Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes the analysis: World Governance Indicators - Georgia according to the World Bank 2020 estimate. Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) constitute a research database based on over 30 data sources reflecting the views and evaluations stemming from citizens, entrepreneurs, and experts. The purpose of this analytical document is to introduce Georgia’s rankings to the public, detect strong and weak sides of Georgia’s development, highlight achieved progress and compare Georgia’s results with those of European countries. Georgia obtained the highest assessment in World Governance Indicators in 2013-2014. Prior to this date, indicators demonstrated the steady and rapid development of Georgia. During this period especially noticeable was Georgia’s progress in the areas of Rule of Law and Control of Corruption. According to the World Governance Indicators, the pace of the county’s development significantly slowed down since 2014. According to the latest assessment of the World Bank, Georgia has advanced in the area of Government Effectiveness, however, regress was detected in all of the rest five directions. In addition, Georgia was able to return to 2014 results in 2018 in the area of control of corruption and in 2019 its score reduced again. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes a critical analysis of activities of the State Agency for Religious Issues. “As it turned out later, even people directly involved in the establishment of the Agency for Religious Issues had various opinions in regard to its activities and functions. For some of them, the agency was a mechanism for ensuring religious freedom, as well as flexible, transparent and democratic relationship between the state and religious associations in the country, however, within the process of its operation it became clear that control over activities of the agency appeared in the hands of the State Security Service of Georgia”. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) publishes a document, which represents a comparative legal analysis of experiences of legislative bodies of 12 EU member states and that of the Parliament of Georgia. “A group of researchers revealed more than 60 shortcomings identified in both norms and their implementation processes, and provided the same number of specific recommendations for resolving them. Within the framework of the study, there have been examined interpellation, questions of members of the Parliament, government hour, reports of the Prime Minister and ministers, trust group, trust-distrust mechanism, impeachment, committee control, thematic investigation, temporary and temporary investigative commissions, working group, as well as functions of state security, intelligence and special state protection services and norms governing appointment of their superiors to their positions”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) publishes a document: Rights and responsibilities of local self-government bodies and public servants during the pre-election campaign - 2020. Read more… Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. The amendments to the Law of Georgia on Information Security initiated in October 2019 became the subject of criticism of the representatives of civil society, private sector as well as the experts in the field. IDFI was actively involved in the process of reviewing the bill and examining the risks associated with the amendments. “Back in November of last year, IDFI published considerations associated with the bill. Due to the disagreements with stakeholders on principal issues, the adoption of legislative amendments was first delayed in June 2020. The draft law was returned to the mode of the second reading from the stage of the final hearing. Significantly modified version of the draft amendments was resubmitted to the Parliament and carried through the second reading stage in September 2020. It should be noted that the draft amendments were introduced to the Parliament in the mode of the third reading in frames of the Plenary sittings of September 15-18, however, the amendments were not proposed for voting. Voting on the draft law was also planned through the last plenary sitting of the Parliament of the 9th convocation on September 30, though the draft law of the initiated and discussed amendments was not put to the vote by the Parliament even within the frames of the conclusive plenary sitting”. IDFI states that, given the challenges of the Draft Amendments to the Law of Georgia on Information Security, it is necessary for the Parliament of the 10th convocation to consider the possibility of developing a new version of the amendments. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

The web portal 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. In September 2020 in the frames of COVID-19 response activities GRCS with the USAID support GRCS H&C staff members conducted online training on “Home Based Care for person with COVID-19 or its symptoms COVID-19” for staff and volunteers of 33 GRCS branches. Aim of the training was to introduce the new module developed on the basis of country protocols and international recommendations by the GRCS H&C team to and to raise knowledge on Home Based Care in case of COVID-19 of the GRCS staff and volunteers. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. The Center for Training and Consultancy publishes a work of Tamar Meskhi: “11 Georgian stories from Chernobyl”, which refers to the Georgian liquidators of the Chernobyl results..  “There are gathered stories of Georgians working at the site of the Chernobyl disaster in the collection. Read how Georgian “liquidators” lived in the radiation zone, what lifestyles they had, what memories about the site of the disaster they have, and how they live today”. See the collection in full... Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Material of Mariam Nebieridze, a student of the Myth Detector Laboratory, may let you know who disseminates the conspiracy, as if the program created in 1980 was preparing Georgia for the 2020 pandemic. “On October 7, Lasha Modebadze, a fake account, shared a post in a public group “Coronamafia and Georgia as an experimental country”, which was related to information released by the US Embassy in regard to the South Caucasus Regional Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program. According to the post, the program was preparing Georgia for the pandemic in advance.  The Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (FELTP), organized by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), has been operating since 1980 and involves more than 80 countries. The statement, as if the program created in 1980 was preparing Georgia for the 2020 pandemic, is a conspiracy theory”, - is noted in the blog post. Read more…  Source:www.mythdetector.ge

Tbilisi. In September 2020 in the frames of COVID-19 response activities GRCS with the USAID support refresher trainings, jointly elaborated with NCDC on COVID-19 for local staff and volunteers were conducted in 33 GRCS branches. The trainings aimed at refreshing knowledge of GRCS local staff and volunteers on COVID-19, ways of transmission and personal safety, including usage of personal safety equipment, social stigma, and risk communication in 33 GRCS branches. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. On October 8, 2020, the Public Defender's Office of Georgia organized an online meeting on the theme: "Human Rights Defenders and the Challenges Faced by Them". “Public Defender Nino Lomjaria, Deputy Prosecutor General Natia Merebashvili, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Nino Tsatsiashvili, Chairman of the Board of the Tbilisi Human Rights House Baia Pataraia, as well as representatives of state agencies and non-governmental organizations, took part in the event. Representatives of non-governmental organizations highlighted the necessity of raising public awareness of human rights and the unfortunate trend of criminal actions and discrediting campaigns against human rights defenders in recent years, as well as the obligations of the state in this regard”. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Within the framework of an online lecture, Anton Vacharadze, Head of Memory and Disinformation Studies Direction and Megi Kartsivadze, an analyst at the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) talked about the topic: Russian propaganda: From empire to modernity. Watch a video recording of the online lecture at the link: Read more about the lecture here… Source: The webpage of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. The Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics expresses its concern in regard to a verbal abuse of a journalist of an online publication “Batumelebi” committed by Jumber Vardmanidze, Mayor of Khelvachauri. “According to disseminated information, Mayor got irritated after a journalist asked a question related to usage of an official vehicle of Mayor to attend pre-election meetings. He verbally insulted and brutally swore the journalist right after he heard the question. The Charter considers it important to respond immediately to such cases so as to ensure that the syndrome of impunity does not become contagious to other public figures”. Read more… Source: www.qartia.ge

Tbilisi. The Public Defender welcomes the changes made in the labour legislation and hopes that their implementation will significantly contribute to the prevention of violations of labour rights. “Several laws regulating important issues of labour legislation were adopted on September 29, 2020. The establishment of a labour inspection mechanism, which enjoys a full mandate and will be authorized from January 1, 2021 to oversee the protection of the labour law, including by inspecting workplaces and effectively responding to the violations of labour rights, is particularly worth noting. The Public Defender has been stressing the need for such a mechanism in her annual reports and public statements for years. Unfortunately, the Public Defender's proposal to limit the mandate of the Labour Inspection Service to the assessment of the general policy of equality in the workplace and to introduce a mechanism of referring individual cases of alleged discrimination to the Public Defender has not been taken into account”. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. Mariam Topchishvili, a member of the regional network of the Myth Detector Laboratory, gathered the coronavirus related lies and manipulations disseminated in the “Stop 5G Georgia” group. Read more… Source:www.mythdetector.ge

Local Democracy Agency Georgia is holding an agrotour complying with national regulations within the framework of the grant “Racha-Lechkhumi and lower Svaneti Regional Development Initiative”. „This time the farmers from Lentekhi municipality have visited following successful enterprises in Ambrolauri and Oni municipalities: The farm and ham plant of “Blauenstein Georgia”; Honey processing plant in Ambrolauri; Dried fruit processing plant in Ambrolauri. The farmers got information about honey processing methods, the technology of producing different types of ham and dried fruit“. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Imereti. During the week dedicated to the International Day of Older Persons, members of the home care team of the Georgia Red Cross Society Samtredia branch delivered food and hygiene parcels to the older people. Along with the congratulations, the beneficiaries were provided with COVID-19-related information and recommendation leaflets. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. Civil society organizations, operating in Georgia, appeal to the Government of Georgia and its relevant agencies, as well as international organizations and diplomatic corps, and urge them to take all appropriate measures under their mandate to protect the life, safety and rights of Irakli Bebua, detained in occupied Abkhazia, as well as to facilitate the process of his transfer to the Georgian-controlled territory. Read more… Source:emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association and Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center consider that the established vision of judicial reform needs to be changed. “On October 8, the Venice Commission published its opinions about latest legislative changes in regard to composition of the Supreme Court. Although an evaluation of the project was requested by the Parliament itself, it did not wait for the report and approved the draft on September 30. As it was expected, this hasty step of the legislative body was negatively appraised as by the Venice Commission itself, as well as by the European Union and co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the monitoring of Georgia. It is clear to us that effectiveness of a management system, based on the principle of majority (majoritarianism), serves only to increase injustice and enhance existing centers of power. Therefore, we see the solution in arranging inclusive, consensus-oriented decision-making mechanisms”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Civil Society Institute has published a guide for social enterprises and non-entrepreneurial legal entities.  Legislative acts of Georgia do not recognize such terms as a social enterprise and social entrepreneurship, however, there are entities that operate in Georgia and carry out social entrepreneurship. Interested people have the opportunity to carry out social entrepreneurship both via setting up a legal entity under private law and taking into account an established international experience. A social enterprise refers to those legal entities under private law that are functionally considered to be social enterprises and economic activities of which imply primarily the achievement of social goals. According to the legislation of Georgia, civil society organizations, which are meant to be non-entrepreneurial (non-commercial) legal entities, along with their main activity are authorized to perform any activity that is not prohibited by law, including an ancillary entrepreneurial activity. As a matter of fact, an ancillary entrepreneurial activity may or may not be that of a social entrepreneurial nature. This guide is intended for both social entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurial (non-commercial) legal entities.  The guide covers issues related to legal management, financial accounting-accountability, and tax administration of legal entities under private law.  The guide is developed by the Civil Society Institute (authors: Levan Paniashvili, Chief Lawyer of the Institute, Davit Tivishvili, Financial Manager of the Institute) in collaboration with Social Enterprise Alliance and with the support of the International Center for Non-for-Profit Law (ICNL). Guide... 

Tbilisi. ISFED mobile app is up and running. Download here: iOS… Android... ISFED mobile app is bilingual and targets every interested person who wants to receive information and notifications about the election process, pre-election monitoring, ISFED's election day activities etc. App users will also be able to report incidents. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. On October 9, there were conducted a presentation of a 10-point concept of judicial system reform and a signing ceremony, initiated by non-governmental organizations. “The concept was developed taking into consideration observations and studies of a number of years of the non-governmental sector. It aims at functional and systemic improvement of judicial system, enhancement of independence of judges and introduction of democratic mechanisms of internal governance. The document was signed by 8 political subjects, thus pledging to implement reforms given in the concept as soon as the new parliament is convened after the 2020 parliamentary elections. At the same time, it should be noted that the concept does not require constitutional changes”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge