Tbilisi. A traditional Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the CEC Inter-agency Commission, established for the presidential elections, and local non-government organizations. Together with the CEC chairperson and secretary of the Inter-agency Commission, the document has been signed by non-governmental organizations that agree to adhere to guidelines specified in the Memorandum. The purpose of the Memorandum is to interpret articles regarding the use of administrative resources stipulated by "Election Code of Georgia” in a consistent manner in order to eliminate risks of the use of administrative resources completely during the 2018 presidential elections and to conduct the elections in a fair and competitive environment. Memorandum of Understanding is traditionally signed between CEC Inter-agency Commission and non-governmental organizations since 2013 during the pre-election period of each elections.   Source: Ministry of Justice

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA) and Transparency International Georgia conducted a conference on challenges of a pre-election environment of the 2018 presidential elections. Representatives of political parties, non-governmental organizations and diplomatic corps were invited to attend the conference. The purpose of the conference was to let observer organizations find out from political parties and candidates what type of challenges they observe while carrying out the pre-election process. Source:The website of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association in a social network

Tbilisi. TI Georgia organized a meeting where the discussion was held within a framework of how much proportionate is the GNCC's request to verify the public research credibility of broadcasters. (https://bit.ly/2CH05p5).The discussion reviewed as a local, as well as European and best experience. The meeting was attended by representatives of the National Communications Commission, Personal Data Protection Inspector, Civil Sector, Media and Public Research Organizations. Read more… Source: TI Georgia

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association calls on the Ministry of Internal Affairs to respect the right to holding a meeting via erecting a tent on a pavement. The organization releases a statement in regard to this issue. Read more (geo)...    Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Part of CSOs respond to the situation around of Georgia -Latvia game at ‘Dinamo’ stadium on September 9, 2018. „Members of society had decided to thank Guram Kashia because of his support to the LGBT community by bringing supportive banners and posters at the stadium. However, most of the LGBT activists were deprived of LGBT symbols by force and were not allowed to take them inside the stadium", - is mentioned in the statement, - „Despite the censorship by the law enforcers, several activists at the stadium were able to take certain attributes inside the stadium secretly. However, as soon as the LGBT activists took out the rainbow flag, the police took it away forcefully. Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia exaggerated their official duties, which resulted in limiting freedom of expression of LGBT activists. This was committed on the discriminatory ground, based on the support to the LGBT community. It should also be noted that according to the MIA representatives, they were guided by the instructions of the Football Federation, which had issued a notice about the prohibition of any symbols at the stadium. However, as the football federation officially explained later, they never set such restrictions”. In full Source: http://www.isfed.ge

Tbilisi. GYLA addresses the Chief Prosecutor and urges to involve stakeholders in the process of reorganization of the Prosecutor's Office. "Based on the decision of Shalva Tadumadze, Chief Prosecutor of Georgia, a reorganization was announced in the Chief Prosecutor’s Office, which entails planned changes in structural units of the Prosecutor’s Office, attestation of prosecutors, working in the leading position, and creation of a multi-component evaluation system”, - reads the address, - "Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association calls on the Chief Prosecutor to: ensure openness and transparency of the process, involvement of stakeholders and decision making through discussion with them from the stage of planning of the reorganization process, including its implementation; plan organizational changes aiming at increasing guarantees of independence of the system of the Prosecutor’s Office and neutrality of an individual prosecutor within the framework of the legislative reform ongoing in the system of the Prosecutor's Office”. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

The web portal www.csogeorgia.org releases a weekly newsletter of grants competition, contests, vacancies, fellowships and tenders for civil society organizations and for any interested person. Newsletter...

Tbilisi. On the initiative of UN Women, there was conducted a training on elaboration of mechanisms for filing complaints of sexual harassment. The training was attended by representatives of the organization ''Partnership for Human Rights''. ''During the interactive training, led by an international expert, 21 participants improved their knowledge about sexual harassment at workplace, its detection and elaboration of mechanisms for filing complaints relative to it'' – is stated on the website of the organization. Read more... Source:The website of the organization in a social network

The web portal www.csogeorgia.org releases a weekly newsletter of grants competition, contests, vacancies, fellowships and tenders for civil society organizations and for any interested person. Newsletter...

Tbilisi. Article 42 of the Constitution publishes a statement regarding a ten-year anniversary of the 2008 Russia-Georgia war. ''Difficult social situation of internally displaced people remains a challenge till present. In compact settlements for IDPs, existence of such minimum household problems as those related to supply of drinking water, properness of road infrastructure, access to medical services, etc. is frequent. Efforts and resources of both local and central governments should be directed towards solution of these issues'' – the statement reads. Read more... Source:article42.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia considers that closure of government sessions restricts activity of journalists. ''To ensure openness and accountability of the government, it is important that the state authorities make their sessions open for the media and close them only in exceptional cases. A precedent of closure of government sessions can create bad practice and encourage local self-governments to experience non-transparency, which, at some extent, takes place already'' – is stated on the website of the organization. Read more... Source:www.transparency.ge

Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti. On August 7 and 8, lower area villages of Zemo Svaneti (Khaishi, Idliani, Chuberi and Nakra) will host open meetings organized by EWMI ACCESS between local population and non-governmental organizations operating in Tbilisi. "The purpose of these meetings is to give citizens, living in villages located far from regional centers, an opportunity to (a) inform non-governmental organizations directly about their problems and priority issues and (b) obtain information from the primary source regarding assistance that non-governmental organizations can provide to them, as well as how they may be engaged in their activities”. Schedule of meetings: August 7, 11:00 - Khaishi August 7, 16:00 - Idliani August 8, 11:00 - Chuberi August 8, 17:00 - Nakra Read more… Source:The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. USAID Zrda Activity in Georgia presents ''Meskhuri Tabla'' Samtskhe-Javakheti culinary cookbook and invited the guests to journey through the world of Meskhetian cuisine. USAID Mission Director Peter Wiebler and Head of Georgian National Tourism Administration Giorgi Chogovadze attended the launch of a cookbook. ''Meskhuri Tabla'' culinary cookbook is the first activity initiated by the Samtskhe-Javakheti tourism stakeholder’s working group to become Destination Management Organization (DMO). The cookbook contains 20 ancient, traditional Meskhetian recipes. Development of the book is supported by the USAID Zrda Activity in Georgia and is available in Georgian and English languages. Of note, Georgian Culinary Academy of the Agricultural University voluntarily provided support to Zrda in the process of the book preparation. Read more… Source: The webpage of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Part of non-governmental organizations respond to the fact of resignation of the Chairperson of the Supreme Court of Georgia. ''Sudden resignation of the Chairperson of the Supreme Court on the background of a deplorable situation, occurred in the judiciary system, raises numerous questions in the society. We call on the President and the Parliament to properly realize difficult situation, in which the system is, and timely nominate and appoint such a candidate for the position of Chairperson of the Supreme Court who appraises current situation in the judiciary system objectively and takes principle steps to resolve them'' – is stated on the website of the organization. Read more... Source:emc.org.ge

The web portal www.csogeorgia.org releases a weekly newsletter of grants competition, contests, vacancies, fellowships and tenders for civil society organizations and for any interested person. Newsletter...

Tbilisi. Partnership for Human Rights (PHR) publishes a blog post of Ana Tavkhelidze, a lawyer of the organization, regarding a problem of children living and working in the street and obligations of the state in this direction. ''We work to ensure protection of rights of children and, respectively, we are often addressed by people, including parents, as well as individuals who get explained that particular children are victims of violence, work or live in the street. We provide legal assistance to these people and help them communicate with state agencies. However, just our resource is not sufficient to solve this problem'' – is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: phrgeorgia.wordpress.com

Tbilisi. On July 26, the Constitutional Court declared authority to strip search a prisoner unconstitutional on the basis of a claim of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association. While reviewing the case, GYLA was trying to prove that it was possible to detect illegal items (knife, narcotics, etc.) on the body of a prisoner without strip search, through a scanner. Read more... Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. For the third year Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) was declared as one of the most transparent Think Tank organizations in the world - receiving the 5 Star Award - by Transparify. Transparify assesses the financial transparency of think tank organizations with a 0 to 5 star scale by looking at what information they publish about their funding (sources, projects and amounts) on their websites. The report issued by Transparify on July 17 includes the assessment of the financial transparency of 92 Think Tank organizations (from 24 countries), 60 of which (including IDFI) received 5 stars. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

The web portal www.csogeorgia.org releases a weekly newsletter of grants competition, contests, vacancies, fellowships and tenders for civil society organizations and for any interested person. Newsletter...

Tbilisi. Non-governmental organizations once again respond to both carried out and ongoing processes of investigation of murder of two juveniles that took place on Khorava Street. ''In regard to this case, efforts spent by the Public Defender are important. In the statement, made after a detailed study of the case, the Public Defender has indicated very likely criminal character of actions carried out by investigators. In spite of all this, there still are case related questions, on which we consider that comprehensive answers should be provided by investigative bodies'' – is stated on the website of the organization. Read more... Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. In the framework of the parliamentary monitoring program, Transparency International Georgia presents the Assessment of Activities of the Parliament of Georgia of the Ninth Convocation’s First Year, which covers the time period from November 18, 2016 till December 31, 2017. ''The report assesses the legislation adopted by the Parliament. Laws that were assessed as positive are the following: Amendments Resulting from Ratification of Istanbul Convention, Changes in the Procedure of Submitting Asset Declarations, Amendments to Imprisonment Code, Abolition Of Simplified Electronic Tenders, Initiative On Banning Smoking Tobacco. Legislative amendments, which require improvement, are the Third Wave of Judicial Reform, Road Safety Reform, New Regulations Concerning Remuneration in Civil Service. The report also negatively assesses several legislative amendments, such as creation of operative-technical agency, moratorium on selling of land, abolition of self-government entities, new rule for staffing election commissions, changes to the rule of debating legislative proposal'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Institute for Development of Freedom of Information publishes an Open Parliament Action Plan for 2018-2019. It includes: Promoting and Monitoring the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals by the Parliament of Georgia. Increasing Citizen Involvement in the Elaboration and Approval of the Budget. Strengthen Effectiveness and Transparency of the Parliament by Implementing Innovative Technologies. Creation of a Citizen Engagement Center in the Parliament of Georgia. Raising Awareness about Parliamentary Democracy. Read more… Source: idfi.ge