Tbilisi. The “This Country is Yours” campaign serves to empower civil society in Georgia, promote civic values, activities of civil society organizations, and facilitate civic activism.  On May 21, at 17:00, there will be conducted a remote information meeting with civic education teachers of Tbilisi, aiming at engaging them in the campaign. A competition for youth (seniors) – “This Country is Yours!” will also be announced at the meeting.  Those wishing to attend the meeting please register by May 20, 18:00. The zoom link for meeting will be sent to your e-mail after the registration.

The web portal of civil society organizations Csogeorgia.org is already 8 years old. The portal started operating exactly 8 years ago, on May 18, 2012, and its team still enjoys to do work, which contributes to empowerment of civil society in Georgia. We would like to thank you for your cooperation, interest that we felt from you over these years. Csogeorgia.org will further disseminate information about activities of CSOs, civil activists with pleasure. Your work is important to us. Csogeorgia.org…

Tbilisi. Transparency International - Georgia publishes a blog post: What novelties are envisaged by the new bill on protection of people with disabilities. “The following important novelties should be appraised positively in the bill: Facilitation of people with disabilities in the process of a legal proceeding: a person with disability will have the opportunity to receive a state legal assistance, besides, a special plaintiff institution will also be established; The law will defines principles of both reasonable adaptation and universal design. It is important to make sure that norms envisaging guarantees for protection of rights of people with disabilities are not obscure and contain enforcement mechanisms. A number of issues in this regard require refinement and improvement...” Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Coalition for Equality responds to the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.  “In different countries, along with gathering and manifestation of the LGBTQI community in the public space, May 17 is marked to spread information in regard to various needs that the community faces. In Georgia, LGBTQI community organizations and non-governmental organizations working with the community have been trying from year to year to give more content to May 17 and turn this day into a day that illustrates challenges faced by the community. However, in the circumstances of a number of obstacles, they failed to achieve this and IDAHOT remains a day of manifestation of homophobia by the state and society”, - is noted in the statement.  Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. As the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) states, the Government should provide a clear explanation of legal grounds for expected restrictions. “On April 24, the Government presented intended deadlines for lifting restrictions. According to the anti-crisis plan, restrictions on economic activity will be lifted in stages, with an average of two weeks between stages. As the plan envisages, restrictions on certain economic activities will be further prolonged after May 22, however, it is unknown what legal grounds are going to be referred on to restrict the freedom of entrepreneurship after the end of the state of emergency. For instance, according to the plan, the opening of domestic tourism is intended from June 15, while the opening of large shopping centers (so-called malls) is planned only on the fourth stage, and etc.” Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Within the framework of the “Civil Society Sustainability Initiative” project there was carried out an interesting information campaign aiming to stop the spread of COVID 19. Bread was sold with special information labels - a total of 173 760 units. Besides, as part of this campaign, 22 500 reusable bags were distributed to the population in ten regions of Georgia. These bags had also information related to COVID 19 preventive measures, as well as the unified hotline of the Public Safety Management Center - 112, Ministry of Health, National Center for Disease Control and Government printed on them in Georgian, Azerbaijani and Armenian languages. This campaign was planned by the Education Development and Employment Center within the framework of the “Civil Society Sustainability Initiative” project, implemented by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) in collaboration with the Civil Society Institute (CSI), Center for Training and Consultancy (CTC), Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia (CSRDG) and Education Development and Employment Center (EDEC). The project is funded by the European Union (EU), while the co-financer is the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS). Read more about the campaign…  Source: Delegation of the European Union to Georgia

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. The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) publishes a policy document that contains a review of possible rearrangement of the balance of power in the EU after Brexit. “In particular, the document includes a review of various possible scenarios of how the EU may change its foreign policy, what the relation with neighboring and Eastern Partnership countries (EaP) will be and, ultimately, what challenges and opportunities Brexit poses to Georgia in terms of its relations with both the EU and the Great Britain”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC), on behalf of employees, unlawfully dismissed from Adjara Public Broadcaster, has applied to both the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the General Prosecutor’s Office to launch an investigation in and criminal prosecution against Giorgi Kokhreidze, Director of Adjara Broadcaster. “In its comprehensive review, submitted to law-enforcement authorities, EMC provides evaluations, including those of international organizations (OSCE, Council of Europe, Reporters Without Borders), Public Defender and local organizations working on human rights, which openly talk about facts of interfering in the editorial policy of the broadcaster, persecution of its journalists and control over it”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Betlemi District Festival 2012 – Celebration of Fun, Diversity and Unity of the District! Throughout one week, we will be posting photo and video materials of 2009-2019 years’ Festivals. We invite you to share your experience as one of the participant or guest of the Betlemi District Festival! Tell us about the Betlemi District Festival by sharing your favorite photo, video, story on ICOMOS Georgia Facebook Page. Read more… Source: Social network

Tbilisi. With the support of UNDP Lusine Dostibegiani used her bilingual skills to help the authorities reach out to those speaking ethnic minority languages. “Lusine Dostibegiani is one of them. Under normal circumstances, she leads the Youth Centre in her native town of Tetritskaro in Eastern Georgia, working to educate and create better opportunities for young people. Although the pandemic forced her to suspend the operation, she carried on helping her community. She organized the marking of social distancing in public spaces of her town and raised COVID-19 awareness among the citizens. She also used her bilingual skills to help the authorities reach out to those speaking ethnic minority languages”. Read more… Source: www.ge.undp.org

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) responds to the fact of dismissal of Malkhaz Rekhviashvili, Chairman of the Alternative Trade Union and host of the TV program “Hashtag”, from his job at Adjara Public Broadcaster. “The organization considers that this decision, taken by the new management of the broadcaster, is a continuation of the process of persecution of critical thinking, weakening of the Alternative Trade Union and destruction of the independence of the broadcaster, which is already becoming alarming”. Read more… Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a blog post: Results of a survey of population of Georgia in regard to their attitude towards and knowledge of the Prosecutor’s Office. “The survey of population of Georgia in regard to their attitude towards and knowledge of the Prosecutor’s Office was conducted within the period from March 30 to April 12, 2020. The survey examined the following issues: 1. Attitude towards the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia and prosecutors; 2. Knowledge of the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia; 3. Experience in relations with the Prosecutor’s Office; 4. Use of communication channels of the Prosecutor’s Office and their evaluation”. Read more…  Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) published a blogpost "Measures taken against COVID-19 - International practice ": “In response to spread of the new coronavirus, governments of various countries apply a wide range of measures. A research team of the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford has developed a special mechanism to evaluate taken measures - The Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT), which evaluates and compares measures taken by governments of different countries to stop the coronavirus, while eventually defines the Austerity Index. The table contains examples of 22 countries in total, including Georgia. According to data, it is obvious that gradual mitigation of measures taken in March in response to spread of the coronavirus begins in the second half of April in each of them. Taking into account the number and severity of imposed restrictions, as well as penalties determined for violating them, Georgia comes close to countries having strict measures. The very first violation of the special regime of the state of emergency by an individual results in a fine of GEL 3000, which exceeds the amount of fines imposed by Western European, Scandinavian and other developed countries and is disproportionately high in relation to income of population”. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. With the joint initiative of UN Women and the Public Defender’s Office in Georgia, the free online course on Gender Equality has been developed. The online course is available for anyone to enroll. Use your time efficiently during quarantine, take the course and find out more about #GenderEquality. The initiative is carried out within the project “A Joint Action for Women’s Economic Empowerment in Georgia”, funded by the Government of Norway. Read more… Source: Social network

Tbilisi. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) publishes a blog post: Quality of democracy in Georgia according to the BTI 2020. “BTI is the only comparative-international index, which measures the quality of governance and offers an analysis of political governance in countries that are in transition period. In 2020, 137 countries were evaluated by this index. Georgia was one of the evaluated countries, as it belongs to the category of developing countries. Thus, it is interesting to know how the transformation process is going on in the country according to the 2020 Index. In the report, Georgia was evaluated in all three directions, however the purpose of this study is only to analyze the degree of democracy. Unfortunately, according to the Bertelsmann Transformation Index, the quality of democracy in Georgia deteriorated in several directions in 2020 as compared to 2018”. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

The history of the European Union began 70 years ago on May 9, 1950. 70 years ago, the Declaration of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, Robert Schuman, changed the future of the European continent. “This speech, made in the ruins of World War II, laid out a vision of cooperation between European nations that would lead to the European Union as we know it. Today, with 27 Member States and 446 million citizens, the EU marks the 70th anniversary of this declaration. The theme of 2020 Europe Day is Stronger Together, highlighting the need for solidarity particularly in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. Watch the video to learn more about the declaration and what idea the EU is based on”. Read more… Europe Day... Source: EU's page in the social network

Tbilisi. According to information of the Georgian Center for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT), the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims publishes a report related to so called “Conversion Therapy”. “The report contains a detailed review of methods practiced by different countries and the impact that these interventions have on humans”. Read more… Source: The website of the organization in a social network

The United State Government actively supports Georgia's agricultural development. The USAID Agriculture Program's innovation grants are one of the ways the United States supports agricultural development in Georgia. If you are an entrepreneur or represent an enterprise, feel free to apply for the innovation grant by December 31, 2020. For details, please visit... Source: Social network

Tbilisi. The European Union and the United Nations Development Program are launching GEL 9 million grant program to help Georgia’s rural regions respond to the economic and social challenges emerging amidst the #COVID19 crisis. „The grants are designed to boost rural entrepreneurship, create sustainable jobs, improve the management of natural resources, and promote climate action“. Learn more... Source: Social network

Tbilisi. The pandemic has particularly negative effects on the rights of vulnerable groups, such as stateless persons, asylum seekers and persons with international protection. The Public Defender's Office is actively working to protect the rights of these beneficiaries and is ready to provide remote legal consultations and aid to these individuals via hotline. The beneficiaries can contact us via 24/7 hotline: 1481. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. According to information of the United Nations Women’s Fund, companies that signed Women’s Empowerment Principles in Georgia, plan new initiatives to support women. “These initiatives take into account an important role of women entrepreneurs in the economy of the country and negative impact that COVID-19 is going to have on both entrepreneur and other women living in the country. One of the companies that has taken steps in this direction is “Georgian Audit Company”. It signed Women’s Empowerment Principles in January 2020. At the end of February, when there was confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in Georgia, the company announced publicly that it was offering free taxpayer services to women entrepreneurs. In March, 23 women took advantage of this service”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: georgia.unwomen.org