lomjaria met with international analysts, who have arrived in Georgia to observe the self-government elections under the auspices of the International Republican Institute (IRI).  “Nino Lomjaria presented the results of the observation of the pre-election environment in the context of human rights and introduced the mandate of the Public Defender to the guests. The parties discussed the election legislation, the quality of observance of regulations and other issues”. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. According to information released by the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, in the wake of election processes, there has been observed organized activation and/or creation of anonymous pages and fake accounts on Facebook, posting damaging information and disseminating it in groups in a coordinated manner. They attempt to create information chaos on issues related to the elections and mislead voters. As the organization considers, the purpose of the campaign is to artificially create a background as if absurd disinformation allegations are being spread about the elections and, thus, cover-up objective criticism. People behind this campaign try to create information chaos, confuse voters and discredit critical opinions. Read more…  Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a study: “Practice of proactive disclosure of public information at public institutions of Georgia (2021)”.  According to the findings of the study:  “In 2021, in compliance with requirements of the relevant legal act, only 6 public institutions have fully published information;  The lowest ratings among Central Government Institutions are held by the Government Administration (31%) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (36%).  The most problematic issue still remains to be the publication of information related to the management of finances”.  Read more…   Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. According to the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), civil society and media organizations have formed an “Information Integrity Coalition”. “The main purpose of the Coalition is to raise public awareness about disinformation and anti-Western propaganda and establish a common national and public approach in order to respond to these threats. This is especially important during elections when voters have to make an informed choice.  The Coalition is based on democratic values, principles of freedom, equality, conscientiousness, and accountability”, - is stated on the website of the organization.   Read more…    Source: idfi.ge