Tbilisi. Transparency International – Georgia publishes a blog post: ''Kobakhidze family members and selective approaches of the state''. ''Appointment of the current member of the parliamentary majority and the former Vice-Speaker at the Constitutional Court indicates intention of the government to politicize the court and to staff the controlling constitutional institution with individuals who are politically loyal to it'' – is stated on the website of the organization. In full... Source:www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The given information summarizes the latest report that is part of a series of reports prepared by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) on secret surveillance regulation in Georgia since 2013. The summary covers the period between April-December, 2016. ''Although there has been some progress in terms of investigation of cases of illegal surveillance, the emergence of new cases after the change of government in 2012 has increased doubts on continuing systemic practice of illegal surveillance, lack of willingness from the government to limit its power, and indicates a lack of efficient and comprehensive reform in this area'', is noted in the statement. In full… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association calls on the Parliament to conduct parliamentary control over a budgetary means reduction and ongoing reorganization process at public institutions. ''GYLA considers that according to the information, provided by public officials, there are risks of distinguishing employees by an arbitrary and selective approach and dismissal on the discriminative basis'' – is noted in the statement of the organization. In full... Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International – Georgia publishes a blog post: ''How the Parliament violates the law with respect to the Board of Trustees of the Public Broadcaster''. ''The parliament should assume more responsibility for staffing the Board of Trustees of the Public Broadcaster... Besides, election of members of the Board of Trustees of the Broadcaster must be transparent process and as objective as possible'' – is stated on the website of the organization. In full... Source:www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The National Democratic Institute publishes results of a public opinion survey, conducted by the Caucasus Research Resource Center. ''When asked why they went to the elections, 68 percent of population responded that it was their ''civic duty''. It should also be noted that soon after the elections one third of citizens incorrectly mentioned the name of their majoritarian candidate, which fact indicates weak relationship between voters and majoritarian candidates'' - is stated in the survey. In full... Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. The Women's Information Center publishes a Human Rights Watch World Report 2016, which contains information about Georgia too. "Problems related to domestic violence and early marriage are also mentioned in the report. It includes a statement of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on issues about violence against women that reflects violence against women spread within private and public sectors, the reason of which is named to be "deep-rooted patriarchal attitudes and gender stereotypes”” – is stated on the website of the Women’s Information Center in a social network. Human Rights Watch report... Source: The website of the Women’s Information Center in a social network

Tbilisi. The ''Coalition for Euro-Atlantic Georgia'' responds to the information, released on January 11, 2017, in regard to the decision taken by the Government of Georgia. The Government intends to agree to the terms of Gazprom and to accept the fee for transiting natural gas in cash and not in the form of gas, as it was before. ''We consider that new conditions worsen energy security of the country, while the arguments presented by the Government in regard to new agreement are not satisfactory'' – is noted in the joint statement of the coalition. In full... Source:www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a blog post: ''Questions about relations between ''Partnership Fund'' and ''Humanity Georgia'' still remain''. ''According to the information given above, it is unclear why the optimization of costs of JSC "Partnership Fund” affected specifically JSC "Humanity Georgia”. Besides, there still remain question marks in regard to the quality and prices of medicaments, imported by JSC ''Humanity Georgia'', and, in general, to the impact of this company on the pharmaceutical market'' – is stated on the website of the organization. In full... Source:www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes an article: ''Statistics for trees cut in Tbilisi due to construction works''. ''Among trees, cut with the permission of the City Hall In 2016, in comparison with previous years, at least 5 times more units have been granted the status of affected. Besides, the total number of trees, cut on the basis of permits, has not increased. This circumstance raises the question of how conscientiously the status of affected is granted to trees in the capital'' – is stated on the website of the organization. In full… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association publishes a blogpost: ''Dismissal from Public Service: Frequently Asked Questions''. ''The initiative of the Government of Georgia in regard to reducing budgetary means may lead to a large-scale cut down of staff at public institutions on the basis of a reorganization. Due to high public interest towards the mentioned issue, we consider it necessary to disseminate answers to frequently asked questions, addressed to an organization'' – is stated on the website of the organization. In full... Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Non-governmental organizations release a statement regarding not making crime statistics public. ''Basic principles of a democratic police, such as transparency and accountability, require the police to be open for performing supervision of its actions. One of the mechanisms to achieve transparency and communication with society is releasing public information reports, which are meant to include crime statistics'' – is noted in the joint statement. In full… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) responds to the decision of the government to reduce budgetary resources. ''First of all, we consider that the government of Georgia has to justify the feasibility of reducing budgetary resources by the proposed percentage amount, as well as the positive impact that it may have on improvement of economic conditions and stability of the exchange rate of Lari'' – is stated on the website of the organization. In full… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center publishes a study regarding activities of the State Agency for Religious Issues. ''Despite declaring about enhancement of its activities towards religion and security, the Agency does not actually have a strategy and a plan for prevention of religious extremism'' – is stated on the website of the organization. In full… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International – Georgia publishes a blog post: ''Reform of public service is significantly impeded''. ''Delay in enforcement of the law was caused by infringement of the requirements stipulated by its article 126, in particular, according to this article the government was obliged to submit two bills to the Parliament and to introduce three resolutions by September 1, while to introduce ten additional resolutions by December 31. By this time the government has not fulfilled any of these obligations'' – is stated on the website of Transparency International – Georgia. In full… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. On December 9, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association presented to public findings of a study on a ''Company that is registered in a minister’s premise and has more than a million debt to the state''. ''The study regards to details of implementation of an agreement signed between the state and Events International Ltd in 2005, according to which the Concert Hall of the Tbilisi City (Philharmonic) has been rented to Events International for 49 years'' – is stated on the website of the organization. In full… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. On December 8, ''Transparency International – Georgia'' published a study related to the pharmaceutical market. ''The study provides main trends existing in this field, challenges and necessary recommendations for resolving them. Reporting period of the study covers mainly 2012-2016 years, however, it includes some of the earlier subjects too'' – is stated on the website of the organization. In full... Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association presented the results of its monitoring of criminal cases in Kutaisi and Tbilisi City and Appellate Courts on 8 December 2016. ''To date, GYLA presented eight court monitoring reports that together covered the period from October 2011 to October 2016. GYLA’s report №9 covers the period from February 2016 to July 2016. During this reporting period the monitoring was implemented based on a new methodology which, in addition to other issues, includes the evaluation of accessibility of justice for vulnerable groups (women, people with disabilities, religious and ethnic minorities, representatives of the LGBT community, etc.)'', is noted in the statement. In full… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. ''Transparency International – Georgia'' publishes recommendations related to a draft budget of the Zugdidi City Municipality for the year 2017. ''Despite the fact that in terms of both structural and program viewpoints the 2017 draft budget is better in comparison with those of previous years, "Transparency International-Georgia” has a number of comments and recommendations, which are presented further below'' – is stated on the website of the organization. In full... Source:www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The government of the Tbilisi City has approved an Action Plan 2017 within the framework of the ''Open Government Partnership''. ''It is noteworthy that the Tbilisi City Hall accepts above mentioned obligations within the framework of the pilot program "Open Government Partnership” and with this step it actively joins the process of introducing OGP principles in Georgia'' – is stated on the website of the organization. In full… Source:idfi.ge

On November 22-24, 2016, representatives of the Department of Prevention and Monitoring of the Public Defender's Office of Georgia, paid a working/study visit to the Croatian capital, Zagreb. ''The aim of the visit was to get information about the mandate and activities of the Croatian National Preventive Mechanism. During the visit, representatives of the Department of Prevention and Monitoring familiarized with the work methodology of the Croatian National Preventive Mechanism, characteristics of preparation of reports, the existing practice of taking photos, monitoring instruments and methods of supervising the implementation of recommendations,'' is noted in the statement. In full… Source: www.ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. On November 28, the ''Institute for Development of Freedom of Information'' received data regarding bonuses paid to officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 2013. ''According to obtained documents, till November 2013, in total GEL 2 325 789 had been issued to officials of the central apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs'' – is stated on the website of the organization. In full… Source:idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Welfare Monitoring Study is a biennial household survey covering all the government-controlled regions of Georgia. The results for the 2015 round examined the prevalence and distribution of consumption poverty, material deprivation, subjective poverty and social exclusion.   ''Every fifth child lives under poverty and every sixth child lives under subsistence minimum; despite the increase in families’ consumption, people’s income has not changed; poor children still have less chances to attend education institutions than their peers living in richer families – these are some of the findings of the UNICEF’s Welfare Monitoring Study that has been unveiled today'', is noted in the statement. In full... Source: unicef.ge