Tbilisi. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center has addressed the Prosecutor's Office with a statement. The organization "demands launch of investigation into alleged facts of arbitrary arrest of the local Muslims and disproportionate use of force during the operation carried out by the Ministry of Interior in village Mokhe". For the full text. Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. On October 31, the Public Defender held another public debate on the state of legal rights of persons with disabilities. The discussion also included persons with disabilities, their representatives and organizations working on these issues. The discussion appeared to be quite acute and mainly included involvement of persons with disabilities in the monitoring process, need to provide them with new programmes, strengthening of existing programme and pensions, the legal state of persons with disabilities.  The debate was moderated by head of the programme unit of the UN Development Fund Natia Natsvlishvili.

Tbilisi. The Tolerance and Diversity Institute (TDI) has released the analysis of developments in village Mokhe. "In October 2014 the Adigeni Municipality has witnessed another confrontation on religious grounds between the local Muslims and law-enforcement agencies and the gross violations of the Muslims' rights. The Ministry of Interior staff have dismissed a rally, at which local Muslims were protesting against dismantling of a mosque - currently disputed building - with violent methods. Eye-witnesses claim that law-enforcers were physically and verbally insulting the Muslims ...", the organization's web page states. For the full text Source: tdigeorgia.wordpress.com

Tbilisi. Georgian Young Lawyers' Association released a statement on the Case of the High-Level Officials of the Defense Ministry.  

Tbilisi. The Georgian Democratic Initiative (GDI) has released the report on human rights and freedoms for the first half of 2014. It covers "developments in the country over the reporting period, relating to problems experienced by the country in terms of protection of human rights and rule of law", says the report introduction. The report. Source: the organization's web page in the social network.

Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia addressed the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia with a recommendation to "examine how appropriate and legitimate is conduction of audio-video recording of the process of consultation of a pupil by the Psychological Service Department of the Office of Resource Officers of Educational Institutions of the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, as well as elaboration, storing and later usage of the gathered personal data". For the full text Source: ombudsman.ge  

Tbilisi. CSOs united under the "This Affects You – They Are Still Listening" campaign find it unacceptable the initiative of the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee, "which ... provides for extension of work of the working group for drafting legislative amendments on secret surveillance until April 2015. Failure of the group to make a final decision on the secret surveillance system is referred to as the reason of postponement, however, no sitting has been convened to make such a decision", says the web page of Transparency International - Georgia. Members of the campaign urge "the Parliament of Georgia not to uphold the initiative to extend the deadline". For the full text. Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Civil platform "No to Phobia!” addresses to the State Minister of Georgia on Diaspora Issues. "We would like to respond to the interview given by the Deputy State Minister of Georgia on Diaspora Issues to the Kviris Palitra newspaper on October 25. The interview contains apparent hate speech towards the head of NGO Identoba, Irakli Vacharadze, and a call for physical reprisals against him. ...We believe that such statements by a public official, the more so by a high-ranking political official, pose a serious threat to the country’s democratic development; they encourage intolerance to differing views and physical reprisals and serve to discredit the activities of NGOs", says the statement. For the full text Source: gdi.ge  

Tbilisi. Heinrich Boll Foundation has released a video recording of public discussion held on October 23 concerning the protection of personal life and the related risks. Speakers: Giorgi Mshvenieradze, Board member of the "Georgian Democratic Initiative"; Tamar Kaldani, Personal Data Protection Inspector; Zviad Koridze, journalist. Video recording. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. "Libcenter" has hosted psychologist Maia Tsiramua's public lecture on October 23: "Violence against women – tradition or a new trend". The Center provides a video recording of the lecture for those who were unable to attend the event     Source: the Center's web page in the social network.

Tbilisi. Public Defender released a statement regarding Developments in Mokhe Village. "Given sensitivity and importance of the issue the Public Defender calls on the board of Adigeni municipality to stop dismantling of the building. It is important that all similar issues are decided by local self-governing bodies with maximum involvement of population and individuals with different viewpoint and only then a decision is made.  All the more that, the issue might concern interference in right to freedom of religion safeguarded in the constitution". For the full text Source: ombudsman.ge  

Tbilisi. Jumpstart Georgia published a visualization - "End violence against children in Georgia". "Violence against children is widespread in Georgia: 45% of Georgians believe that the use of physical violence against children is acceptable, and 60% believe that harsh parenting is more effective than non-violent disciplinary methods. Even though the majority of Georgians believe that physical violence is an issue and needs addressing, they are still reluctant to accept the idea of the ‘authorities’ interfering with family affairs, even when there may be violence". Infographic... The research - Violence Against children in Georgia, UNICEF Source:feradi.info  

Adjara. The Public Defender of Georgia met with head of the Ajara Government Archil Khabadze to discuss developments around the opening of Muslim religious school in Kobuleti. During the meeting, ways of eradication of the problem were discussed. At the meeting with the head of the Ajara government the Public defender also spoke about the current events. Among them, circumstances of residents of territories of former military battalions 53 and 25 - so-called cardboard settlement were also discussed. For the full text Source: ombudsman.ge  

Tbilisi. Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association released a statement in relation to the Disturbing Scale of the Violence against Women. "Association condemns violence against women, which evolved into the disturbing scale and forms in the past months. Violence against women is a crime, which cannot have any cultural, religious or other justification. Today media has aired information on one more case of violence of the ex-husband against the woman, which resulted in the victim’s death." For the full text Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. On October 16, the Human Rights Committee has upheld legislative initiative of the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association on amendments to the Labor Code. "Legislative proposal aims to ensure better protection of rights and legal interests of the employed, and to approximate legislation of Georgia with standards set by the EU law", says the organization's web page in the social network. For the full text (geo)... Source: the organization's web page in the social network.

Adjara. The organization "Young Barristers” held a meeting with the civil society in the Center for Civic Engagement in Batumi, and presented the research on the case of illegally deprived property of Roland Bladadze in Adjara afret the "Rose Revolution”. For the full text Source: barristers.ge

Tbilisi. President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili has met with representatives of 25 CSOs working on women's rights. The meeting aimed to get familiar with projects that CSOs are implementing to eradicate violence against women, and on the other hand, to plan in this respect new events, in which the President's Administration will participate along with CSOs. At the meeting, women's rights activists have informed the President about key problems that the country currently faces in this regard. Discussion included topics such as protection of rights of violence victims, facts of domestic violence against women and overcoming of obstacles in this respect. It was noted that the situation in Georgia's regions is particularly grave. The parties have focused on the importance of psycho-rehabilitation centers and the need to carry out various campaigns. Source: web page of CSO "Partnership for Human Rights" in the social network.

Tbilisi. The World Mental Health Day is marked on October 10. The Public Defender of Georgia calls on people with mental health problems to live independent lives, to demand protection of their rights, get involved in the process of implementation of mental health-related programmes. For the full text Source: ombudsman.ge  

Tbilisi. On October 8, 2014, the Constitutional Court of Georgia has announced its decision in relation to the lawsuits, filed by GYLA in 2011 and 2012. The constitutional court has upheld GYLA’s requests under the lawsuit and declared unconstitutionality of the incapability model, prescribed under the Civil Code. For the full text Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Center has released a statement, by which it "urges the authorities of Georgia to express interest in the legal status of aliens in respect of access to grounds for granting a residence permit". For the full text. Source: humanrights.ge

Tbilisi. The Public Defender once again assesses the developments around the opening of the Muslim education institution in Kobuleti and calls on the relevant authorities to take active steps. "Since September 10, 2014, a representative of the Public Defender has many times visited the Kobuleti municipality where he/she met with local Muslim and Orthodox Christian residents". Next week the Public Defender plans to visit Ajara to study the situation on the place. For the full text Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Open Society Georgia Foundation and the Ministry of Interior of Georgia have signed a memorandum of understanding. The memorandum enables implementation of OSGF Human Rights Program in-house project - Inside Policy Custody, developed jointly with Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) and Legal Aid Reformers' Network (LARN). For the full text Source: osgf.ge