Tbilisi. With the support of the EU, the winners of the photo contest, "Pandemic and Women in Georgia", was announced: First place – Nino Zedgenidze;  Second place – Salome Benidze;  Third place – Guranda Benidze. The aim of the photo contest was to increase support for gender equality, empower women and strengthen public support in the fight against domestic violence.  Read more  Source: The page in the social network

Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia responded to the rights situation of internally displaced persons and addressed LEPL Agency ofIDPs,Eco-migrants and LivelihoodProvision with a proposal relating to the restoration of IDPs’ rights violated by the restrictions imposed against the spread of novel coronavirus in the country. The document refers to the infrastructure malfunction of IDPs’ former compact settlement facilities and socio-economic problems of internally displaced persons, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Read more  Source: The web-page of the organization

Down Syndrome International has developed new guidelines for specialists to educate learners with Down syndrome. Information in this regard is released by Georgian Down Syndrome Association. “Our association is a member of the international organization and we are pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to development of guidelines”, - is stated in the information, - “it should be noted that this manual is going to be the first guidebook, created on the basis of international experience, which combines best practices of various countries”. Read more…  Source:The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Within the framework of the capacity building program Public Movement Multinational Georgia (PMMG) organized trainings for ethnic minority entrepreneurs residing in Ninotsminda, Akhalkalaki, Akhaltsikhe, Gardabani, Marneuli, and Bolnisi Municipalities.  During the training highly qualified and experienced experts introduced the participants to the stages and ways of developing, planning and implementing a business plan. Participants, including representatives of agriculture businesses received comprehensive information on funding mechanisms through state and non-state programs, as well as on the use of tools under the Free Trade Agreement with the EU.  Read more   Source: The page in the social network

Tbilisi. A shipment of medical respirators, masks, goggles, face shields and gowns to enable health-care workers in Georgia to continue to respond effectively and safely to the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the country this week. The delivery of up to 1.5 million pieces of personal protective equipment, funded by the European Union and procured by WHO, includes 5,000 faceshields, 13,200 protective goggles, 30,000 isolation gowns, 1,000,000 medical masks and 328,000 respirator masks. This is one of the largest cargos of protective equipment to arrive in Georgia with donor support. These supplies will safeguard those in the frontlines of the COVID-19 response, and ensure that the health system is well prepared in case of additional needs in the near future. Read more  Source: https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/georgia

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) responds to a conclusion on a thematic research of the Parliament in regard to issues related to fight against homelessness and calls on the Government to pursue recommendations, set out in the document, as soon as possible. “Taking into consideration difficult situation existing in the country in the field of homelessness, we address the Government of Georgia and municipalities: to pursue recommendations, given within the framework of the thematic survey, as soon as possible and ensure planning and implementation of a housing policy that corresponds to international standards; to take steps, in parallel with implementation of the above recommendations, in order to address the fundamental problems that are essential in terms of guaranteeing the right to housing. This includes improvement of legislation and practice that regulate all stages of eviction and bringing them into compliance with international standards. Besides, effective reflection of interests and challenges of various vulnerable groups in the housing policy. The Parliament of Georgia: to exercise effective supervision over recommendations of the thematic research group to be implemented by the Executive Government”, - is noted in the statement released by EMC. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

On July 21-22, within the framework of a field working meeting, an Open Government Permanent Parliamentary Council and members of an Advisory Group, operating under the Council, discussed submitted initiatives aiming to elaborate an Action Plan of the Open Parliament of Georgia for 2020-2021 years. The working meeting was conducted within the framework of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) project – “Consolidating Parliamentary Democracy in Georgia”. At the working meeting, recommendations and proposals in regard to commitments under the action plan were presented by representatives of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), USAID/GGI, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), Transparency International Georgia (TI) and Public Defender of Georgia. Proposed initiatives aim at enhancing openness of activities of the legislative body as well as increasing proactivity and transparency of lawmaking and oversight activities of the Parliament. Most of the recommendations ensure raise of accessibility to information through the website of the Parliament and support increase of a list of proactively publishable and easily editable data. Read more…  Source: https://idfi.ge

Tbilisi. On July 22, 2020, GYLA submitted its written opinions to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in regard to fulfillment of so called “Cases of Identoba Group” related commitments, made by the Government of Georgia in the form of general measures. In the submitted document, along with relevant recommendations, GYLA presented a detailed analysis of problems, existing in this regard, to the Committee of Ministers. According to information published by GYLA, implementation of these recommendations by the state is important for proper and effective execution of cases of Identoba Group, as it ensures both restoration of violated rights of victims, in particular, as well as justice, and improvement of situation in regard to rights of the LGBT+ community and Jehovah’s Witnesses, living in Georgia, in general. 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...

The European Commission and Europol launches new project to strength the capacity of Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova & Ukraine to fight organised crime more effectively. The project will contribute to reducing crime and creating a safer living space for citizens in the region. Read more  Source: The page in the social network

 With the support of the EU GEL 5 Million awarded to first municipalities under Pilot Integrated Regional Development Programme...  The Government of Georgia, with the support of the EU, awarded the first 11 municipalities under the Pilot Integrated Regional Development Programme with a total of GEL 5 million in grants in the area of local infrastructure and business development - of Kakheti, Imereti, Guria and Racha-Lechkhumi-Kvemo Svaneti.  These grants are part of the Government’s GEL 220 million Pilot Integrated Regional Development Grant Programme, of which GEL 186 million will come from EU funding. The aim of the programme is to promote a more balanced territorial development and improve living standards and conditions of the population in the regions through inclusive, smart and sustainable socio-economic means.  Read more   Source: The web-page of the organization

IDFI reviewed position of Georgia in The UN E-Government Survey 2020.  “Georgia’s scores in terms of e-government and e-participation have slightly improved in the UN E-Government Survey 2020. Although the country has dropped by 5 positions in the e-government ranking, it advanced by 7 positions in the e-participation ranking. Comparing to other countries in the region, it becomes apparent that Georgia is losing momentum in this field, and is slowly losing the opportunity of becoming a leading nation in the region in terms of e-government reforms”, - is mentioned in the information published by the organization. Read more  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) evaluates an electoral reform of 2019-2020 years. “Through the efforts of local stakeholders and international partners, on June 13, 2019, there was conducted the first meeting of the working group on election issues at the Parliament of Georgia. Even after lengthy deliberations and agreement of the majority of the working group on certain issues, relevant amendments were not reflected in elaborated and submitted drafts”, - is stated in the analysis prepared by ISFED, - “Present document contains a review of recommendations, provided by ISFED and Transparency International Georgia on the most important issues of the electoral reform, and changes made in legislation”. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Delegation of the European Union to Georgia published an interview with Carl Hartzell, Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia.  How the EU supports the development of different fields in Georgia and how this support helps the country overcome challenges – this are issues the EU Ambassador talks about.  Read more  Source: Page in the social network

Tbilisi. Economic Policy Research Center publishes a policy document – “COVID-19 era and investment perspectives”. The document was prepared within the framework of an economic discussion platform, KAS EPRC Economic Arena, founded by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) and Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC) in 2019. The platform offers analytical documents to the government and public, which documents enable stakeholders to evaluate specific outcomes and effects of initiated and, in some cases, already made decisions. Read more…  Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Media Development Foundation presents a report – “Anti-Western Propaganda – 2019”.  “The fifth annual report on anti-western propaganda reflects the results of media monitoring and fake news debunking in 2019. The monitoring report, which traditionally focuses on detecting anti-western messages, observing the process of their framing as well as shifting narratives over time, also identifies sources of these messages and verifies them when they contain fake information”, - is mentioned in the preface of the document.  Reade more  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. IDFI will provide the comprehensive analysis of the several dozens of documents about Georgia contained of Yeltsin Center. Today the organization offers the first part of the documents preserved in the Center, which refers to the period of Zviad Gamsakhurdia's presidency (1991).  “The activities of the Yeltsin Center in Russia are not unequivocally perceived. Influential public figure Nikita Mikhalkov protested against the center several times, also LDPR members organized protests in front of the center's building. In 2016, more than 6,000 activists signed a petition on change.org to shut down the Yeltsin Center because it distorted the history. The center's activities have been repeatedly hampered due to the fact that it has often given a space to liberals. Therefore, we believe that it is necessary to download documents related to Georgia and store them in another, more secure place, because it’s unclear when the center and its website will have a problem of functioning. Especially due to the reason that there have been a number of facts when the Russian archives have classified already published documents”, - is mentioned in the information published by IDFI.  Read more   Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. The Georgian Coalition for the International Criminal Court responds to cases of unlawful detention and accusations of citizens of Georgia, including Zaza Gakheladze and Khvicha Mghebrishvili, by Russia and considers these actions as significant violation of fundamental human rights by Russia. “Cases of detention and accusation of Zaza Gakheladze and Khvicha Mghebrishvili, along with other incidents, clearly indicate facts of systemic infringement of fundamental human rights by Russia as well as de facto authorities of Abkhazia and South Ossetia/Tskhinvali region. Responsibility for existing grave human rights related situation lies with the Russian Federation as a state carrying out effective control over territories of Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Occupied territories, as well as actions of representatives of de facto authorities, are uncontrollable and arbitrary, which fact requires a timely and proper response from relevant actors”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: https://www.gyla.ge/ge

Tbilisi. IDFFI made a statement about the Direction of Animal Welfare in Georgia. “The recent developments in Georgia have once again attracted public attention to the topic of animal care and welfare in Georgia. Existing problems of high complexity, which require immediate action have once again come to the surface”, - is mentioned in the statement, - “The problem should be acknowledged on the political level, after which relevant steps need to be taken in the direction of raising public awareness and adopting a comprehensive law on animal welfare”. Read more  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. The Public Defender responded to the business and human rights situation in Georgia and addressed the Prime Minister of Georgia in writing, considering the report prepared by the UN Working Groupon the issue ofhuman rights and transnational corporationsand other business enterprises.  In the letter, the Public Defender expressed her concern about the low rate of fulfillment of obligations under the human rights action plan, since according to information received from various agencies, despite a number of measures taken, no effective measures have been taken so far to perform a number of key tasks set out in the action plan on business and human rights.  Read more  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. Today, Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) is going to presents to the public a study – “Needs of ethnic minorities, Public Broadcaster and the pandemic”. “On March 23, 2020, Marneuli and Bolnisi, two regions densely populated with ethnic minorities, were closed due to internal spread of the new coronavirus (Radio Liberty, 2020). A light panic that followed the threat of uncontrolled spread of the virus in the country, soon transitioned into another wave of xenophobia and nationalism, which fact was most clearly reflected in comments of users in a social network Facebook (Kevanishvili, 2020). During the following days, population, locked up in regions declared as “red zones”, had to simultaneously fight against the coronavirus, the fear of economic poverty and ethno-nationalism. Instead of spending efforts of local activists on dissemination of information related to the coronavirus, prevention of the virus and avoiding economic complications, they had to launch an internet campaign, main message of which was – “I am a citizen of Georgia”, - is stated in the introduction to the study. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Within the framework of a social campaign “This Country Is Yours”, the Civil Society Institute has started public meetings with young people in regions of Georgia... At meetings, attended by popular people, youngsters are informed about civil society, civic values and activities of civil society organizations; participants of meetings are going to receive an almanac, which is prepared within the framework of the campaign and brings together thoughts of the best sons of Georgia in regard to freedom, justice and democracy, as well as physical maps of the world, Europe, region and Georgia, including important information printed on them, promotional products of the campaign. There will also be conducted an award ceremony for winners of a youth competition of the “This Country Is Yours” campaign at public meetings. This competition was carried out all over the country and about 150 teams of senior schoolchildren participated in it. Winners – schoolchildren and their curator teachers - who were identified by a jury, consisting of teachers and representatives of civil society organizations, are going to be given notebooks as a gift. The first public meeting and the first award ceremony of winners were held today, in Gori. Until August 15, the team of the Civil Society Institute will conduct 15 more such meetings in Shida Kartli, Kakheti, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Kvemo Kartli, Mtskheta-Mtianeti, Racha-Lechkhumi-Kvemo Svaneti, Imereti, Adjara, Guria and Samegrelo. The purpose of the “This Country Is Yours” social campaign is to facilitate enhancement of civil society in Georgia and increase awareness of civil society organizations; to convey values and functions of civil society organizations, as well as the essence of their activities to population properly and demonstrate the importance of civic activism. The campaign is carried out within the framework of the “Civil Society Sustainability Initiative” project. The “Civil Society Sustainability Initiative” project is implemented by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) in collaboration with the Civil Society Institute (CSI), the Center for Training Consultancy (CTC), the Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia (CSRDG) and the Education Development and Employment Center (EDEC). The project is funded by the European Union and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.