Tbilisi. "Coalition for Equality”, which is a union of 10 non-governmental organizations, supports weightlifter Tatia Lortkipanidze and releases a special statement. "The sportswoman sues the senior coach of the national team of weightlifter women for sexual harassment, while the weightlifting federation for discrimination in court. Her interests will be defended by "Sapari”, a member organization of the Coalition”, - is noted in the statement, - "Sexual harassment is one of the forms of discrimination that women often suffer, however, they apply to court very rare. It is important for women to protect their rights and use the "Law on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination””. Read more…http://equalitycoalition.ge/ge/post/koalicia-tanastsorobistvis-tatia-lortqifanidzis-mkhardasatcherad Source:The website of the Coalition

Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia releases a special statement related to a 5-year anniversary since the adoption of the "Law on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination”. As the Public Defender considers, one of the main achievements of the adoption of the anti-discrimination law is a discussion and awareness rising initiated within the society in regard to discrimination as a social phenomenon, which fact, in turn, facilitates establishment of a tolerant environment towards vulnerable groups. "Sadly, in the process of achieving equality, there are still a lot of challenges, which are mainly connected with both the problem of effective implementation of a legislative framework in practice and stereotypes that are still firmly existing in the society. The Public Defender notes that in order to fight with existing challenges effectively, it is important to involve all stakeholders – the Government, civil sector and/or international partners and to ensure coordinated cooperation”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. "Coalition for Equality” responds to public statements made by Irakli Okruashvili in regard to ethnic Azerbaijanis citizens of Georgia. ""Coalition for Equality” responds to public statements made by Irakli Okruashvili, former Minister of Defense, on April 25 and 30, 2019, which statements are related to an incident that took place in Davit Gareji and promote political instrumentation and marginalization of Azerbaijani community of Georgia. Although political and social Influences of Irakli Okruashvili are substantially weak today, his rhetoric towards ethnic minorities symptomatically shows dominant policy and discourse against ethnic minority citizens of Georgia. This discourse contributes to their alienation and social arrangement, as well as to geopolitization of their community”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source:https://emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. "Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center” (EMC) publishes a statement in regard to the International Day of Solidarity of Workers. "On the background of poverty and unemployment, conditioned by shortcomings in the existing model of development and employment policy, weak social protection system, invisible and non-remunerated work, performed by women, or imposed restrictions to people, self-employed in the informal sector, it is the "privilege” today to be employed in the service sector, often without remuneration of paid annual leave, sick leave, overtime and night shift in a different manner; with remuneration, which often is not sufficient to fully cover individual consumer expenditures and forces to search for additional sources of income, furthermore, it happens in the circumstances when one performs excessive and hard work at work place, which entails irregular, overtime work without additional payment; In addition, one may experience unfair and unlawful policies of penalties applied against him/her as a tool of pressure”, - is noted in the statement of EMC. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association responds to the International Day of Solidarity of Workers. "May 1 is an important day, which symbolically underlines significance of work, performed by those employed, and importance of dignified working conditions. Comprehensive realization of labor freedom by human results in social well-being of a particular person and/or the country, however, despite positive legislative changes, made lately in Georgia, necessity of proper protection of labor freedom is not still accordingly thought out on a policy level”, - is noted in the statement released by GYLA. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. The Office of the Public Defender of Georgia releases a statement in regard to the International Day of Solidarity of Workers. "May 1 is the International Day of Workers, the Public Defender once again calls on the Government this day to take appropriate measures to address problems existing in the field of labor rights”, - is noted in the statement, - "growing statistic of casualties and injuries at work place is especially concerning. 59 people died and 199 were injured as a result of industrial accidents in 2018... There are no respective measures applied to take care of health of employed people, improvement of their qualification, provision of trainings in first aid. Besides, no sanitary-hygienic norms are observed... Monitoring of requirements stipulated by labor laws shows that in most of the cases duration of working hours is incompatible with terms stipulated by contract; rules of provision of annual leave and remuneration are violated... Labor rights, particularly those of vulnerable groups – women and disabled people, in terms of adhering to principles of equality are breached... The Public Defender, within the frames of her mandate, continues to study the state of protection of labor rights in the country and will apply all available means to improve existing situation”. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. On April 17, 2019, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, in cooperation with a partner organization the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC), filed a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights. The complaint relates to an inappropriate treatment committed by policemen against Irakli Khoperia and ineffectiveness of investigation launched on this fact. Read more… Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The signatory organizations express the deep concern regarding the critical situation created in Pankisi Gorge related to the cascade construction of HPPs and call the government of Georgia to immediately cease the demonstration of police power against the local population and to immediately withdraw the forces from the Gorge. ''It is more than 1 year that local population actively protests planned constructions of ''Khadori 3'' and ''Samkuristskali 2'' and court proceedings on these cases are still ongoing. The critical analysis of construction authorization documents clearly reveals that they are unreasonable and environment impact assessment is not properly conducted, including the impact on drinking water. The locals point out that 4 HPPs in the small territory of the Gorge will have a devastating impact on its unique nature as well as on the social environment and sustainable economic development'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Adjara. On April 18, 2019, the Constitutional Court satisfied one more lawsuit of GYLA, which was related to management of a timeframe for appealing to a higher instance against a court decision. GYLA appealed to the Constitutional Court against a norm, according to which a deadline for appealing to a higher instance against a court decision starts not from the moment of handover of a motivation part of a decision to a party, but from the moment of announcement of a resolution part. Read more... Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center'' (EMC) demands from the government to take immediate actions in order to create a decent work environment for those employed and releases a special statement. ''... Despite elaboration of a respective supervision mechanism and tightening legislation, ineffectiveness of execution mechanisms and postponement of a deadline of enforcement of important legislative regulations for the future put lives and health of employees at risk daily'', - is noted in the statement released by EMC. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Partnership for Human Rights (PHR) publishes a blog post regarding the case of Tatia Samkharadze. ''The Court of Appeals made a final decision in regard to the first case of sexual harassment and on December 12, left into force a decision of the first instance of court on the case – ''Tatia Samkharadze against Shalva Ramishvili''. With mentioned decision, the court once again reconfirmed that Shalva Ramishvili committed a sexual harassment against Tatia Samkharadze at the workplace, using his official position'', - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source:phrgeorgia.wordpress.com

Tbilisi. An organization ''Partnership for Human Rights'' (PHR) responds to review of ''The Draft Code on the Rights of the Child'' that took place on March 26 of the current year at the sitting of the Parliamentary Committee and to amendments, made consequently to the document. The organization considers that mentioned amendments are incompatible with international standards on child rights and require immediate response. Read more... Source:phrgeorgia.wordpress.com

Tbilisi. ''Article 42 of the Constitution'' releases a statement related to death of laborers and detention of participants of the rally. ''Article 42 of the Constitution'' responds to the fact of death of two laborers on March 31 at #5 Chavchavadze str., as well as to the peaceful rally, conducted by activists in regard to this fact at the accident site on April 1, 2019, and considers that the state failed to ensure realization of fundamental rights of gathered people'', - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. On 30 March 2019, the Public Defender of Georgia submitted a report on the situation of human rights and freedoms in Georgia to the Parliament. ''In the context of the right to life, the report refers to the investigation of the proportionality of the force used against Temirlan Machalikashvili, the effectiveness of the investigation into the murder that took place on Khorava Street and the important shortcomings in the investigation of the murder of the first President of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia. In addition, the Public Defender considers that disproportionate penalty was imposed on the employees of the penitentiary service charged in connection with the case of killed prisoner Levan Kortava'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. World Autism Awareness Day is marked on April 2. This day, initiated by the United Nations, serves to raise public awareness. ''Protection of the rights of persons with autism is related to many challenges in Georgia. It is problematic to ensure needs-based health care for people with autism and to provide continuous habilitation-rehabilitation services for them, taking into consideration the geographical accessibility. No state or municipal programmes envisage rehabilitation services for persons with autistic spectrum disorders above the age of 15. In addition, only few municipalities have similar programmes intended for children and they cannot fully cover the existing needs'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Civil society organizations continue to support social workers and release a special statement. ''Signatory organizations once again call on the Ministry of Internally Displaced People from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia, while negotiating with social workers: to realize how important is the work, performed by social workers, for both the country and interests of different vulnerable groups; to ensure improvement of working conditions of social workers as much as possible in accordance with their requirements;'' Read more... Source:gyla.ge

On March 27, the ''Human Rights Center'' conducted a meeting with the population, affected by the 2008 armed conflict, at the Khurvaleti IDP settlement community center. ''The purpose of the meeting was to identify problems that would be advocated by the Human Rights Center at the local, national and/or international level'', - is stated on the website of the organization in a social network. Read more… Source:The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Georgian Young Lawyers` Association (GYLA) responds to another case of detention on distributing the video footage depicting personal life. It is noteworthy that about 2 months ago, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia (MIA) detained 16 persons, who had kept or massively disseminated the secret personal life video recordings. '''GYLA believes that the actions taken by the law enforcers create illusions that the fight against disseminating the secret personal life footage is real, insofar, actual measures, to punish the fountain-head, are not supposedly taken. Criminal prosecutions begins fragmentally against those people who put the materials on the internet, when the principal importance is to identify and prosecute persons accused of ordering and disseminating the materials depicting personal life'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Center represents legal interests of Ekaterine Kvlividze, a former employee of the Ministry of Defense of Georgia, in the Tbilisi City Court. ''The Ministry of Defense blames the former employee for termination of terms of the contract, while the Ministry itself has not fulfilled its contractual obligations, in particular – it has to pay a salary supplement for 3 years. The Human Rights Center calls on the Ministry of Defense of Georgia to respond to facts of alleged violation of the rights of Ekaterine Kvlividze'', - is noted in the statement of the organization. Read more… Source:The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) applied to the Court of Appeals in regard to the case of violation of the presumption of innocence of Temirlan Machalikashvili. According to the organization, efforts of the State Security Service to present Temirlan as guilty indicates an attempt to overlap the crime committed during the special operation and weaken the support of public towards the family protest. Read more... Source:emc.org.ge

Today, on March 26, 2019, the European Court of Human Rights rendered the decision, based on which Russian Federation will have to pay compensation to citizens who were collectively expulsed from Russian Federation in 2006, including 8 persons represented by GYLA. The mentioned persons have lodged complaints to the European Court against Russia in 2007. GYLA represents 8 persons affected by the expulsion in the case Chokheli and others against Russia. Read more... Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. On 22 March 2019, Public Defender of Georgia presented a national study on reproductive and sexual health and rights, which was prepared with the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). At the opening of the event, the Public Defender noted that despite the progressive steps taken by the state, there remain systemic problems in terms of quality and accessibility of services, which lead to unaffordability of services, social barriers and lack of information. All of this has particular impact on the rights situation of ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, women and girls in rural areas; there is no systemic approach to post-delivery services; children do not have complex education or full information about their body or reproductive health, which increases the risk of hazardous behavior. The study was carried out within the framework of the UN Joint Programme for Gender Equality, which is financially supported by the Swedish Government. Read more…  Source: The web-page of organization