Tbilisi. Partnership for Human Rights (PHR) publishes a blog post: How to increase applying of victims of violence to police via carrying out gender statistics. “For me, as a lawyer, statistics is the best tool to convince a violence affected woman to trust the state. Statistics, which I almost never have because the state does not consider that it is important to know how and how often women become victims of violence, what happens with these women when abusers are released from prison, whether they confront repeated violence and a lot more...”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: phrgeorgia.wordpress.com

Tbilisi. According to information released by the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), the Strasbourg court has imposed responsibility on Georgia for breach of the right of Zurab Vazagashvili to life. “The European Court clarified that during proceedings, carried out on a national level, courts clearly emphasized that policemen acted officially while executing the special operation, respectively, the murder of Zurab Vazagashvili would be imposed on the state”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. “Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center” (EMC) and “Partnership for Human Rights” (PHR) respond to one more toughest tragedy that resulted in the death of a 16-year-old teenager while working on a construction site and express their sympathies to his family. “According to appraisals of EMC and PHR, the situation in terms of labor safety in the country is alarming, while efforts of the state to respond to the current challenge are inadequate”, - is noted in the statement. Read more…  Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Public Defender informed provided information on the criminal case of abuse of power by the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on June 20-21 to the Advisory Council.  "The joint recommendation of the Public Defender and the Council is to focus on the study of the overall situation: how the police used the force; whether the force used by police was in compliance with the instructions and legislative regulations in Georgia; how the operation was planned; who issued orders and who was responsible for the execution of the orders. These are the main issues and the investigation should focus on the abuse of power by individual police officers only after studying all this,"- the Public Defender told journalists.  Read more…  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. Public Defender made a Statement on the Death of a Minor Worker on 16 July 2019.  ‘The situation of safety at work remains a major challenge in the country. Improvement of the alarming situation is significantly hindered by the restrictions imposed for labour inspectors on the one hand, which will be lifted only from September 2019, and by the lack of human and financial resources of the Labour Conditions Inspection Department on the other hand’, - is mentioned in the statement.  Read more… Source: The web-page of the organization

The web portal www.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. On July 17, the World Day for International Justice, five organizations, members of the Georgian Coalition for the International Criminal Court, conducted presentation of a special report – “Ten years after the August war: Condition of victims in Georgia”. “The report has revealed that IDPs, located in resettlement areas, live in difficult socio-economic conditions even after ten years since the war. Problems of IDPs are identical irrespective resettlement areas. Only 0.02% of interviewed IDPs note that their families do not face any problems”, - is stated on the website of GYLA. Read more… Source:    The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. On May 10, 2019 the High Council of Justice (HCOJ) started the process of selection of Supreme Court judicial candidacies to be submitted to the Parliament of Georgia. The procedure has revealed several significant problems undermining transparency and legitimacy of the process. The Coalition calls on: “The HCOJ to ensure full transparency of interviews with candidates, to provide adequate time for interviews that would allow the Council members to ask all the questions that will inform the public about the candidates’ past, professional experiences, and values”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) considers that reorganization of the Georgian National Book Center and Writers’ House was unsubstantiated and hasty. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia is concerned about the increased use of sexist terms by politicians and public officials towards women involved in political and public life, including politician Tinatin Bokuchava and journalist Inga Grigolia.  “It is alarming that authors of sexist phrases are often politicians, including elected male members of elective bodies - parliament and city councils. Their opinions are not based on objective or professional criticism, but are conditioned by gender stereotypes and emphasize the sex and sexuality of the victim”, - is mentioned in the Public defender’s statement.  Read more… Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. EMC presents a new research “Drug Policy in Georgia - Canceled Reform and New Tendencies”.  “The report aims to provide with an overview of basic tendencies concerning the state policy, legislative framework and criminal law practices on drug-related crimes. Through this report, the EMC continues documenting the systemic challenges in the field of drug-related policy in order to provide with comparative analysis of practices and circumstances of previous years as well as to contribute to fundamental changes in drug-related policy”, - is mentioned in a foreword of the research.  Read more…  Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. The Gender Informational Portal publishes information regarding creators of #SpendYourSummerinGeorgia. “Mariam Gujabidze, Mari Jobava, Nini Mchedlishvili, Nini Nogashvili and Keta Goletiani met each other on a master's degree program. Just a month ago they could not even imagine that they would become organizers of a huge international tourism campaign. In response to ongoing developments and Russian sanctions on tourism, they launched a spontaneous campaign #SPENDYOURSUMMERINGEORGIA. They created a FACEBOOK group with the same name and began inviting their foreign friends to join, urging them, at the same time, to visit Georgia and spend summer there”, - is stated on the website of the portal. Read more… Source: www.ginsc.net

On 12 July, movie screening was held for the School of Justice Alumni.  „Screening of “White Christmas” episode of the TV-Show “Black Mirror” was followed by the discussion. The participants together with the Free University Professor, David Zedelashvili discussed morality of obtaining evidence and the problem of developing technologies which purport to improve the administration of justice, but can also be used for deprivation of human liberty“. Read more… Source: Social page

Tbilisi. According to the Transparency International Georgia after the election of Zaza Melikidze first as Akhaltsikhe Governor and then the Mayor the amounts earned by Melikidze's current and former companies through public procurements increased from 124 793 GEL to 546 044 GEL, amongst them the companies received 524 902 GEL from Akhaltsikhe Municipality. “The Companies associated with Melikidze never participated in Akhaltsikhe Municipality tenders until his election to the office of the Governor. In 2015, after being elected, these companies won 15 tenders. The number of contracts awarded to these companies through direct procurement procedure also increased - in 11 of 21 procurements the contracting parties are the legal entities of Akhaltsikhe Municipality”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. “Women’s Movement” expresses its solidarity towards Inga Grigolia, a journalist, and condemns an insulting statement of sexual character made by Levan Oniani, Chairperson of Rustavi City Assembly, against her. “We call on Rustavi City Assembly to dismiss Chairperson of the Assembly from his position, while the ruling party – “Georgian Dream” – to expel Levan Oniani from their team”, - is stated on the website of the organization in a social network. Read more… Source:    The page of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. The High Council of Justice made a decision at today’s session to take into account the Public Defender’s recommendation of June 27.  Accordingly, copies of applications and documents submitted by 137 candidates participating in the selection process of Supreme Court judges will be available for monitoring organizations and other stakeholders.  Read more… Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. In the framework of the parliamentary monitoring program, Transparency International Georgia presents the Assessment of the Performance of the Parliament of Georgia in 2018, which covers the time period from January 1, 2018 till December 31, 2018. “In addition to the specific challenges identified in the work of the Parliament, it is important to note issues related to the cooperation of the Parliament and the civil society. Public officials in the Parliament, especially Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chairperson of the Parliament, has made numerous aggressive statements[1] against the non-governmental sector. Attacks against the non-governmental sector damages the democratic development of the country. This problem was recognized by the U.S. Department of State’s Report on Human Rights Practices in Georgia that was published in 2018”, - is mentioned in the Assessment. Read more… Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. “70% of Recommendations Received by Georgia from GRECO about Corruption Prevention Remain is not Fully Implemented”, - is told in the IDFI’s information.  “On 2 July, 2019, the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) published the Fourth Evaluation Round compliance report for Georgia. The compliance report assessesthe country’s compliance with the recommendations issued in 2016”, - IDFI mentions, - “Under the GRECO procedures, the Government of Georgia had to implement the recommendations within the next two years and provide information to the GRECO Secretariat. Based on the information received from the Government of Georgia in early 2019, GRECO, in the Compliance Report, assessed the implementation of the recommendations issued in 2016 and published the document on its official website on July 2. According to the report, from 16 Recommendations on corruption prevention, Georgia has implemented satisfactorily only five of them, three recommendations have not been implemented and eight recommendations – partly implemented”.  Read more… Source: https://idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Part of civil society organizations addresses participants of the Batumi Conference with a special statement.  “Today we are the target of aggressive rhetoric and economic sanctions of the government of Russia and President Putin. Besides, President Putin personally falsifies the history of Georgia. By distorting the facts, creating false narrative he attempts to form a traumatic memory, which will disable peace building and confidence restoring processes in the region”, - is stated in the address, - “Unfortunately, our government is unable to deal with this rhetoric. Furthermore, with their confusion and inactivity its representatives sow panic in our country and try to establish a perception that without close economic ties with Russia our country will not survive. In this circumstance it is important that imperialist rhetoric of Putin receives a strict response also from you! Your support is substantial for each citizen of Georgia!”  Read more…  Source: https://www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) studied projects funded by LLC Partnership Fund (PF). TI Georgia’s conclusions are:  “In order to ensure PF’s stable investment activities, its funding should be sustainable and predictable. Therefore, it would better if PF does not depend on the profits of state-owned companies and it is directly financed by the state budget within certain limits. Additional regulations for ensuring more transparency of PF’s projects should be introduced. More specifically, it would be good if legislation bans funding of such legal entities, which are registered in offshore zones or legal entities, whose owners or shareholders are offshore companies”.  Read more… Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. By the conclusion of IDFI, public administration reform (PAR) action plan does not respond to the existing challenges.  “As a member organization of the PAR Council, IDFI was involved in the elaboration of the PAR Action Plan. During the discussions held on the draft PAR Action Plan IDFI in a number of occasions underlined the necessity of providing in the policy document more important commitments and reforms. Despite this, the new PAR Action Plan does not provide for ambitious reforms, especially, in terms of increasing transparency and accountability”, - IDFI mentions, - “In order to eliminate the shortcomings, it is necessary for the Government of Georgia to take into account the following recommendations: Strengthening civil society (especially at the regional level) and ensure their involvement in the development of any national or sectoral policy document; Raising public awareness on public civil service reform and ensuring wide public consultations when developing any national or sectoral policy document; Further updating of PAR Action Plan for the purpose of planning more ambitious reforms / commitments and elimination of discussed shortcomings; Expanding the circle of responsible agencies for the implementation of the PAR Action Plan and increasing the involvement of municipalities in it”.  Read more… Source: The web-page of the organization