Adjara. The top official of the Adjara Government has met with the CSO representatives on June 10. The meeting aimed to evaluate and discuss existing partnership as part of the Memorandum executed a year ago. Meeting participants have discussed problems and current situation in terms of protection of cultural heritage in Adjara. In addition, they have discussed the Batumi Boulevard. In the opinion of CSOs, the Boulevard must be once again subordinated to the Batumi City Hall. Further, discussion has concerned the incident between the journalist of the 25th Channel and the Chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of the Adjara Supreme Council. The third sector representatives have unanimously condemned Medea Vasadze's actions. Signatories of the Memorandum have agreed to meet over specific issues in the near future, and the first meeting will be dedicated to the protection of cultural heritage and the investment policies in the region.

The Civil Society Institute has presented web portal - csogeorgia.org - in the regions of Georgia for the students. At the meetings in Kutaisi, Telavi and Gori, representatives of the portal have informed students about the web page, resources that csogeorgia.org unites and how youngsters can use this opportunity. Up to 100 students have attended the meetings.

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia and International Society For Fair Elections And Democracy react to recent incidents in Batumi and Tsageri. Organizations call for The citizens not to engage in physical confrontations for the purpose of protesting; The Law Enforcement Agencies to secure safe environments for conducting pre-election meetings by preventing violence, as well as by investigating facts of physical confrontations. For the full text Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information has released explanations over the statement of the Minister of Finance. "Because this is not the first time when the high officials deliberately and purposefully try to wrongly interpret information disseminated by the "Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information", we would like to stress once again that the Institute releases data in the form received from public institutions. At the same time, the Institute releases the summary as well as detailed data," says the organization's page. For the full text Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia and International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy react to recent incident in Zugdidi. "A rally outside the United National Movement’s campaign headquarter in Zugdidi was followed by verbal and physical confrontation on 6 June 2014. ...Transparency International Georgia and Fair Elections urge political parties and their activists to refrain from aggressive actions that could create further tension during the election campaign". For the full text Source: transparency.ge

Adjara. CSO "Borjghali" has organized another narrative performance on June 6 in the Batumi Press Cafe, held as part of the organization's project "Democratic Narrative Group". The Group members have searched for democratic stories, worked on the topics and submitted them to the jury. The Festival format provides for revealing the best narrative team.In addition, out of narrative performances delivered as part of the Festival, 10 best stories telling about civil activism and fight for democratic ideals will be selected and relevant videos will be produced.

Tbilisi. Georgian Young Lawyers' Association released a statement. "We are deeply concerned about physical confrontation that took place in Zugdidi on June 6 and call on all individuals to refrain from violence. According to information released by media yesterday, on June 6, members of Paata Kardava's Family, disappeared military intelligence operative of the Defense Ministry and some other  individuals held a rally. ...we call on Law enforcement agencies - to investigate happened fact timely and effectively and to bring to justice initiators of the confrontation and those involved in the conflict", says the statement. For the  full text Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Georgian Young Lawyers' Association released a statement. "On June 5, 2014, head of Marneuli District Election Commission annulled the registration of Akmamed Imamkuliev, candidate of the United National Movement to the office of Gamgebeli (local governor) on the basis of the statement of the monitoring organization "Free Development and Rights' Protection Association". ...As reported, members of the Parliamentary minority were in the room of Marneuli DEC head. Members of the United National Movement have occupied the room of the head of Marneuli District Election Commission No. 22 and during 2 hours they disallowed to sign the resolution. ...We consider, that any interference in the activities of the Election Administration is impermissible". For the full text Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Heinrich Boll Foundation introduced a new memorandum to the public: "Resources Policy for a Fair Future"."This memorandum allows us to newly look at policy that unites nature, humans, various forces, interests and inter-cultural conflicts owing to the use of resources," says the organization's web page. For the full text. Source: ge.boell.org

Tbilisi. Irakli Khvadagiani has delivered a lecture on June 5 in Libcenter in "Historic memory as responsibility – what we would like to forget in the 20th Century". The Center provides a video recording of the lecture for those who were unable to attend. The lecture Source: the Center's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia and International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy released a statement. "We would like to react to recent developments that are directly linked to electoral processes. Firstly, we welcome Vice Prime Minister Kakha Kaladze's initiative on the annulment of minimum mandatory number of candidates on election lists and the CEC's resolution, pursuant to which, if a party list of an election entity includes candidates less than the statutory minimum number, a party list will be annulled only in certain exceptions. ...Another problematic issue ahead of elections relates to developments in Marneuli, and in particular the decision of the District Election Commission on potential deregistration of Akmamed Imamkuliev, candidate of the United National Movement to the office of Gamgebeli (local governor), for failure to meet the country residence criterion". For the full text Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Association "Green Alternative" has released a statement. The organization welcomes the signing of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement planned in June 2014, as well as Georgia's desire to become a full member of the European energy union. Further, it notes that "unfortunately current environmental legislation of Georgia, including on environmental impact assessment, does not comply with the relevant EU Directives and fails to ensure citizen participation in the decision-making process. Various planned and ongoing development projects in Georgia are a clear example of this, including the Dariali Hydro Power Station project, where the public did not have an opportunity to be part of the decision-making." For the full text. Source: greenalt.org

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia released a blog post - "Zugdidi Mayoral and district governor candidates’ background and property ownership". For the full text Source: transparency.ge 

Shida Kartli. The Gori Office of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) School has hosted a meeting on June 3 with participation of CSOs, media representatives, and four Gori Mayor nominees. The meeting was organized at NIMD's initiative.The event was dedicated to presentation of the web page - www.partiebi.ge, which aims, on one hand, to generate political proposals by election entities and express opinions on them, and on the other hand, for the candidates to provide answers to questions of interest to voters.

Samtskhe-Javakheti. A meeting with the only mayor nominee woman was held on June 1 in the Akhaltsikhe Democracy Center. The meeting was organized by the Civic Engagement Center and was attended by the Akhaltsikhe residents, CSO and media representatives.The candidate has informed the audience about her visions on the current and yet unresolved problems in the city, followed by the question-and-answer session and discussion.The Civic Engagement Center has also hosted a meeting with all Mayor nominees. Candidates have answered the questions of local media.

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy; Transparency International – Georgia and Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association released a statement. "...Prime Minister stated that the Georgian Dream will not allow victory in the elections by any other political party in any city or district. He also said that they "they will get rid of any remnants of the ‘Nationals’”. In addition, the Ministry of Internal affairs also released a statement on June 1 rejecting allegations about pressuring election candidates without having conducted a probe. Therefore, reports about opposition candidates removing themselves from registration as a result of alleged pressure come as no surprise.  We believe that inadequate response of the Prime Minister and the Interior Ministry to alleged acts of pressure in the regions will interfere with the key principle for fair elections, the principle of fair competition, and has an adverse impact on the pre-election environment".  For the full text Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Jumpstart Georgia published a new visualization - "Do You Know Your Candidates?” "The Tbilisi mayoral elections are just a few weeks away, but what do people really know about the candidates leading the race? Here are a few strange and interesting facts about each of them to get you started". The Visualization Source: feradi.info

Tbilisi. The Young Lawyers' Association has requested from the State Service Bureau the agreements executed with two different companies on the construction and organization of the Parliament building and its administrative facility.The information states that the organization has obtained public information at the request of one of the citizens, who unfortunately was unable to obtain the identical information. For the full text. Source: opendata.ge

Adjara. The Heinrich Boll Foundation has organized a public discussion on May 30 in the Batumi Civic Engagement Center over "Anti-discrimination law for equal policy". Chairman of the local CSO "Democracy Institute" Geno Geladze, lawyer of the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association Giorgi Gotsiridze and the Director of the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center Tamta Mikeladze were the speakers at the event.

Tbilisi. The School of Liberalism has hosted the discussion "Should prostitution be legalized?” During the discussion members of the School have presented arguments in favor of and against legalization of prostitution. Mentor Lela Gaprindashvili has summarized and analyzed arguments after the presentation of the parties’ positions. The audience also had an opportunity to ask questions and express their own positions. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Samtskhe-Javakheti.A discussion meeting on "European integration of Georgia and prospects and challenges related to the Association Agreement" was organized in the conference hall of the Union of Democratic Meskhetians. Representatives of the Akhaltsikhe Youth Civil Center, CSOs and local media outlets have attended the meeting. The event was organized by the Georgian Institute for Strategic Studies with support of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. The School of Liberalism has hosted the discussion - "Should religious confessions be funded from the budget?". The School members have presented arguments in favor of and against funding religious confessions from the budget. Following the parties' positions, mentor Davit Zurabishvili has summarized and analyzed the arguments. Source: the organization's page in the social network.