Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia publishes a report related to evaluation of actions taken by the Government: Management of challenges entailed by the COVID-19 infection. “Actions of the Government have made it prevent mass spread of the new coronavirus in the country. It would be unjustifiable to say that the Government managed to achieve these results at the expense of mass violation of human rights, however there were also certain shortcomings in the process”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

How to apply for rural development grants? All you need to know is in the Applicants’ Guidelines. The programme is funded by the EU and implemented by UNDP Georgia and the Agency for Rural Development and Agriculture. Read more... Source: EU’s page in the social network

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association has submitted its conclusion on draft amendments to the election legislation to the Parliament. The organization positively appraises the process of drafting the bill, the open format, which has been going on for a year.  “Despite positive changes (a new model of funding parties, restriction of engagement of people employed in budgetary organizations in the election agitation, additional regulations prohibiting use of administrative resources, etc.), there are still remaining issues, which we consider critically important to conduct fair elections: Control of expression of the will of voters... Staffing of the election administration... Gender quotas”...  Read more… Source: gyla.ge

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Tbilisi. IRC, GYLA, EMC and RIVG call on the Parliament of Georgia to resume revision of the bill on Personal Data Protection and ensure its timely adoption. "We consider that despite certain shortcomings and controversial issues, adoption of the bill will significantly improve the status of personal data protection and bring Georgian legal framework closer to the new European regulation (GDPR), while the current law is outdated and fails to meet existing challenges. At the same time, we think that relevant committees should carefully review those comments and suggestions that civil society organizations have provided in regard to the bill and ensure refinement/perfection of the bill prior to voting at the plenary session”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Open Governance Permanent Parliamentary Council held first remote sitting. The meeting was led by the Chairman of the Council, Mr. Kakha Kuchava, who discussed the current activities and future plans of the Council. Giorgi Kakhiani and Nino Tsilosani, members of the Open Government Permanent Parliamentary Council, presented an interim report on the Council's activities for 2020 and summarized the progress of the action plan implementation. The abovementioned remote sitting of the Council was attended by the representatives of NGOs and international organizations as well as the members of the Consultative Group under the Council. It should be mentioned that the Open Governance Permanent Parliamentary Council is implementing its commitments under the OGP Action Plan in cooperation with the Consultative Group. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. According to information released by the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), part of local self-government bodies has been engaged in a campaign in favor of the ruling party since April 2020, using official “Facebook” pages. Besides the campaign in favor of the ruling party, some municipalities are also involved in a campaign that benefits majoritarian deputies of the Parliament of Georgia. Read more… Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. According to information released by Transparency International Georgia, the competition for selection of members of the Board of Trustees of Public Broadcaster is carried out with procedural violations. “The election commission has presented eight candidates for three vacant seats to the Parliament, while according to the rules of procedure of the Parliament, the parliament should nominate “at least three times more candidates than those to be elected”, i.e. not less than 9 in this case”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Today, the supreme legislative body approved the draft amendments according to which the 2020 parliamentary elections will be held by the rules which are different from existing ones so far. According to the new regulation, 120 MPs will be elected proportionally and by 30 majoritarian rules. GYLA believes that the best solution would be to abolish the majoritarian part completely, but, given the current political context, as well as the March 8th consensus, it welcomes and supports the change. We appreciate and commend the contribution of those involved in this process, from the creation of the negotiation format by the international facilitators to the voting. We would also like to note that after these amendments are made, it is necessary to take steps to improve the electoral legislation, such as: the introduction of effective mechanisms prohibiting the control of the will of the electorate; fair gender quotas and professional election administration which is staffed based on the political consensus. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. On 19 and 24 June, the Memory and Disinformation Studies Direction at the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information organized one Russian-language and one English-language online meeting with the researchers and experts involved in IDFI’s project „Enhancing Openness of State Archives in Former Soviet Republics and Eastern Bloc Countries“. The participants discussed the results of the research carried out in the state archives of 18 countries, that are published on the website of the International Rating of Archives created by IDFI and are also included in IDFI’s final report. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Media Advocacy Coalition considers that launching a criminal investigation into the story prepared by the TV Company “Mtavari” is a harsh, disproportionate response and a very dangerous precedent of interfering in the freedom of media.  “In the circumstances when a negative attitude of the Government specifically against the TV Company “Mtavari” is obvious (as a matter of fact, government officials publicly boycott the channel) and when Georgia has repeatedly appeared at the center of world attention due to abundance of facts of anti-Western propaganda instigated by disinformation and false reports, it is particularly concerning that SSG names the story, broadcasted on the “Mtavari” channel, as “sabotage”. This action gives an impression of using a repressive mechanism selectively. We think that launching a criminal prosecution under the article of sabotage due to the TV story may have an irreversible stinging effect on all means of media that are critical of the Government and affect an idea of control of the Government by citizens”, - is noted in the statement.  Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) responds to a strike announced by social agents. The organization considers it alarming that the Ministry of Health, as an agency responsible for protection of labor rights and promotion of social dialogue in the country, refuses to create basic working conditions for its employees and fails to ensure a fair and equal environment for negotiations. EMC calls on the Ministry of Health to meet fair demands of social agents. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The undersigned organizations would like to respond to the statement of H.E. Hubert Knirsch, the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Georgia, posted on the embassy’s official Facebook page on June 25. The statement was in response to the Georgian NGOs’ critical assessment of Ms. Sopio Kiladze’s nomination for the membership to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Ms. Kiladze is the member of the Parliament of Georgia. We believe that the state-nominated candidate in Georgia vastly lacks personal and professional integrity and is notorious for her openly confrontational attitude to the civil society that is critical of her public statements and work. There have been myriad of well-documented instances of Ms. Kiladze’s verbal abuse of human rights defenders and activists, homophobic and discriminatory public statements, public display of selective approaches to human rights protection, particularly with regard to the LGBTQI community and children. This has been the common practice of the candidate to such an extent that the civil society had to resort to the various forms of open protest on several occasions[i]. Various international and local organizations and the media have reported these facts. We would, therefore, like to underline that the statement made by the NGOs is not an attack of a personal nature, but the candid assessment of the facts that disqualify the nominated candidate from taking the CRC membership. It is not only desirable, but also the duty of the civil society organizations to call out such a lack of integrity, selective application of human rights by the candidate and disregard of the procedures by the nominating state. Read more… Source: phrgeorgia.wordpress.com

Tbilisi. We the Georgian civil society representatives, civic activists and media representatives, would like to draw your attention to the upcoming 2020 parliamentary elections in Georgia and continued attempts of political interest groups and foreign actors to undermine free and equal election environment by using disinformation and Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior (CIB) on Facebook, jeopardizing democracy and Georgia’s Western integration. You have once said that in a democracy it is very important that people see for themselves what politicians are saying, so they make their own judgments. However, amid the anonymous, coordinated and sponsored political discrediting campaigns in Georgia, citizens are misled, which takes away their freedom of information and possibility to form political opinions based on their own judgments – which, according to your formula, is no longer a democracy. We believe that Facebook will choose to stand on the side of democracy. We hope that Facebook’s prompt action and genuine cooperation will make it possible to secure the Georgian democracy and integrity of important 2020 parliamentary elections from external and internal interference… Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. According to information released by the Women’s Foundation, the green/ecological concept building will serve women and human rights, green, feminist activists, non-governmental organizations of women and local women free of charge to organize and conduct business meetings.  “Besides, it will serve as a residence for female artists and writers - a space for privacy and work, where they will be able to live for some time, and take care of the premises and the community garden instead. In order to ensure administration of free services and financial sustainability, the space will be additionally used for commercial purposes”.  Read more… Source: www.womenfundgeorgia.org

Tbilisi. The Coalition for Equality responds to developments that take place at Adjara Public Broadcaster and expresses its full support to the struggle of employees of the broadcasters for Public Broadcaster. “It is completely inadmissible that persecution of employees at Adjara Broadcaster continues to take place due to their critical positions. Intolerance of the management policy often costs employees of Adjara Broadcaster their jobs, transfer to other positions, and working in a hostile and stressful environment. Signs of hindrance of activities of the alternative trade union, founded by employees of the broadcaster, are obvious too”, - is noted in the statement. Read more…  Source:phrgeorgia. wordpress.com

On June 25, the Civil Society Institute (CSI) conducted an online consultation - webinar on issues related to taxation of civil society organizations. Representatives of 31 civil society organizations participated in the webinar. The online consultation covered such issues as: taxation and administration, including actual issues entailed by the coronavirus. The online consultation - webinar was carried out within the framework of the “Civil Society Sustainability Initiative” project, which is implemented by the consortium: the Civil Society Institute (CSI), the Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia (CSRDG), the Center for Training and Consultancy (CTC), and the Education Development and Employment Center (EDEC) under the supervision of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS). The project is financially supported by the European Union and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

Tbilisi. Media Advocacy Coalition member organizations respond to the initiative of Kakha Kaladze, Mayor of Tbilisi and Secretary General of “Georgian Dream”, in regard to creation of a new platform for media criticism. “We consider that initiation of such a campaign by a high-ranking political official against critical means of media does not meet expectations of a democratic society. It roughly contradicts to ethical values and principles of high-ranking officials. Especially when there is a risk of promoting aggression against journalists, verbal and physical assault”, - is noted in the statement. Read more…  Source: The website of the Coalition in a social network

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Center publishes a document on legal analysis of criminal cases related to June 20-21 developments. “The purpose of the document, is to make legal evaluation of criminal prosecution facts and criminal cases against various people, initiated after developments of June 20-21 last year, based on international practice and taking into account Georgian specifics. Read more… Source: humanrights.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) evaluates shortcomings and risks revealed at the stage of elaboration and administration of an anti-crisis plan of the Government.  The organization considers that the process of releasing assistance is accompanied by significant problems, which means criteria for joining the program are vague or contradictory, existing procedures depend on goodwill of employer, certain vulnerable groups are left without support by the state and etc. At the same time, conditions of additional credit obligations, taken by the state, are still unclear and non-transparent. These circumstances cast doubt on effectiveness of the anti-crisis plan and raise important questions about its long-term consequences.  Read more…  Source: emc.org.ge

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