Tbilisi. The Public Defender welcomes the strengthening of the Public Defender’s mandate relating to the cases of discrimination as a result of adoption of the relevant law on May 3 and assesses the new amendments as an important step forward. The earlier legislative framework could not provide the Public Defender with the necessary leverage to study the cases of discrimination in the private sector. Private individuals were not obliged to provide the Public Defender with necessary information for studying a case, to consider the Public Defender’s recommendations or to notify the Public Defender’s Office of the results. Read more… Source: www.ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. With the conference today, we boosted discussion over the issue of Homelessness and State Policy for Housing. ''Homelessness and housing exclusion has long been inadequately recognized within political and social spaces. Today’s gathering of major actors gave opportunity to assess state policy on central and local level, analyze and address homelessness from human rights angle and seek solutions for challenges''. Read more… Source: The webpage of the organization in a social network

Imereti. According of ‘Transparency International Georgia’, the majority of municipalities in Imereti spend money on carrying out their delegated powers from their own budget. ‘Funds, which are transferred by the central government to the local self-governments in order to exercise their delegated powers, is for the most part not sufficient and that’s why local self-governments have to mobilize their own resources’, - Is mentioned in TI’s information. Read more  Source: The organization’s webpage

Tbilisi. ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center'' (EMC) responds to the statement made by the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia in regard to the case of murder of Temirlan Machalikashvili. EMC calls on the Prosecutor's Office to take a fair and adequate decision on this case in a timely manner and initiate criminal prosecution against both the special operations officer who has directly committed the murder and officials responsible for planning and implementation of the special operation. Read more... Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. A citizen has managed to defend his rights and return the plot of land with the support of a Dusheti Office of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association. Read more… Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Parliament of Georgia adopted a draft Organic Law of Georgia on ''Agricultural Land Ownership'' and other bills, associated with it, through the first reading. According to the information of GDI, the legislative body partially considered comments and proposals submitted by the organization in regard to the initiated version. Read more… Source:gdi.ge

Tbilisi. "Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center” (EMC) calls on the Government to take effective political, diplomatic and legal measures due to the practice of persecution, carried out in the Tskhinvali region against Tamar Mearakishvili, an activist and journalist from Akhalgori. "Despite the fact that the Government of Georgia fails to exercise effective control over the occupied territories, the International Human Rights Law imposes a positive obligation on it to use all available means to protect rights of Tamar Mearakishvili. Taking this into consideration, EMC calls on the State of Georgia to: timely and efficiently investigate the case of abduction of Tamar Mearakishvili, give a corresponding criminal qualification to actions taken by identified individuals and impose responsibility on relevant persons; ensure protection of rights of Tamar Mearakishvili via applying international legal mechanisms. In this context EMC considers it important to urge the Government of Georgia to make the case of Mearakishvili as part of the application submitted to the European Court of Human Rights by the third countries against Russia; while conducting negotiations at all international levels, intensively put the issue of protection of rights of Tamar, as an ethnically Georgian activist, in the agenda and emphasize the importance of her rights and interests in all international formats”, - is noted in the statement released by EMC. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. According to information of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has been ordered to compensate moral damage in the amount of GEL 25 000 in the case of leading to suicide as a result of domestic violence. "This case is the first in Georgia, in which the Court has defined responsibility of the state to ensure prevention of leading to suicide as a form of femicide”, - is stated in the information – "on the basis of its lawsuit, GYLA was demanding to charge the Ministry of Internal Affairs and General Prosecutor’ Office of Georgia for failure to prevent systematic domestic violence and leading a female to suicide despite quite a number of applications submitted to police”. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Today the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) presented its 2018 report on access to public information in Georgia and awarded 43 top open public institutions. Certificates were given to all public institutions with 100% compliance to IDFI’s freedom of information requests sent in 2018. These include: Civil Service Bureau, National Statistics Office, Ministry of Environment and Agriculture, Land Transport Agency, National Environment Agency, Education Management Information System, National Food Agency, etc. Read more  Source: The organization’s webpage

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia will defend interests of producer dismissed from Imedi TV Company. ‘Transparency International Georgia denounces the dismissal of producer Maia Stepnadze from Imedi TV Company. According to the journalist, she was fired from the TV company over a critical opinion about the government expressed on the social network Facebook’, - is said in the TI’s statement, - ‘Maia Stepnadze has a long experience working as a producer. Her programme enjoyed quite a high rating, which made the Imedi management reward her by increasing her salary one month before her dismissal. Considering this circumstance, it is unclear what any other basis for her dismissal could be’. Red more  Source: The organization’s webpage

Tbilisi. "Coalition for Equality”, which is a union of 10 non-governmental organizations, supports weightlifter Tatia Lortkipanidze and releases a special statement. "The sportswoman sues the senior coach of the national team of weightlifter women for sexual harassment, while the weightlifting federation for discrimination in court. Her interests will be defended by "Sapari”, a member organization of the Coalition”, - is noted in the statement, - "Sexual harassment is one of the forms of discrimination that women often suffer, however, they apply to court very rare. It is important for women to protect their rights and use the "Law on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination””. Read more…http://equalitycoalition.ge/ge/post/koalicia-tanastsorobistvis-tatia-lortqifanidzis-mkhardasatcherad Source:The website of the Coalition

Tbilisi. The Public Defender of Georgia releases a special statement related to a 5-year anniversary since the adoption of the "Law on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination”. As the Public Defender considers, one of the main achievements of the adoption of the anti-discrimination law is a discussion and awareness rising initiated within the society in regard to discrimination as a social phenomenon, which fact, in turn, facilitates establishment of a tolerant environment towards vulnerable groups. "Sadly, in the process of achieving equality, there are still a lot of challenges, which are mainly connected with both the problem of effective implementation of a legislative framework in practice and stereotypes that are still firmly existing in the society. The Public Defender notes that in order to fight with existing challenges effectively, it is important to involve all stakeholders – the Government, civil sector and/or international partners and to ensure coordinated cooperation”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. "Coalition for Equality” responds to public statements made by Irakli Okruashvili in regard to ethnic Azerbaijanis citizens of Georgia. ""Coalition for Equality” responds to public statements made by Irakli Okruashvili, former Minister of Defense, on April 25 and 30, 2019, which statements are related to an incident that took place in Davit Gareji and promote political instrumentation and marginalization of Azerbaijani community of Georgia. Although political and social Influences of Irakli Okruashvili are substantially weak today, his rhetoric towards ethnic minorities symptomatically shows dominant policy and discourse against ethnic minority citizens of Georgia. This discourse contributes to their alienation and social arrangement, as well as to geopolitization of their community”, - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source:https://emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. "Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center” (EMC) publishes a statement in regard to the International Day of Solidarity of Workers. "On the background of poverty and unemployment, conditioned by shortcomings in the existing model of development and employment policy, weak social protection system, invisible and non-remunerated work, performed by women, or imposed restrictions to people, self-employed in the informal sector, it is the "privilege” today to be employed in the service sector, often without remuneration of paid annual leave, sick leave, overtime and night shift in a different manner; with remuneration, which often is not sufficient to fully cover individual consumer expenditures and forces to search for additional sources of income, furthermore, it happens in the circumstances when one performs excessive and hard work at work place, which entails irregular, overtime work without additional payment; In addition, one may experience unfair and unlawful policies of penalties applied against him/her as a tool of pressure”, - is noted in the statement of EMC. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association responds to the International Day of Solidarity of Workers. "May 1 is an important day, which symbolically underlines significance of work, performed by those employed, and importance of dignified working conditions. Comprehensive realization of labor freedom by human results in social well-being of a particular person and/or the country, however, despite positive legislative changes, made lately in Georgia, necessity of proper protection of labor freedom is not still accordingly thought out on a policy level”, - is noted in the statement released by GYLA. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. The Office of the Public Defender of Georgia releases a statement in regard to the International Day of Solidarity of Workers. "May 1 is the International Day of Workers, the Public Defender once again calls on the Government this day to take appropriate measures to address problems existing in the field of labor rights”, - is noted in the statement, - "growing statistic of casualties and injuries at work place is especially concerning. 59 people died and 199 were injured as a result of industrial accidents in 2018... There are no respective measures applied to take care of health of employed people, improvement of their qualification, provision of trainings in first aid. Besides, no sanitary-hygienic norms are observed... Monitoring of requirements stipulated by labor laws shows that in most of the cases duration of working hours is incompatible with terms stipulated by contract; rules of provision of annual leave and remuneration are violated... Labor rights, particularly those of vulnerable groups – women and disabled people, in terms of adhering to principles of equality are breached... The Public Defender, within the frames of her mandate, continues to study the state of protection of labor rights in the country and will apply all available means to improve existing situation”. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. The Public Defender's Office selected members of the Special Preventive Group. This group will work in the direction of monitoring the institutions of persons with disabilities, orphanages, military units, penal institutions, places of detention and restriction of liberty, through open competition, for the purpose of performing the functions of the National Preventive Mechanism. Read more  Source: The organization’s webpage

Representatives of the "Open Society Georgia Foundation”, "Transparency International – Georgia”, "International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy” and "Atlantic Council” conducted planned meetings in Washington. Within the frames of the four-day visit, there have been held meetings with: George Kent, Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of State, Michael Kelleher, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, and other representatives of the Department; as well as representatives of the offices of Senators - Rob Portman, Ron Johnson and Chris Murphy, Congressman Jerry Connolly and USAID. Besides, members of the delegation also met with representatives of the United States National Democratic Institute (NDI), International Republican Institute (IRI), International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), Freedom House, Heritage Foundation and NED. Read more… Source:The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. According to the statement published by the "Georgian Democracy Initiative”, the Board of Advisors of the Public Broadcaster of Adjara TV, with its own decision, challenged one of the grounds for declaring distrust to the Director. "According to the legislation, the Board of Advisors of the LEPL Public Broadcaster of Adjara TV and Radio is obliged to publicize last year report, accompanied with an external audit report, and to submit it to the Supreme Council of Adjara before April 1. The Board publicized the 2018 report on April 1, while it reviewed the external audit report today, on April 25, after it declared distrust to the Director of the TV Company. As a matter of fact, one of the grounds for declaring distrust was financial violations”, - is noted in the statement, - "Media Advocacy Coalition considers that the decision of the Board of Advisors of the Public Broadcaster of Adjara TV of today entails further more questions in regard to legal grounds for declaring distrust to the Director of the TV Company”. Read more… Source:https://www.gdi.ge

Tbilisi. On April 17, 2019, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, in cooperation with a partner organization the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC), filed a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights. The complaint relates to an inappropriate treatment committed by policemen against Irakli Khoperia and ineffectiveness of investigation launched on this fact. Read more… Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Campaign Parliament’s Day at University is still on. This time IDFI visited Samktskhe - Javakheti State University. ''MP Irina Pruidze spoke about the structure and the role of the Parliament as well as the achievements of Georgia in parliamentary openness. IDFI’s Programs Director Levan Avalishvili informed the youth about the e-services introduced following the Open Parliament Action Plans and encouraged the students to participate in the ongoing legislative processes'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: The organization’s page in a social network

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...