Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia has appealed to the Minister of Internal Affairs with a recommendation to study the legality of the actions committed against a former police inspector.  ''Based on the above, the Public Defender addressed the Minister of Internal Affairs with a recommendation to study the issues of V.C.’s dismissal, his adequate labour compensation as well as his compensation for the damages caused by the unlawful detention. In addition, the Public Defender considers that the alleged disciplinary offense committed by V.C.’s commander should be studied as well. The Public Defender recommends the Minister to personally study the existing gaps in the work of the General Inspection Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs'', is noted in the statement. In full... Source: www.ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Non-governmental organizations, members of the civic platform ''No to phobia'', respond to the ''armenophobic attitude'' and ''violent actions'', demonstrated by Tamaz Mechiauri, the Chairman of the Finance-Budget Committee of the Parliament of Georgia. ''It is noteworthy to mention that in his speeches and statements Tamaz Mechiauri is distinguished with discriminatory expressions, including those of homophobic and armenophobic character; besides, his attitude towards non-governmental sector, when he calls the representatives of civil society as ''NGO Soros staff'', is unacceptable'' - is stated on the web-page of the organization. In Full... Source:tdi.ge

Tbilisi. The Public Defender is studying a collective application signed by 343 residents of Agladze Street of Tbilisi. The application describes the difficult conditions resulting from the noise made by industrial and other facilities. ''In order to solve the problem, the Parliament’s Committee of Health and Social Affairs initiated a bill on amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences and it was put on the agenda of the Parliament’s ongoing session. However, later, in response to the appeal of the Public Defender's Office, the Parliament’s Committee of Health and Social Affairs explained that the bill was withdrawn because of different positions of competent authorities regarding the definition of the term "noise", continuity and administrative responsibilities'', is noted in the statement.  In full... Source: www.ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Therefore on January 6th 2016, IDFI has requested the complete information regarding 2015 from the Interior Ministry. The ministry forwarded the request to the State Security Agency, which has immediately responded to IDFI’s request and provided data according to which 341 Georgian citizens were illegally detained for crossing of the Abkhazian Occupational lines and 162 Georgian citizens were illegally detained for crossing the South Ossetian Occupational line in 2015 (Accordingly, after April 2015, in a 9 month period 225 people were detained in Abkhazia and 139 people in South Ossetia). ''According to the information received from the State Security Agency, in the years 2009-2015 the occupational forces have detained a total number of 2481 Georgian citizens for the so-called "illegal border crossing” of which 1 641 were detained by occupational forces in Abkhazia and 840 people were detained in Occupational forces in Tskhinvali Region (so called 'South Ossetia')'', is noted in the statement. In full... Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia declares that ''the Deputy Minister of Interior is obliged to follow the presumption of innocence''. ''As a summary of the practice of the European Court, it can be said that the accusing party is also obliged to follow the presumption of innocence, particularly in the case, when a statement is made not within the format of a criminal case proceeding at the court, but through a press conference or a television interview. In such cases it is important that public information be provided only in the form of description of facts, without evaluating, declaratory judgment'' - is stated on the web-page of the organization. In Full... Source:www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Non-governmental organizations, members of the civic platform ''No to Phobia'', address to the Prime Minister. ''We consider that it is a serious problem when, on the one hand, a high-ranking political official, who speaks on behalf of the State, systematically incites hatred and intolerance due to the opinions, unacceptable to him/her, and on the other hand, the government has no reaction to such expression, which is reflected on the increasing number of the acts of violence during the last period of time'' - is stated on the web-page of the organization. In full... Source: www.tdi.ge

Tbilisi. The Ministry of Justice has drafted the law, which will protect the rights of children, appearing and working at the street. The bill has been approved at the session of the Government today. ''The children, living and working at the street, are the pain of all of us - the State and the society. Every child has the right to development, that is why we have developed, together with partner organizations and counterpart ministries, the package of the amendments, which has been unanimously approved by the government today, and which serves to better protect the children, appearing and working at the street'' - has been declared by Tea Tsulukiani, the Minister of Justice. In full... Source:www.ginsc.net

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) launches the project ''Support of the protection of the rights of marginalized groups by encouraging civic education and public discussions''. ''The duration of the project is 3 months and it includes organizing a discussion forum for activists and applying acquired knowledge to certain marginalized groups. From January 16 through January 20 a 5-day forum will take place on a topic: ''social and political aspects of oppression: theory and practice'' – is stated on the web-page of the organization. In full... Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. On December 22, the Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group (WIGS) and the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center held a press conference. ''At the press conference the organizations assessed important decisions regarding the protection of the rights of LGBT individuals, made by the court in the year 2015. The assessment was related to the effectiveness of the state response on the crimes, committed with homophobic / transphobic motives'' – is stated on the web-page of the organization. In full… Source:emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. On December 14-18, 2015, the fourth training - The Role of Human Rights in Conflict Transformation – was held within the framework of the Public Defender’s Academy of Human Rights. Civil society representatives participated in the training.  ''At the opening of the training, the Public defender talked about the activities of the ombudsman’s office in terms of protection of the rights of conflict-affected population. The main aim of the training was to brief the civil society representatives of the role of protection of human rights in conflict and post-conflict situations'', is noted in the statement. In full... Source: www.ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Non-governmental organizations respond to the statements of the current and former Chairmen of the Pardon Commission, in which they talk about the pressure, performed by politicians. ''It is clear that the declarations on this type of pressure represent the statements about malfeasance of particularly dangerous nature and require to carry out an investigation in limited deadlines and to answer the questions existing in public'' – is noted in the joint statement. In full… Source:emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Young Barristers responds to the ongoing public discussion regarding the commission for pardon and the cases of release via amnesty in December 2012. ''The transparency of the activities of the commission for pardon has always been a subject for debates because there are no justified and well-defined solutions on certain cases, however, the campaign, which regards to the existence of lobbying the cases of prisoners with self-interest, goes beyond the basis of healthy criticism of the issue and requires legal and political appraisal'' – is noted in the statement of the organization. In full... Source:www.barristers.ge

Imereti. On December 10, 2015, in the Kutaisi building of the Parliament of Georgia, the Public Defender held a reception together with the Parliament in connection with the International Human Rights Day by the support from the United Nations Development Programme and the EU Delegation to Georgia. ''In his speech the Public Defender emphasized the positive changes carried out in terms of protection of human rights in 2015, including the election of Georgia as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the adoption of the Juvenile Justice Code and the reforms carried out in the judiciary and the prosecutor’s office. The Public Defender also focused on the issues that still represent challenges and noted that the implemented changes are not enough for making the process irreversible'', is noted in the statement. In full... Source: www.ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Public defender releases report on the Situation of the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms in Georgia 2015.  ''Its main goal is to inform the society about the main achievements and problems of the year in the field of human rights; without overcoming of these problems, it will be impossible to realize the main principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Georgia'', is noted in the statement. In full... Source: www.ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. The Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the organization ''Young Barristers'' and the Legal Affairs Commission of the City Council. ''Within the framework of the presented Memorandum, the organization undertakes the responsibility to provide free legal consultancy service to all addressable citizens. According to its Head, the organization is currently implementing two projects, which regard to the legal consultancy of migrants, returned back to the country, and the advocacy of women at the June 13, 2015 disaster affected families'' – is noted in the statement of the organization. In full… Source:www.barristers.ge

Tbilisi. The ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC)'' sums up the situation related to the protection of human rights in 2015 in Georgia. ''In terms of the situation related to the protection of human rights, the particular challenge was inefficiency of implementation of the equality and anti-discrimination policy by the state, as well as superficiality and fragmentation of institutional reforms, which cannot provide functioning of major state institutions in the circumstances, free of political and other improper influences'' - is noted in the statement of the organization. In full… Source:emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. ''Georgian Democracy Initiative'' publishes a newsletter for the month of October. The newsletter provides an overview of the news related to human rights. ''Major events during the month of October were the attacks of the government against political opponents, the case of the TV Company ''Rustavi 2'', newly revealed facts of meddling into private lives via wiretapping and others'' – is stated on the web-page of the organization. Newsletter… Source:gdi.ge

Tbilisi. On December 7, 2015, Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili and Deputies of Public Defender Paata Beltadze and Natia Katsitadze met with Ambassador of Sweden to Georgia Martina Quick.  ''The situation of human rights in Georgia, gender equality and elimination of all forms of discrimination, as well as reforms of the penitentiary system, the prosecutor's office and the judiciary, including the ongoing process of appointment of judges were discussed at the meeting'', is noted in the statement.  In full... Source: www.ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Non-governmental organizations call on the government to fulfill the recommendations of UPR regarding the issues on sexual and reproductive health and rights. ''At this point Georgia has not given its consent to accept the most important recommendation, proposed by Sweden, which points out the necessity of making amendments into the Law of Georgia on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination and, for this purpose, granting the Public Defender with the competence of applying fines and other sanctions for the facts of discrimination'' – is noted in the joint statement. In full… Source:emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Public Defender expresses concern about the advertisement titled as ''Sexual Education'' released in social networks by the Saga shop. ''The Public Defender considers that the content of the mentioned video does not match with the level of emotional and cognitive development of the child participating in it as well as of juvenile spectators, and therefore, represents a violent pressure on psychic abilities of juveniles and a blatant violation of the principle of child's best interests guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child'', noted in the statement. In full... Source: www.ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. The Public Defender is responding to the amendments to be made to the rules for questioning of witnesses at the stage of investigation and negatively evaluates the Government's initiative.  ''The Public Defender cannot accept the arguments based on which the Government of Georgia demands two-year postponement of the new rules of questioning of witnesses with respect to certain categories of crimes. We believe that such a threat exists in relation to other crimes too; in addition, it is not clear how these threats will be eliminated in two years. It must be said that the law enforcement agencies had enough time and resources to carry out preparatory measures for introducing this institution in practice, to raise employees' skills and professionalism that would have promoted practical realization of the principle of voluntariness of questioning of witnesses'', is noted in the statement. In full... Source: www.ombudsman.ge