Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia responds to imposition of an obligation of non-disclosure on the defense party in the case of murder of Giorgi Shakarashvili. The Public Defender considers that unjustified imposition of an obligation of non-disclosure on the defense party in a given situation may entail violation of the right to equality of the parties. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. The Public Defender presented a special report for the first time this year, which contains a detailed evaluation of the status of implementation of tasks assigned to state agencies by the resolution of the Parliament of September 20, 2019 on the basis of the 2018 report of the Public Defender of Georgia on the state of human rights and freedoms in Georgia. The Public Defender addressed state agencies and local self-government bodies with 310 recommendations listed in the 2018 parliamentary report. The Parliament of Georgia considered about 78% (244 recommendations) of these recommendations and issued 259 tasks to ensure their implementation. Read more… Source: The website of the organization  

Imereti. Local Democracy Agency Georgia held a consultative meeting with representatives of civil society organizations, in Bagdati and Oni Municipalities. The meeting held within the framework of the project "Civil Society Development Initiative" and it’s purpose of the meeting was to provide these groups with information about the project activities as well as consultations. The project "Civil Society Development Initiative" is implemented in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS), Civil Society Institute (CSI), Training and Consulting Center (CTC), Georgia's Strategic Research and Development Center (CSRDG) and the Education Development and Employment Center (EDEC). Read more…  Source: The page in the social network

Tbilisi. Is sport linked with politics? Should we separate sport and politics? What connections are there between sport and politics? - These are the issues that the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) touches upon in its publication – “Russian sport and politics”. “Sport and politics are significantly linked to each other in the history of both contemporary and Soviet Russia. If the Soviet Union used sport to assert its superiority over the West and improve the reputation of the Soviet regime on an international level, the contemporary regime of Putin uses sport for several purposes: first of all, Putin associates his image with victory and power through sporting events and relevant propaganda; besides, such large-scale events as the Olympic Games and the World Cup are used by the Putin regime to rebrand its image internationally, on the one hand, while on the other hand, to consolidate Russian people at the time when there are serious socio-economic problems in the country; at the same time, there are influential businessmen from the entourage of Putin, who get actively involved in the sports field, control most of the sports clubs and organizations, and use them to enact various corruption schemes. Consequently, it can be noted that separation of sport from politics is virtually impossible in both contemporary and Soviet Russia. Russia still remains a state where business, crime, sport and politics are closely intertwined with each other”, - is stated in the publication. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Kakheti. In Pankisi, Jokolo village, Rondeli Foundation organized an award ceremony for the "My World" project participants. The students, who actively participated in the project, read magazines, took quizzes and engaged in the discussions were given special prizes.  The project, My World has been implemented by GFSIS since 2013 aimed at increasing development opportunities of youth from vulnerable communities and strengthening the affiliation with the Georgian State. The project is implemented in the vulnerable communities of Georgia - Pankisi, Mountainous Guria and Adjara, IDP communities of Zugdidi and Tserovani.  Read more…   Source: The web-page if the organization

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) informs about one more organized network operating on Facebook. Since the run-up to the 2018 presidential elections, ISFED has been monitoring behavior of websites operating against both opposition and ruling parties on Facebook. Two large-scale operations, carried out by Facebook against Georgian websites, groups and accounts, confirmed links that these websites have with both “Georgian Dream”, the ruling party, and “United National Movement”, an opposition party. With the 2020 parliamentary elections approaching, there can also be observed a large-scale campaign in favor of one more party - the “Alliance of Patriots of Georgia” on Facebook. It is noteworthy that this network, along with the positive campaign carried out in favor of the “Alliance of Patriots”, leads a clearly negative, discrediting activity against both the ruling party and, especially, other opposition parties”, - is stated in the information released by ISFED. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

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. “Myth Detector” releases material about disinformation spread by the “Georgian March” in regard to the “Open Society Georgia Foundation”. “The ”Georgian March”, an anti-liberal political union, continues its campaign against the “Open Society Georgia Foundation”. Members of the “Georgian March” made two statements against the foundation in the air of TV “Obiektivi”: 1. Soros allocated 4 million to fight against Orthodoxy. 2. The Office of the Public Defender is a state institution and getting funded by the Soros Foundation is ”bribery”, while feasibility of the funding itself is doubtful. Besides, Sandro Bregadze, one of the leaders of the “Georgian March”, stated that they would address the Parliament demanding to restrict funding non-governmental organizations by foreign countries”, - is noted in the material, - data, disseminated by the “Georgian March”, is disinformation. 1. To respond to the pandemic, the Foundation has been allocated 1 million as an additional funding, not 4 million, and the purpose of this funding is to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and not orthodoxy. 2. The Office of the Public Defender is not a state institution, it is an independent body, which has the right to control the state, as stipulated by the Constitution, and it receives funding from the Soros Foundation to protect rights of prisoners. Read more…  Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. On July 20, 2020, the Public Defender addressed both Minister of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia and Head of LEPL Levan Samkharauli National Forensics Bureau with a general proposal on the issue of avoiding age based discrimination practices while conducting forensic-psychiatric and complex psychiatric-psychological examinations. The Public Defender explained that children under the age of 10 need to be treated differently, compared to people over the age of 10, taking into account their mental maturity. The fact that at this stage there are no special procedural guidelines for conducting forensic-psychiatric and complex psychiatric-psychological examinations of juveniles, puts minors under the age of 10 in an unequal position compared to those older than them. Such a practice is an age based discrimination treatment as the existing general rule has a negative impact on children under 10 years of age. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Transparency International – Georgia (TI) published an information about situation in the health supervision area of Akhaltsikhe.  By the organization, - “The director of N(N)LE Center for Public Healthcare of the Akhaltsikhe Municipality, Naira Khabuliani, works in several paid positions at the same time. One of her jobs is the position of an epidemiologist at the Clinic of Akhaltsikhe ‘Imedi’. As the head of the non-entrepreneurial (non-commercial) legal entity, she also exercises epidemiological supervision on herself. In addition, Khabuliani worked as an epidemiologist at both fever centers created in Samtskhe-Javakheti at the time of the coronavirus, which was prohibited by law. And the service which exercises epidemiological supervision in the entire region is headed by Naira Khabuliani’s daughter – Nino Zedgenidze is the head of the Samtskhe-Javakheti regional division of the National Center for Disease Control”.  Read more…   Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. The Public Defender applied to the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia with a proposal in regard to taking into consideration religious needs while organizing the Unified National Examinations. The Office of the Public Defender studied the issue in the context of the right to freedom of religion as well as equality and found that the legislation, regulating the Unified National Examinations, does not provide applicants with an opportunity to express their religious needs during the registration process. Furthermore, there is no mechanism to take aforementioned into consideration while in the process of organizing examinations. According to the appraisal of the Public Defender, applicants, who were forced to refuse to take an exam on a particular day due to their own religious belief, were in an unequal position with respect to those applicants, whose religion is of different views on similar issues. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. The Public Defender addressed a general proposal to the Parliament of Georgia urging it to prepare legislative amendments related to introduction of paid internships at public institutions and provision of broader employment opportunities to interns.  The Public Defender underlines importance of an internship for development of professional skills of young people and points out that the current system in Georgia promotes social exclusion of those who, from a financial point of view, are unable to apply for an unpaid internship and, respectively, to start their professional development from early stages.  Read more…  Source: The website of the organization

How is Georgia working to fulfill its commitments under Association Agreement with the EU? Find out in the publications created with the support of the EU-funded project.  Read more…  Source: The page in the social network

12 August is the Youth International Day.  UN Women Georgia celebrating it by amplifying young people's voices, actions and movements.  See the link  Read more…   Source: The page in the social network

As of today, the Commission, on behalf of the EU, has agreed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) on macro-financial assistance (MFA) programmes with eight partners. The agreements are part of the €3 billion MFA package for ten enlargement and neighbourhood partners, aimed to help them limit the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Memoranda of Understanding have already been agreed with Albania, Georgia, Jordan, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Ukraine. These documents have also been formally signed with four of them: Kosovo, Moldova, North Macedonia and Ukraine. Negotiations of the MoUs with the remaining two countries – Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Tunisia – are underway. For Georgia, the policy conditions for its €150 million MFA programme relate to strengthening public finance management, improving governance, sector reforms, and labour market policies. Read more...  Source: eeas.europa.eu

Tbilisi. From March to July 2020, the Open Society Georgia Foundation additionally released up to 900 thousand US Dollars for Georgia in order to prevent spread of the COVID-19 infection and mitigate impact of the pandemic on the most vulnerable citizens. Support, provided to combat consequences of COVID-19, covered several areas, including protection of labor rights of citizens, socio-economic assistance, empowerment of health care institutions and medical personnel, awareness raising of ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and regional population, free legal and psychological services for citizens, facilitation of students in the online training process. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. A Svaneti branch of the Office of the Public Defender shifts to an emergency mode of work due to the epidemiological situation occurred in Daba Mestia, Lenjeri and Ushguli. Information about this is released by the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia. Taking into consideration restrictions of the quarantine, the Office of the Public Defender will provide assistance to everyone who considers that their rights have been violated. In case of necessity please call the following phone numbers: Hotline - 1481; Madona Basiladze, Head of the Western Georgia Regional Division - +995 577 553 381; Irina Gurchiani, Representative of the Svaneti Branch of the Office of the Public Defender - +995 591 508 262. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Education Development and Employment Center (EDEC) held Professional Guidance and Career Planning CV Training for the IDPs and conflict-affected youth residing in Shida Kartli and Samegrelo regions.  In total 323 people attended the “CV Training”. The participants learned CV and cover letter writing tools. In addition, they were informed about employer communication stages and effective job interview techniques. The gained knowledge will help them in better demonstration of their abilities, attracting the employers’ interest, and taking the first step towards creating a successful career.  Read more…  Source: The page in the social network

Tbilisi. The Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies published a blog by Vladimer Papava, Senior Fellow at the Foundation – “Georgia’s European Way During the Period of Pandemic Deglobalization”.  “The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant influence on both the lives of individuals and the world economy, requiring the reconsideration of a number of issues. Among them, the problem of globalization deserves special attention. In particular, will the COVID-19 pandemic lead to the end of globalization as such and will deglobalization, utterly and permanently, replace globalization leading to isolationism?”, - mentioned the author.  Read more…   Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. Civil society organizations release a statement in regard to coverage of the case of Tamar Bachaliashvili in the media. “We, civil society organizations, respond to the process of problematic coverage of the case of Tamar Bachaliashvili in the media, especially to an interview that took place in the “Main Accents” program of “Mtavari Channel” on August 9, 2020 at 23:00, and consider that it is essential to have the media realize importance of inviolability of private life and its responsibility in the process of building a legal and democratic society that is based on ideals of respect for human rights and dignity. Questions asked by a host at “Mtavari Channel”, as well as a material prepared by some other means of media, were related to details of personal intimate relations of the deceased Tamar Bachaliashvili, which fact is a rough interference with the right to private life of the deceased, on the one hand, and her friends, on the other hand. Although we perfectly understand existing high public interest in the case and a special role of the media to control public authorities, besides, despite the fact that we observe defectiveness of the ongoing investigation and challenges in its openness and transparency, we consider it essential to have a public hearing on the case with strict protection of and respect for human rights. Such an approach is crucial in terms of protection of dignity, private life and moral safety of members of the family of Bachaliashvili, as well as her friends”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association responds to presentation of the third phase of an anti-crisis plan, launched by the Government on August 6, 2020 against the impact of CODVID-19, and considers that focusing attention on Bidzina Ivanishvili while conducting presentation serves pre-election campaign goals. “In communication with public, draw a clear line between support of the state and party initiatives. It should be apparent that development of social programs is a responsibility of the state and not a good will of the ruling party; It must convince public that steps taken by it in the pre-election period are part of a long-term anti-crisis plan and not manipulations aimed at winning hearts of voters. Unfortunately, in this circumstance, the Government failed to pass this test, mainly due to its constant emphasis on the role of Bidzina Ivanishvili. An example of this is information published on the official Facebook page of Prime Minister, according to which such a large-scale social assistance was made available at the “StopCov Foundation”, including through the support of Bidzina Ivanishvili. Before that, he had stated it personally too. In fact, Minister of Finance had the same position when he said that this large-scale campaign was financially supported by the main donor of the foundation (Chairman of the ruling party was meant)”, - is stated in the information released by GYLA. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

“Myth Detector” publishes a new report of the United States Department of State – “Pillars of Russia’s Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem”.  Read more…  Source: The website of the organization in a social network