Tbilisi. The Open Society Georgia Foundation responds to the October 31, 2020 parliamentary elections and subsequent developments. “We remind public that constitutional changes, made this year, and introduction of an almost proportional electoral system have entailed a real perspective to turn the legislative body into more pluralistic one and to take active steps to form a coalition government. However, we agree with appraisals of international and local partner organizations and consider that both the pre-election period and the Election Day, as well as the vote counting process went along with numerous violations. There were critically concerning tendencies like removal of the line between the ruling political party and the state, use of administrative resources, attempts to intimidate and bribe voters as well as to control their free will, which may challenge results of the elections and the issue of legitimacy of the legislative body elected as a result of these elections. With this in mind, on November 8, 2020, citizens of Georgia expressed their peaceful protest in front of buildings of initially the Parliament of Georgia, and later - the Central Election Commission of Georgia. During the rally, law enforcers applied special means for dispersal of meetings-demonstrations violating procedures stipulated by law, which fact contributed to escalation of tensions and resulted in harming participants of the rally”. Read more… Source:osgf.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Center for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims - GCRT will provide free services to those citizens who have been affected during the November 8-9 rally. Read more… Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) calls on the Government of Georgia to not impose those COVID-19 related restrictions that would intentionally affect freedom of assembly and expression. “On November 6, 2020, Prime Minister stated that restrictions would not apply to freedom of expression, although the next day, the Government of Georgia announced imposition of a curfew on seven major cities of Georgia starting on November 9. We hereby would like to respond to the clarification made by the Government of Georgia stating that the imposed restriction is not a curfew. In general, a curfew is nothing else than an intense restriction on freedom of movement. A blanket/general restriction on unauthorized movement, imposed on about 50% of population of the country in 7 major cities of the state, is not a point ban measure. It is the curfew - a large-scale measure of restriction of the right stipulated by the “Law of Georgia on State of Emergency”, which applies during a state of emergency or war in the state”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. “Rights Georgia” condemns all acts of violence and calls on the Government as well as all political forces to: take care of and protect life and health of every individual, public order, right to freedom of assembly and expression and respective scopes guaranteed by local legislation and international law; avoid violence against journalists and interference with their professional activities. “Rights Georgia” expresses its readiness to protect legitimate interests of all people who have happened to get affected by unlawful actions. Read more… Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. On November 5/6 online training was conducted for Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti police staff on the topic GBV, domestic violence and legal mechanisms, led by Mari Meskhi and Nodar saalashvili. The training was conducted within the frame of the project "Safe Environment for Women" which is implemented by the Anti-Violence Network of Geotgia in partnership with Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB). Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) releases the visualization on case statistics of the European court of Human Rights Concerning Georgia. “The European Court of Human Rights heard a total of 104 cases against Georgia in 1999-2019. In 83 cases the Court delivered a judgement against the state, finding at least one violation of the convention and in 17 cases the court found no violation”. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes an assessment of visions that parties have in regard to combating homelessness. “Unfortunately, a significant part of political parties does not talk about homeless groups, other than those displaced, and specific ways to empower them”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes an evaluation: Justice related issues in pre-election programs of parties - 2020. “The document contains a review of visions and strategies of parties in regard to reforms to be carried out in the judiciary system, solution of problems that exist at law enforcement agencies, reformation of the State Security Service and drug policy issues. The common challenge is deficit of ideas consolidated by argumentative, realistic and specific plans on listed issues”, - is stated in the document. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. On October 21, 2020, the Public Defender of Georgia addressed the Prosecutor General of Georgia with a proposal to launch an investigation into the alleged persecution of the employees of the Public Broadcaster Adjara Television and Radio. “Examination of the circumstances of the case revealed that the employees of the Adjara TV were persecuted for their different opinions, in particular, for openly expressing critical views on the decisions made by the management”. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes an analysis of rights of ethnic minorities in pre-election visions of parties. “Most of the publicly released programs, with the exception of those of European Georgia and Lelo, do not single out an issue of non-dominant ethnic groups as a separate article or paragraph. Analysis of pre-election programs of political parties makes it clear that parties are often unaware of needs, concerns, and challenges of non-dominant ethnic groups in depth. Pre-election programs often reveal conventional and superficial visions of parties on issues related to protection of rights of non-dominant ethnic groups and their participation in public, as well as political life. In this context, attempts of several parties, to apply different narratives and texts, are noteworthy. However, it should also be noted that their programs are fragmented and artificial”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes a blog post: Conflict regions and human rights in pre-election visions of political parties - 2020. “The issue of restoring territorial integrity and resolving the conflict has not been left out of pre-election campaigns of political parties, however, they are unable to offer us: Essentially new, transformational approaches that give birth to gradual and realistic visions of conflict resolution. Parties still find it difficult to offer groundbreaking initiatives for resolving the conflict. They have not properly realized reasons for success or failure of such mechanisms in previous years, constantly changing political contexts and attitudes within the occupied territories. They fail to offer us mechanisms, which they are intending to apply to protect human rights at the occupied territories, neither they have a vision for introduction of respective international mechanisms”, - is stated in the document. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes a document, which contains an analysis of the policy of platforms and visions of political parties in terms of equality. “More precisely, the document contains a detailed review and analysis of discourses, visions and strategies presented by parties in their election platforms in regard to protection of rights and meeting needs of non-dominant religious and ethnic groups, as well as protection of rights of women and LGBTQ people and human rights in conflict regions. In general, it seems that equality policy is not a priority for a large part of political parties, and most of them use superficial as well as mainstream paradigms and visions”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. On October 23, International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), Georgian Democracy Initiative (GDI) and the Human Rights Center (HRC) conducted a presentation of a study – “Democracy and human rights in the conditions of pandemic and state of emergency”. “A group of researchers, invited by GDI and ISFED, spent four months studying both the legal framework, as well as international standards, and measures taken by the Government of Georgia in regard to the new coronavirus (COVID-19). HRC provides legal assistance to people affected by measures taken by the Government of Georgia. The project is implemented with the financial support of the Open Society Georgia Foundation. The purpose of the study was to work out critical analysis of the legal framework and develop relevant recommendations in regard to the existing shortcomings, on the one hand, while on the other hand, to evaluate constitutionality of regulations adopted by the Government of Georgia within 2020”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source:gdi.ge

EU and UNDP Georgia releases research on Georgian perceptions of Alternative Dispute Resolution. See some of the findings below or check it out here... Source: EU’s Page in the social network

Tbilisi. On October 19 and 20, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) submitted written opinions to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The document contained an evaluation of the state of execution of several decisions and rulings made by the European Court of Human Rights against Georgia. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Civil society organizations are responding to the extremely complicated epidemiological situation in the country. The organizations evaluate the existing situation and call on the state to make decisions related to combating COVID-19 as transparently as possible. CSOs consider that it is necessary to inform population about plans the state has in case the situation develops at different scenarios. “We would like to express our heartfelt sorrow in regard to significant increase in the number of infections and deaths caused by COVID-19 in Georgia. It seems the state finds it further more difficult to deal with the crisis along with the increasing number of infected people”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) publishes a document: Rights and responsibilities of local self-government bodies and public servants during the pre-election campaign - 2020. Read more… Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. On October 8, 2020, the Public Defender's Office of Georgia organized an online meeting on the theme: "Human Rights Defenders and the Challenges Faced by Them". “Public Defender Nino Lomjaria, Deputy Prosecutor General Natia Merebashvili, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Nino Tsatsiashvili, Chairman of the Board of the Tbilisi Human Rights House Baia Pataraia, as well as representatives of state agencies and non-governmental organizations, took part in the event. Representatives of non-governmental organizations highlighted the necessity of raising public awareness of human rights and the unfortunate trend of criminal actions and discrediting campaigns against human rights defenders in recent years, as well as the obligations of the state in this regard”. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. The Public Defender welcomes the changes made in the labour legislation and hopes that their implementation will significantly contribute to the prevention of violations of labour rights. “Several laws regulating important issues of labour legislation were adopted on September 29, 2020. The establishment of a labour inspection mechanism, which enjoys a full mandate and will be authorized from January 1, 2021 to oversee the protection of the labour law, including by inspecting workplaces and effectively responding to the violations of labour rights, is particularly worth noting. The Public Defender has been stressing the need for such a mechanism in her annual reports and public statements for years. Unfortunately, the Public Defender's proposal to limit the mandate of the Labour Inspection Service to the assessment of the general policy of equality in the workplace and to introduce a mechanism of referring individual cases of alleged discrimination to the Public Defender has not been taken into account”. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Civil society organizations, operating in Georgia, appeal to the Government of Georgia and its relevant agencies, as well as international organizations and diplomatic corps, and urge them to take all appropriate measures under their mandate to protect the life, safety and rights of Irakli Bebua, detained in occupied Abkhazia, as well as to facilitate the process of his transfer to the Georgian-controlled territory. Read more… Source:emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Civil society organizations of Georgia respond to the fact of detention of Iveri Melashvili and Natalia Ilychova, former members of the Border Delimitation and Demarcation Commission of the Government, by the Office of Prosecutor General on October 7. “We consider that the time of launching the investigation, the pre-election context, signs of selective approach during the investigation process and populist statements, made by leaders of the ruling party violating the presumption of innocence, raise suspicion that the investigation serves political motivations and aim at misleading citizens of Georgia as well as discrediting political opponents”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Shida Kartli. The Gori office of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association defended 2 people who were unlawfully dismissed from the Akhaltsikhe Municipality Assembly as a result of merging of the local self-government community and the city in 2017. “Both of them worked at the Akhaltsikhe Municipality Assembly for years before the reorganization of the self-government. They got dismissed while their positions were not abolished as a result of the reorganization. By the decision of the Supreme Court of Georgia, orders on dismissal were annulled, while the defendant was imposed to reinstate dismissed employees to the similar position and pay a compensation for the lost remuneration”. Read more… Source:gyla.ge