Tbilisi. On February 27, 2020, the Public Defender of Georgia made two recommendations to Tbilisi State University regarding discrimination on the ground of different opinion.  According to factual circumstances, the applicants had been delivering lectures at the Department of Economics and Business as visiting lecturers for years. They publicly had expressed their critical views on the situation at the Department, which is why the Dean of the Department of Economics and Business refused to employ them as professors.  Read more…  Source: http://ombudsman.ge

On March 4ths the Human Rights Council hosted the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. Human Rights House Foundation delivered the statement.  ‘In the Chechen Republic, the hostile environment makes it very difficult for defenders to operate. We highlight the recent violent attacks and harassment against the journalist Elena Milashyna and the lawyer Marina Dubrovina in Grozny, and against their families. We call on Russia to protect defenders in the Chechen Republic and to conduct an investigation into these attacks to bring the perpetrators to justice’, - Is mentioned in the statement, - ‘Heightened sensitivities toward Defender’s work can also increase their vulnerability. In South Ossetia, Tamara Mearakishvili has faced legal action by the de facto authorities after efforts to expose government corruption. We urge Russia to use its influence in this situation to ensure charges against Mearakishvili are dropped and ensure “protection against deportation” as highlighted in the Rapporteur’s report’.  Read more…  Source: https://hrht.ge

Tbilisi. GYLA submitted its comments and opinions to the Parliament of Georgia in regard to the Bill on Persons with Disabilities. “Although the bill, prepared by the Ministry of Justice and initiated by the Government of Georgia, contains certain positive amendments, it does not change legal condition of persons with disabilities substantially, while in some cases it contradicts the Convention on Persons with Disabilities and deteriorates standards of protection of legal condition of persons with disabilities”, - considered at GYLA. Read more… Source: https://gyla.ge

Tbilisi. A high-level meeting on prevention of violence against women in politics and elections was organized by the UN Gender Theme Group in Tbilisi. “Violence against women is also linked to their small representation. One of the reasons why women experience violence is that they lack the opportunity to be fully empowered and are not decision-makers. This is an issue that would be good to observe improved and to hear from international partners as to what is going on to address it. This issue has not been the main focus until recently, therefore our conference will pay its attention to elimination of violence against women in politics and elections. Our recommendation is to urge all politicians and political parties to work on this issue”, - stated Sabine Machl, UN Resident Coordinator in Georgia. Read more…  Source: www.ginsc.net

Tbilisi. According to information of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), the Parliament unjustifiably refused to give an employee leave and dismissed from work. On February 26, the Kutaisi Court of Appeal ruled that in May 2018 the Parliament of Georgia unjustifiably refused an employee to take leave and dismissed from work. With the assistance of GYLA, the plaintiff filed an appeal against the decision on denial of use of the right to take leave and dismissal from work in the Kutaisi City Court, which did not satisfy the appeal. The Kutaisi Court of Appeal reversed the decision of the first instance court and ruled that arguments of the Parliament were not convincing. This decision has not entered into force yet and the Parliament of Georgia retains an opportunity to continue the dispute in the Supreme Court”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Public Defender Responds to Protests Launched by Residents of Shukruti Village of Chiatura Municipality.  Residents of the village of Shukruti say that Georgian Manganese LLC, during the mining activity, damages the environment, roads and their houses. They have been blocking the Shukruti mine in protest since February 17, 2020 but don’t have any result.  ‘The Public Defender of Georgia calls on the relevant agencies to use all the resources to identify the causes of damage and to conduct result-oriented negotiations with the company. The Public Defender also calls on the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development to mediate and personally engage in the negotiations between the Shukruti population and the company to protect the locals’ rights to property and a healthy environment’, - Is noted in the statement of the Public defender.  Read more…   Source: http://ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes a speech of James Baldwin made in 1965 at the University of Cambridge, translated by Mariam Shalvashvili.  “It comes as a great shock to discover that the country which is your birthplace and to which you owe your life and your identity, has not, in its whole system of reality, evolved any place for you. The disaffection, the demoralization, and the gap between one person and another only on the basis of the color of their skin, begins there and accelerates – accelerates throughout a whole lifetime – to the present when you realize you’re thirty and are having a terrible time managing to trust your countrymen.”  Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. On February 24-25 GCRT conducted a training on Istanbul protocol implementation in Tbilisi. The training was held at Human Rights House Tbilisi and was attened by the representatives of Georgian Young Lawyers' Association ( GYLA) and professionals from GCRT's office in Gori. “During two days sessions, experts and participants discussed the topics of investigation and documentation of torture and ill treatment, as well as medical ethics and general guidelines for gathering evidences and documenting the allegations”. Read more… Source: gcrt.ge

Tbilisi. Today, Public Defender Nino Lomjaria presented the 5th special report on the situation of equality in Georgia. “Unfortunately, despite the provision of legislative safeguards, the situation of realization of the right to equality remains critical in Georgia, which is further promoted by the absence of the State’s unified vision. State agencies do not have any policy regarding the principle of equality relating to the matters within their competences, which is why, instead of systemically combating discriminatory practices, efforts are directed at eliminating individual rights violations,” said Nino Lomjaria. Read more…  Source: http://ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) releases a joint statement, through which the organizations respond to a crisis existing in Shukruti and Itkhvisi. “Confrontation of locals with “Georgian Manganese LLC” in the Shukruti village of Chiatura Municipality has resumed. The mine was also blocked on February 23 in the village of Itkhvisi, where locals, like those from Shukruti, link damage to their homes, ancillary buildings and agricultural lands to functioning of the mine and demand compensation of suffered loss from Georgian Manganese. In the current circumstance, it is important for the state to realize the crisis that exists in both Shukruti and Itkhvisi, take an active role and eliminate the social and environmental disaster, which the local population remains vulnerable to”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) publishes a blog post: Case of a victim of ill-treatment is still uninvestigated.  “Nikoloz Goguadze was detained on May 26, 2011while conducting a so called Kintsvisi special operation. During and after his detention, Goguadze was subjected to an inappropriate treatment by law enforcers in order to punish him and obtain his confession. The European Court found that the applicant suffered numerous injuries while having been under the control of the authorities, which injuries he did not have before his detention. The investigation initiated due to the fact of ill-treatment of Goguadze was ineffective and allowed significant gaps within its process. The case of Goguadze is included in “Cases of Tsintsabadze Group” and is subject to enhanced oversight by the Committee of Ministers. There are still challenges in performance of representatives of law enforcement agencies while conducting effective, timely and thorough investigations of committed crimes, providing the right qualification to a committed offence and ensuring proper involvement of a victim in the course of an investigation”, - is stated on the website of the organization.  Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) publishes a blog post: Violated rights of protesters and journalists have not been restored. “On the basis of Articles 166 and 173 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, police officers arrested several protesters for violating public order and disobeying police requirements. The detainees were not given sufficient time and means to properly defend themselves in court. The court sentenced them to 30 days of imprisonment. To date, actions taken by police officers against protesters and journalists have not been investigated, and no perpetrators have been identified and punished. The Code of Administrative Offenses, which was adopted during the Soviet Union and used to sentence protesters to imprisonment, fails to meet requirements of a due process, lacks sufficient procedural guarantees, and does not provide an opportunity of impartial and fair hearing”, - is stated on the website of GYLA. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) publishes a blog post: Proper representation of interests of children is not still ensured. “The complainant requested at the national level to urge the court to take into consideration the desire of her minor nieces and designate the residence of their aunt as their place of residence. Social workers were engaged into the trial stage as representatives of the children. In the final decision, national courts assigned the children to their father. However, courts and social workers took the decision without taking into consideration best interests of the children and their desire to live with their aunt”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. According to information of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), today the Tbilisi Court of Appeals made an important decision related to combatting violence against women. “The court ruled that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia and the Office of the Prosecutor General were supposed to take respective measures to protect the victim of domestic violence who committed suicide. Prior to her death, the woman applied to relevant authorities for help 16 times and the state had to know that her life and health were in danger. State authorities have been charged to compensate the loss in favor of the mother of the deceased”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Members of the youth organizations of political parties and Tinatin Gogeliani, a representative of the State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civic Equality of Georgia discussed the state strategy for civic equality and Integration action plan of ethnic minorities at Rondeli Foundation. "The discussion was a part of the project “National Minorities in Political Processes – Engagement for Better Future” which is implemented with the support and active participation of OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM)“, is noted on the page of the organization in a social network. Read more… Source: Social network page

Tbilisi. The Public Defender’s Office of Georgia has studied the practice of early conditional release of convicts and replacement of the unserved part of a sentence with a lighter penalty.  The Public Defender believes that proper functioning of the mechanism requires that certain measures be taken in a timely manner, so that prisoners can be fully focused on proper fulfilment of their obligations during serving their sentences and the process of re-socialization, and thus be hopeful for the effective use of the mechanism.  Read more…  Source: http://ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia shares a statement on Baghdati Municipality Tragedy.  ‘Unfortunately, child poverty and inadequate living standards have remained unresolved problems for years, which in some cases endanger the health and life of children. The child protection and social system fails to protect children from extreme poverty. The programmes offered by the State to families living in poverty are not oriented to outcome, individual needs or timely prevention; therefore, the socio-economic situation of such families basically remain the same over the years. Under the current social policy, it is problematic to satisfy even the basic needs of children living in poor families’, - is mentioned in the statement  Read more…  Source: http://ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. The Human Rights House Network releases a statement in regard to the case of Tamara Mearakishvili. “ We, 60 members of the Human Rights House Network, are deeply concerned regarding the legal persecution carried out by the de facto government of South Ossetia against Tamara Mearakishvili, a well-known human rights defender. The indictment and subsequent legal prosecution done by the de facto government are the consequences entailed by attempts of Tamara Mearakishvili to reveal corruption in de facto South Ossetia. While performing her professional activity, Tamara Mearakishvili exercised her fundamental and legal rights and she, as a defender of human rights, should have respective guarantees”, - is noted in the statement.  Read more… ource: https://hrht.ge

Tbilisi. Civil society organizations send an address to international organizations in regard to the humanitarian crisis existing in Akhalgori.  “Over the last several years, rights of population of Gali and Akhalgori have been gradually restricted, including the right to education in the native language, freedom of movement and other fundamental rights. While those who raised their voice against restrictions have become victims of persecution by de facto governments. Grave instances of violation of human rights, including unlawful detention and deprivation of life, are not uncommon as well. Proofs to this are the cases of death of Davit Basharuli (2014), Giga Otkhozoria (2016), Archil Tatunashvili (2018) and Irakli Kvaratskhelia (2019). Respectively, we urge you to increase pressure on the Russian Federation, as on a power having an effective control throughout these territories, in order to immediately open the Odzisi-Mosabruni passage, stop unlawful detention of civilians at the occupation line and allow international monitoring missions to enter occupied territories unhindered”, - is noted in the joint statement.  Read more… Source:www. transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes an appraisal of an audit report on Tkibuli mines. “While visiting mines, a group of experts detected serious violations of safety standards, such as damaged ceilings and walls of roads leading to mines, carriage rails broken in many places, work platforms built with certain breaches of safety rules and etc. According to the report, these violations pose an obvious threat to health and safety of people located and working in mines, and show an indifferent attitude of the employer towards issues”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. On 31 January 2020, GDI presented its report on Freedom of Expression in Georgia. The report was prepared with the financial support of the Open Society Georgia Foundation, within the project – Litigation for Freedom of Expression. „The report aims at analysing the recent situation regarding freedom of expression in Georgia. It also covers the cases litigated by GDI before the national and regional courts as well as the Constitutional Court of Georgia. The GDI team has identified practical examples and trends in terms of restriction of the right to freedom of expression by the national authorities in different aspects”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: gdi.ge

Tbilisi. Part of civil society organizations in Georgia consider that the process of dismissal of social workers is carried out with violations. “The fact of dismissal of qualified social workers from their work on the grounds of reorganization and with vague justification is unacceptable for signatory organizations. It should also be noted that dismissed social workers participated in the above mentioned collective dispute of social workers while some of them took active part in organizing the strike and expressing a public protest, which fact raises suspicion that dismissed employees were punished specifically due to the protest”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: www.gyla.ge