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

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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

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia publishes an interim report of the study on “Misuse of administrative resources for the 2021 municipal elections in Georgia”. Observation performed by the organization for the municipal elections from June 1 to September 25, 2021 revealed that misuse of administrative resources for the elections is still a problem for Georgia.  “Ineffective investigation of alleged cases of intimidation applied against employees of budgetary organizations on political grounds, dismissal from work and harassment of candidates of opposition parties, as well as the politicization of public institutions and large-scale mobilization of employees of budgetary organizations for election campaign purposes by the ruling party, use of budgetary programs for parochial party interests and other flawed tendencies are main challenges to a fair election environment”.  Read more…  Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Social Justice Center (formerly EMC), with the support of the European Foundation, has been implementing a project entitled “Cases of collusion, corruption and conflict of interests surrounding the Namakhvani HPP Cascade Project” since July 2021. “This project is a collaborative endeavor of Social Justice Center and the media organization Investigative Journalists Team “iFact”. A team of legal experts and journalists will work jointly during 12 months and publish information about cases of corruption and conflict of interests, as well as possible state and business collusion scenarios involving state agencies and Namakhvani HPP implementing parties”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: socialjustice.org.ge

Ajara. The Civil Society Institute and the Khelvachauri Youth Center, within the framework of the “First time at the self-government elections” campaign, invite young people to meetings that aim at raising their awareness about activities and importance of self-government, strengthening the role of young people in self-government development, and supporting participation in the elections.  October 2, 2021 is a day when the self-government elections take place and it is important to ensure that as many young people as possible, especially those who participate in the elections for the first time, make an informed choice.  The meeting schedule is as follows: September 28 - 14:00 – Machakhela Village, at the Tskhemlara Bridge; 16:00 – Charnali Village, at the garden. September 29 - 14:00 - Online meeting with young people of the Khelvachauri center. Link   The “First time at the self-government elections” campaign is implemented by the Civil Society Institute within the framework of the “Building a Robust Alliance of Local Development Actors in Georgia” (Phase Two) project, with the support of a German organization “Bread for the World” and in collaboration with the Youth Center of Khelvachauri Municipality.  Read more…  Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. In honor of the memory of those killed during the hostilities in Abkhazia, Ambassador Kelly C. Degnan, Senior Defense Official COL Stephanie Bagley, and members of Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Georgia laid wreaths at Heroes Square. ‘Sokhumi fell to Russian-backed forces 28 years ago today. This grave tragedy resulted in thousands losing their lives and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes. We remember this day with sorrow and with the hope that remains in the hearts of so many internally displaced people,’ - It is said in the information spread by the embassy. Read more…  Source: The page in the social network

Tbilisi. On September 23, 2021, the Constitutional Court announced its decision in the case “Giorgi Tsertsvadze v. the Parliament of Georgia”. With this decision, the court satisfied the lawsuit and declared the disputed normative content of Article 33, Part 6, Subparagraph “a” of the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia unconstitutional. The disputed norm gave the Chief Prosecutor of Georgia or a person entitled by him the authority to seize a criminal case from one investigative body, despite the investigative subordination, and transfer it to another body that was compromised by the reasonable complaint filed against its employee (police officer) due to the fact of encroachment on the right guaranteed by Article 9, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution. In the opinion of the plaintiff, mentioned authority endangered independence of the investigation and was not limited by guiding principles. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. With the help of UN Women, Georgia has joined the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) and once more has underlined the need for #equalpay for equal work. „It is noteworthy that with this step, the country reaffirmed its readiness to fulfil the obligation to eliminate the gender pay gap“. Read more… Source: georgia.unwomen.org

Tbilisi. Today, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) presented a study – “Public attitude towards electoral processes”. Within the framework of the study, there were examined the attitude of society towards participation in the elections, in general, as well as the progression of electoral processes and malpractices during the elections.  According to information released by the organization, the document is based on the results of quantitative and qualitative research. Within the framework of the quantitative research, data were collected through a telephone survey methodology. There were conducted interviews with 3100 adults in Georgian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Russian languages. Collected data are representative of the population of Georgia, except for those living within the occupied territories. As part of the qualitative research, six focus group meetings were held with the socially vulnerable populations in Tbilisi, Zugdidi, and the village of Shilda. Besides, there were conducted six interviews with public servants from Tbilisi, Zugdidi, and the village of Shilda, and four interviews with representatives of various businesses from Tbilisi and Zugdidi. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Social Justice Center, supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Rule of Law in Georgia (USAID / PROLoG) project, releases a study on Access to Justice in Georgia.  The study conducted by Social Justice Center in 2020-2021 years has revealed that access to justice in Georgia has many dimensions. The main problem is the fact that the state does not have a unified vision in regard to the improvement of access to justice and fails to pursue effective policies in this regard. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. On October 2 and 3, there will operate a Media Center of non-governmental organizations associated with the elections of local self-government bodies in Georgia. At the Media Center, non-government organizations, observing the elections, will provide journalists with information about the election process. The center will host briefings conducted by: Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association; International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy; Transparency International Georgia; Multinational Georgia; Human Rights Center. The Media Center of non-governmental organizations will be located in the hotel “Rooms” – Garden Hall, 14 Merab Kostava Street, Tbilisi. Only people who have been vaccinated twice are allowed at the Media Center. Read more… Source: osgf.ge

Tbilisi. The initiative group “Hippodrome-Concrete Free Zone” organizes a public discussion for Tbilisi mayoral candidates. The purpose of the discussion is to let expected mayoral candidates introduce their vision regarding further development of the park to the population, to argue about the problem of the hippodrome and optimal ways out of this problem. “It is the 11th month that an unlawful construction takes place on the territory of the former hippodrome. Tbilisi City Hall does not have the documentation necessary for the implementation of the project. Besides, due to its content, the project provoked protests among the local population and users of the hippodrome from the very beginning as the sketch project submitted by Tbilisi City Hall fails to consider the history of the park, its social significance, extraordinary specifics, and natural development, the general context of both the district and the city, and, most importantly, users themselves”, - is noted in the statement released by the initiative group. Read more… Source: osgf.ge