Tbilisi. Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes analysis of legislation and practice of secret surveillance in Georgia. “Under the current regulations, there is little trust that in the conduct of secret investigative measures state interference in private life would be proportional to its legitimate aim. Lack of trust towards the government is dwelling from its reluctance to address the challenges, which are being highlighted by various international as well as domestic organizations”, is noted in the analytical document. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. According to information that Civil.ge releases, Facebook, a social media giant, is going to enact a fact-checking program in Georgia from next week. “The program will be launched on the basis of a partnership of Factcheck.ge and “Myth Detector” projects of “Georgia’s Reforms Associates” (GRASS), a non-governmental organization, and the “Media Development Foundation” with Facebook. It aims at revealing fake news and disinformation disseminated on the platform”. Read more… Source: civil.ge

Tbilisi. Within the framework of a long-term observation mission, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association monitors pre-election processes in Tbilisi, Adjara, Guria, Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti, Imereti, Shida, and Kvemo Kartli, Mtskheta-Mtianeti, and Kakheti through its 9 regional observers.  “The Interim Report on the 2020 parliamentary elections contains findings of the monitoring carried out from June 1 through August 31.  GYLA observers from both the ruling party and the opposition detected:  - 5 cases of neglect of the requirement to separate the state and a political party (including the anti-crisis plan to eliminate consequences of COVID-19);  - 5 cases of voter bribery and alleged bribery;  - 6 cases of violent actions, creation of a tense pre-election environment and obstruction of pre-election agitation”.  Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Civil Platform 20/20 releases the unscheduled report on the election of temporary members of the district election commissions for the October 31, 2020 election.  "The “Civic Platform 20/20” believes that when selecting temporary members of district commissions, the CEC paid insufficient attention to the study of candidates' professionalism and impartiality. The commission did not use public information in the study, which is public not only for the Central Election Commission but also for any citizen. Only one candidate expressed a desire to participate in the competition announced in 16 districts out of 72 election districts, indicating that the Central Election Commission failed to make full use of the public information mechanisms, thus failing to inform persons with election certificates. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a study: Contract employment practice at ministries and LEPLs. “Unlike rules for hiring public servants, in the case of contract employment there is a simpler selection process and in many cases functions and duties of those to be hired are vaguely described. On positions under an administrative contract,people are appointed without passing a competition, while a simplified public competition for contract employment is announced and a decision is made by an authorized person only on the basis of an interview. Consequently, risks of nepotism and irrational management of budget funds are higher in this field”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The “No to Phobia!” civil platform expresses its concern in regard to the xenophobic/ Turkophobic rhetoric of the political party “Alliance of Patriots” and considers that activities of the party contain signs of stirring up ethnic tensions, which is prohibited under Paragraph 3 of Article 23 of the Constitution of Georgia. “Political parties enjoy freedom of expression and hence they have the right to express their views publicly, even if it is incorrect and misleading, however, at the same time, they have a high responsibility to not use a political platform for causing misunderstanding among various groups of the society and creating new hotbeds of conflict. The latter is especially dangerous in the reality of Georgia”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source:gdi.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Center prepared the interim reports of the court proceedings of the cases with alleged political motives, and the protest assemblies. “During the court monitoring it was identified that on the cases under the monitoring of HRC the right to a fair trial was not ensured by the system of criminal justice of Georgia. Despite the fact that the deficiencies identified during the court hearings do not expressly violate the right to fair trial per se, the combination of some individual cases, particular legislative defects and generally problematic court practice, further, the existence of selective justice and alleged political motives threatens the protection of the right to a fair trial in accordance with international standards and human right laws”. Read more… Source: www.humanrights.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International - Georgia considers that supporting a new legislative initiative on anti-corruption reform will significantly increase effectiveness of fight against corruption. “International practice proves that independent anti-corruption service is an effective mechanism of fight against systemic corruption. This model has been successfully implemented in many European countries. The proposed reform implies qualitative improvement of theanti-corruption policyof the country; it is especially important that it will enable real investigation of cases of so called “elite corruption” and their prevention”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source:transparency.ge

Tbilisi. UN Women presents the Country Gender Equality Profile of Georgia, which includes the gender equality indicators and the review of the local legislation and the policy framework against Georgia’s international commitments. The Country Gender Equality Profile (CGEP) represents a guide to assess the existing situation regarding women’s empowerment and gender equality. The CGEP describes and analyses the present situation in Georgia mainly based on the indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while at the same time considering the BPfA and CEDAW frameworks. Read more… Source: georgia.unwomen.org

Tbilisi. The Public Defender presented a special report for the first time this year, which contains a detailed evaluation of the status of implementation of tasks assigned to state agencies by the resolution of the Parliament of September 20, 2019 on the basis of the 2018 report of the Public Defender of Georgia on the state of human rights and freedoms in Georgia. The Public Defender addressed state agencies and local self-government bodies with 310 recommendations listed in the 2018 parliamentary report. The Parliament of Georgia considered about 78% (244 recommendations) of these recommendations and issued 259 tasks to ensure their implementation. Read more… Source: The website of the organization  

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) informs about one more organized network operating on Facebook. Since the run-up to the 2018 presidential elections, ISFED has been monitoring behavior of websites operating against both opposition and ruling parties on Facebook. Two large-scale operations, carried out by Facebook against Georgian websites, groups and accounts, confirmed links that these websites have with both “Georgian Dream”, the ruling party, and “United National Movement”, an opposition party. With the 2020 parliamentary elections approaching, there can also be observed a large-scale campaign in favor of one more party - the “Alliance of Patriots of Georgia” on Facebook. It is noteworthy that this network, along with the positive campaign carried out in favor of the “Alliance of Patriots”, leads a clearly negative, discrediting activity against both the ruling party and, especially, other opposition parties”, - is stated in the information released by ISFED. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Transparency International – Georgia (TI) published an information about situation in the health supervision area of Akhaltsikhe.  By the organization, - “The director of N(N)LE Center for Public Healthcare of the Akhaltsikhe Municipality, Naira Khabuliani, works in several paid positions at the same time. One of her jobs is the position of an epidemiologist at the Clinic of Akhaltsikhe ‘Imedi’. As the head of the non-entrepreneurial (non-commercial) legal entity, she also exercises epidemiological supervision on herself. In addition, Khabuliani worked as an epidemiologist at both fever centers created in Samtskhe-Javakheti at the time of the coronavirus, which was prohibited by law. And the service which exercises epidemiological supervision in the entire region is headed by Naira Khabuliani’s daughter – Nino Zedgenidze is the head of the Samtskhe-Javakheti regional division of the National Center for Disease Control”.  Read more…   Source: The web-page of the organization

How is Georgia working to fulfill its commitments under Association Agreement with the EU? Find out in the publications created with the support of the EU-funded project.  Read more…  Source: The page in the social network

“Myth Detector” publishes a new report of the United States Department of State – “Pillars of Russia’s Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem”.  Read more…  Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) publishes an evaluation of a process of selection of professional members of the Supreme Election Commission of Adjara.  “Final report of an international monitoring mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, prepared after the 2018 presidential elections in Georgia, talks about changing the rule of staffing the election administration, which is going to promote more balanced political representation. The problem is a likelihood that in line with the current rule of appointment of members of commission one party can have more than one representative in the election commission, which fact increases a degree of political influence at election commissions of all levels.  On this background, existence of objective criteria for selection of professional members becomes more important in order to make sure that bodies involved in the process of administration of elections enjoy public trust and there is no feeling that they are politically biased”, - is stated in the evaluation. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia examined the activities of Batumi City Council of the 2017 convocation covering the period between November 2017 and 31 December 2019 (hereinafter reporting/research period). The report is based on the information requested from the City Council, observations by Transparency International Georgia and media reports. The report also includes the main findings and recommendations which, if considered, would help the City Council formed as a result of the 2021 local self-government elections in its future activities. Read more…  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. The Project is pleased to present a comprehensive study prepared by its senior experts, Eka Lomtatitdze on duty of the High Council of Justice to reason its decisions.  The purpose of the study of Georgian legislation and relevant case law is to identify the acts of the HCOJ (as a collegial body), in respect of which the reasoning is required. The relevant practice of the Constitutional Court and the Qualification Chamber of the Supreme Court is also examined. Study  Read more…  Source: The page in the social network

Human Rights House Tbilisi and Human Rights House Foundation jointly presented a report within the framework of the third cycle of the United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review (UPR)...  The document contains an evaluation of the situation in terms of rights of human rights defenders and activists in Georgia during the last reporting period (2015-2020) as well as various problematic aspects that hinder their free activities in Georgia. It also contains a review of cases of discrimination of human rights defenders and restriction of their right to freedom of expression, problems related to freedom of assembly, slanderous as well as discrediting campaigns, and etc.  Read more…   Source: hrht.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia has evaluated the performance of the representative body of the Municipality of the City of Poti which was elected in 2017 – the City Council (hereinafter the City Council of Poti). The report is based on information requested and received from the City Council and that posted on the City Council’s official website, as well as on observations of our organization. The study covers the period from November 2017 up to 2019. Read more…  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) presented the second interim report on monitoring of the pre-election period of the October 31, 2020 elections of the Parliament of Georgia to public today. The second interim report focuses on the period from July 5 to August 3, 2020. It also covers individual cases that were initiated before July 5 and continued during the monitoring period or became known within the monitoring period. ISFED has been monitoring the pre-election period of the October 31, 2020 elections of the Parliament of Georgia since June 1. The monitoring is carried out with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the European Union. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) has revealed 34 Facebook pages that act coordinated, non-authentically and are affiliated with “Alt-Info”, an organization disseminating propaganda narratives. “Alt-Info” calls itself an alternative source of information, while in reality it is engaged in anti-liberal, anti-immigration, anti-LGBTQI community and anti-Western propaganda”, - is stated in the report presented by ISFED, - “ISFED has revealed a coordinated action of “Alt-Info” on Facebook, through which the organization attempts to disseminate its content to Facebook users in a disguised and massive way. Currently, the main tool of “Alt-Info” is sharing of online video programs on 34 Facebook pages that are connected with it, of which 12 are openly, while 22 - covertly affiliated with “Alt-Info”. Besides 34 pages, there have been identified 25 public groups, in which “Alt-Info” news is actively shared, 7 of them are closely coordinated and covertly engage in “Alt-Info” propaganda. 22 “Alt-Info” covertly disseminating pages have a total of 365,549, while 15 officially operating pages - 157,640 subscribers. 7 closely coordinated groups unite a total of 169,734 users, while remaining 18 groups have a total of 777,679 members”. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Within the framework of its parliamentary monitoring activities, Transparency International Georgia (TI) assessed the performance of the Parliament in the period covering January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2019.  “2019 was a year of active political events and turmoil. There were a number of notable events throughout the year, which has led to public outcry. Parliamentary proceedings were carried out against the background of public protests. Due to various political confrontations, the composition of the Parliament changed; a number of MPs left the parliamentary majority, which has resulted in the breakdown of the minority as per the rules of Procedure. Moreover, the parliamentary opposition actively used the boycott mechanism during the autumn session. These events have all affected the regular functioning of the legislature”, - Is mentioned in the information the TI published.  Read more…   Source: The web-page of the organization