Tbilisi. Institute for Development of Freedom of Information publishes the blog post: Pandemics and Corruption Risks. “Due to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, state of emergency was declared in Georgia on March 21, 2020. Unfortunately, international experience shows that corruption often thrives during times of crisis, as some see it as an opportunity to take advantage of the situation and use power for private gain. It is important that public institutions use the funds allocated to them within the framework of the emergency budget in a highly rational manner and ensure the transparency of this process. Considering all the above, it is important that the authorities ensure that risk factors in the health sector are identified and that appropriate measures are taken to ensure that the funds allocated in this direction are spent rationally and diligently”. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. According to information of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, news released by ZDnet on March 30 in regard to publishing the list of voters of Georgia raises a number of question marks. “Information about mass disclosure of personal data of voters 7 months before the 2020 parliamentary elections may be aimed at discrediting both the voters list and the election process itself. Therefore, it is important to conduct a timely and thorough investigation into the possible fact of mass disclosure of personal data of citizens of Georgia in order to find out whether such a fact actually took place or not, published information contains real data on Georgian citizens or not, which databases were made public, how they were accessed and by who”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more…  Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a research: Georgia in the Rule of Law Index 2020.  “The purpose of the IDFI research is to review indicators of the Global Rule of Law Index in Georgia as of 2020, compare them with those of previous years, identify problematic fields and show trends that have become possible as a result of evaluation by the Rule of Law Index. According to the Global Rule of Law Index 2020, the state of the rule of law in Georgia is rated at 0.60 points (maximum 1 point). Georgia ranks 42nd out of evaluated 128 countries. Based on these indicators, position of Georgia has deteriorated by 0.01 points and 1 step compared to the previous year”, - is stated on the website of the organization.  Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Special Preventive Group of the Public Defender of Georgia carried out monitoring in the penitentiary institution No 3 on September 16-17, 2019.  The report refers to the difficult situation of rehabilitation and re-socialization and indicates that inmates spend 23 hours in cells without any activity and can walk in the yard only for an hour. In addition, there are inmates who have been held in solitary confinement for months and even years, which, according to the Public Defender, severely impacts their psychological condition and constitutes ill-treatment.  Read more…  Source: http://ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. According to information of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), Ivane Machavariani, Minister of Finance, regularly violates the Constitution, which serves the basis for his impeachment. "On February 24, the faction “Independent Members of Parliament” called Ivane Machavariani, Minister of Finance of Georgia, to the sitting of the Committee on Sector Economy and Economic Policy. He did not attend the sitting. According to the Constitution, “in case it is required, a member of the Government [...] - is obliged to attend [...] sittings of a committee [...], answer questions raised at sittings and present a report on activities carried out.” Read more… Source: gyla.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. Transparency International Georgia publishes a blog post: Internet ownership in Georgia. “Importance of the Internet, in terms of both daily communication and access to information, increases day by day. A number of Internet users tends to be growing and, respectively, so does the Internet industry. Information, obtained through the Internet, acquires particular importance in the pre-election period and may play a key role on the background of increased threat of misinformation and low culture of media literacy. Taking into consideration high public interest, Transparency International Georgia studied the ownership of large operators, existing in both landline and mobile internet markets in 2018, as well as their business connections. The study also highlights issues related to distribution and use of the Internet among population”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Media Advocacy Coalition considers processes developed around “TV Pirveli” to be alarming. “Processes developed around “TV Pirveli” are one of the alarming signals as there is also a critical situation when it applies to the freedom of activity of other independent media managers and founders. Independent media is one of the important and reliable tools for development of democracy in any country. We once again call on the authorities to carry out a fast and objective investigation in order to halt risks created to freedom of media”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: gdi.ge

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. By the IDFI Georgia’s Anti-Corruption Indexes is Worsening. ‘In 2019-2020 Georgia was mentioned in the rankings of several international organizations. All of them indicate that corruption situation in the country is worsening with high-level corruption being mentioned as one of the causes’, - is mentioned in the information of IDFI. Read more… Source: https://idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a blogpost: Why EITI-OGP Synergy Matters for Georgia. “Both OGP and EITI aim to improve governance and build trust by opening up data and creating opportunities for citizen participation. OGP encourages its member countries to join the EITI and both platforms have committed to deepening their partnership and joint commitments towards the transparency of extractives. With these common objectives, the synergy between the OGP and the EITI continues to grow. Stakeholders in countries that are members of both OGP and EITI can draw from the findings of the EITI Validations when formulating OGP action plans. At the same time, OGP commitments can support implementation of EITI principles. OGP members like Germany, Ukraine, Indonesia, Liberia, Armenia, Philippines, and the UK have implemented hundreds of commitments in natural resources yielding to interesting results”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

On January 26, IDFI, held the training on „Methods & Mechanisms of Government Oversight“ for the students of Certification Program in Fighting Corruption. During the training students received the information about using online databases in Georgia and requesting public information. Read more… Source: Organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) responds to grave cases of discrediting the Public Defender by the Minister of Justice of Georgia and calls on the Government of Georgia to study political responsibility of the Minister and to make sure the Public Defender has guarantees for effective and independent activity. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia would like to respond to the illegal public disclosure of the details of the Public Defender's meeting with inmates by the Special Penitentiary Service/Ministry of Justice on January 23, 2020. “The identities of persons met by the Public Defender or his/her representatives shall be confidential and its disclosure represents interference with the Public Defender's activities for the purpose of influencing him/her and hampering his/her work. The mentioned represents an offense under Article 352 of the Criminal Code of Georgia. Yesterday's statement was the continuation of a campaign of political attack launched by the Minister of Justice of Georgia against the Public Defender’s institution. It is dangerous and inadmissible that the Minister of Justice uses a body such as the Special Penitentiary Service, where persons with different political views are serving their sentences, for political purposes”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Georgia has been assigned a score of 56 and shares 44th place with Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, and Latvia in the 2019 edition of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) which was published by the Transparency International Secretariat today and ranks 180 countries. “Georgia’s score has decreased by two points compared with last year. According to the survey’s methodology, a two-point change is considered statistically insignificant. Georgia still ranks top in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region. However, the lack of progress in terms of Georgia’s score in recent years points to the stagnation of anti-corruption reforms in the country”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. According to information released by Transparency International – Georgia, on June 20-21, court applied administrative imprisonment and solid fines against detainees without proper justification and evidences thus neglecting the right to a fair trial. The same practice has been experienced against people detained during subsequent rallies. “In the circumstances, when the fact of offense cannot be substantiated by concrete evidences, imposition of such sanctions by the court may be perceived as a desire of authorities to use penalty for achieving a stinging effect in order to weaken a protest movement and force critically disposed part of the society to refrain from using the right to assembly and manifestations in the future”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes a blog post: State has no information about the number of homeless people. “The sole function of the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia defined by legislation within the field of the policy of homelessness is to maintain a unified registry of homeless people registered at local self-government bodies, however this duty is not performed in practice. Considering all this, it is impossible to determine the scale of homelessness in the country”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary prepared an assessment of candidates for supreme court judges. ‘For the first time in the history of Georgia, the Supreme Court justices were appointed for life. The Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary closely observed all stages of this process. The report assesses Supreme Court judicial candidates based on the analysis of Parliamentary hearings. The document includes assessments of 19 candidates based on the criteria of integrity and competence as defined by the Law of Georgia on Common Courts’, - Is mentioned in the assessment. Assessment Source: The web-page of the Coalition

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center releases a statement regarding the case of Temirlan Machalikashvili. “Two years have passed since the large-scale special operation was carried out by the State Security Service at the Machalikashvili family in the village of Duisi, however there are no results observed as a follow up of ongoing investigation in the case of cruel murder of Machalikashvili so far. After 2 years from starting investigation there is no single person prosecuted and parents of Temirlan Machalikashvili have not been granted the status of successor”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: https://emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Investigative Journalists’ Team “IFact” and TSpress ge, with the support of the Open Society Georgia Foundation, conducted a research of infrastructure projects implemented in 2014 – 2018 years in regions of Georgia. The focus of an initial stage of the research was on problematic projects. As a result of a study of thirty projects it was revealed that 8 were completed but not functioning; 16 were completed but needed to be redone; while 6 were not implemented at all. Read more… Source: https://osgf.ge

Tbilisi. The Special Preventive Group of the Public Defender of Georgia conducted monitoring in penitentiary establishments N2, N8, N14 and N15 in July and August 2019. Visits were made to the largest semi-open and closed facilities.  The systemic and characterizing aspects of each institution were analyzed in a complex manner, based on the information obtained during monitoring.  Read more…  Source: http://ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. On 18 December 2019, Public Defender Nino Lomjaria met with State Inspector Londa Toloraia to get more information about the factual circumstances of the death of 15-year-old Luka Siradze. The Public Defender considers that the incident is a systemic problem and that the investigative agency violated the Juvenile Justice Code while questioning the teenager. According to her, a hostile and not favorable environment was created for the deceased and other children at the police station; therefore, children could not feel safe, which could be considered as pressure on them. Read more…  Source: http://ombudsman.ge