Tbilisi. According to decision of the board of the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics, Irakli Chikhladze and Tamar Gogesashvili, journalists of TV Company "Imedi”, breached two principles of the Charter. ''The controversial story was broadcasted on air on December 23 and touched upon both the murder of US citizens in the Khada Gorge and the accused in the case. The spokesperson considered that in the disputable material the accused was declared guilty while the court decision regarding the case did not yet exist'', - is stated on the website of the Charter. Read more… Source:qartia.ge

Zemo Svaneti. Transparency International Georgia always tries to help locals living in a remote area and offer help in various aspects. This time, on January 30-31, within the framework of the Mobile Legal Clinic we visited villages of Mestia municipality - Khaishi, Tchuberi and Nakra, our lawyers provided individual assistance to residents who met obstacles in the land registration process. ''The meetings confirmed that the problem of land registration in Zemo Svaneti is acute. The most upsetting and distressful of the problems are connected to the recognition of ownership of land that had been passed down from generation to generation - lands for which they hold no documentation to attest their legal ownership rights. The lawyers of our organization continue to try to solve this problem at the legislative level'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: The webpage of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. ''No to Phobia!'' platform demands to qualify murder of Vitali Safarov as a crime committed by a group. ''According to information available to lawyers, this fact is confirmed as by testimonies of witnesses of the crime, as well as by recordings made through surveillance video cameras, two guns indicated in the criminal case and wounds inflicted on the body of the victim. Respectively, criminal prosecution against this accused should be carried out not for failure to inform about the crime, but for complicity in a premeditated murder'', - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more... Source:emc.org.ge

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. The Human Rights Center made a presentation of its annual report at the conference hall of Human Rights House Tbilisi. ''The report of the Human Rights Center reviews developments in Georgia in 2018 in a legal context. The purpose of the report is to evaluate quality of response of various governmental agencies to violations of human rights, efficiency of justice and implemented legislative or systemic changes that are supposed to be directed towards introduction of international standards of protection of human rights on a national level'', - is stated on the website of the organization in a social network. Read more… Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) responds to facts of harassment committed by police against members and activists of the community opposing construction of a cascade of hydroelectric power plants in the Pankisi Gorge. The organization calls on the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia to refrain from practicing police control of local residents and arbitrary restriction of freedom of expression. Read more... Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. ''This Affects You Too'' publishes announcement: Government Should Exhibit Political Will and Clamp Down on Private Recording Blackmail. ''It is very alarming that the timing of the circulation of illegal recordings coincides with the critical statements by Eka Beselia in relation to the processes in the judiciary. It is of deep concern if certain individuals used the illegal recordings as means to stall reforms in the judiciary and protect the interests of the clan of judges that wield significant power within the judiciary. We call upon the Government of Georgia to timely and effectively investigate this case, to exhibit political will and bring an end the instances of illegal recording blackmail, as well as carry out the necessary legislative changes related to the regulation of secret surveillance'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. GYLA publishes the opinions on the draft law ''Social Entrepreneurship'' to Parliament of Georgia. ''GYLA welcomes the proposal of the members of Parliament of Georgia on the necessity to provide a uniform legislative regulation for social entrepreneurship issues, which should provide legal and financial guarantees for social enterprises, support social enterprises in the country and promote new enterprises with social goals. GYLA considers that the initiated bill needs substantial improvement in order to ensure the compliance of a legislative regulation with international and EU standards in the field of social entrepreneurship'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia publishes the blog post: Corruption Perceptions Index 2018: Failure to Investigate High-Level Corruption Causing Lack of Progress. ''Georgia has been assigned a score of 58 and shares 41st to 44th places with Latvia, Spain and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in the 2018 edition of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) which was published by the Transparency International Secretariat today and ranks 180 countries'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. According to information of ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center'' (EMC), legal proceeding, initiated at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia against Malkhaz Machalikashvili in regard to the fact of administrative offense, has been terminated. Discussion is about investigation, launched by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia with the motive of administrative misconduct that took place on September 11, 2018 while erecting tents in front of the Parliament. Rights of Malkhaz Machalikashvili were defended by EMC. Read more... Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. ''Transparency International Georgia'' calls on the management of Public Broadcaster to not worsen social or labor conditions of those employed. ''Intention of the management, which will practically reduce salaries or abolish social benefits of employees, is inappropriate practice and, on the one hand, contradicts the essence and goal of the accumulative pension reform, while on the other hand, worsens labor conditions of employees of Public Broadcaster'', - is noted in the statement. Read more… Source:The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Professional development of civil servants in Georgia and the role of educational institutions in this process were the focus of a discussion on 24 January 2019 attended by the international experts and representatives of the Georgian ministries, training centers and civil society. ''Saba Buadze, Head of the Anti-Corruption Direction at IDFI, presented some key findings of a research conducted in 2018 to examine different factors that affect a system of professional development of civil servants, such as the capacities and experience of the state and private educational institutions, existing legislative framework in Georgia and the situation in the ministries'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. Coalition for Children and Youth expresses extreme concern regarding destruction of a child protection system and, as a result, cases of violence against children during last period of time and states its standpoint in regard to the systemic problem in the country. ''Despite increase of notifications about violence, the system often fails to protect children effectively and thus encourages violence due to its inactivity. While most of the notifications about violence remain in fact statistics'', - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more... Source:phrgeorgia.wordpress.com

Tbilisi. Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary submitted recommendations regarding criteria and procedures for the selection of the Supreme Court justices to the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, Chair of the Fourth Wave Judicial Reform Working Group. ''The Coalition believes that impartiality and transparency of the process of appointment of justices for the highest instance court can be ensured only in case of resignation of those judge and non-judge members of the High Council of Justice who supported submission of the list of the Supreme Court nominees to the Parliament of Georgia on December 24, 2018. The Coalition believes that the Supreme Court judicial candidates can only be selected by the renewed composition of the Council and the process shall resume after relevant legislative amendments are made'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

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. An organization ''Partnership for Human Rights'' publishes a blog post, which states that number of facts of violence against child have increased by 10%, while the reference index with MIA has reduced by 28%. ''Domestic violence against child is characterized especially severely, which fact relates to detection of other forms of neglect and violence against child as well as timely response in order to protect from repeated violence. One of the main challenges still remains absence of rehabilitation services for children victims of violence. Indicator of violences against sexual freedom of children and number of cases of violence against children at Schools are still high'', - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source:phrgeorgia.wordpress.com

On January 20–23, representatives of City halls and municipality councils, as well as the members of Gender Equality councils of municipalities of Kvemo-Kartli and Mtskheta-Mtianeti region took part in the training ''Promotion of Gender Equality Action Plan''. ''The aim of the training is to raise awareness among the members of Gender Equality Councils about subjects like, gender equality, women’s rights, national and international obligations , gender budgeting, statistics and how to implement effectively the Action Plans'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: The webpage of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. ''Transparency International Georgia'' publishes information in regard to ten direct state procurements of the highest value of 2018 on a web portal for searching state contracts and monitoring tenders. Read more… Source:The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. UN Women in partnership with Civil Development Agency (CiDA) and Microsoft Georgia organized the meeting „Advancing Diversity and Women’s Inclusion in the ICT sector". The international guest speaker of the meeting was Robert Trnovec, Regional Director, Enterprise Commercial for CEE Multi-Country Region at Microsoft. "These days, women are better at using technologies than men… Diversity is not a hobby for us, it’s a business issue”, Mr Trnovec noted. Read more… Source: The webpage of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. The UK/Georgia 2019 is our programme of events and activities which will run from September - December 2019 to celebrate the cultural connections between both countries. ''The UK/Georgia 2019: New Cultural Horizons aims to reach new audiences, broaden horizons and foster cultural exchange and the flow of ideas. There will be a mix of exhibitions, festivals, film screenings, skills workshops, master classes, panel discussions and lectures in music, film and performing arts. Where possible, we will share content online so as many people as possible can get involved in the season'', is noted in the blog post. Read more… Source: www.britishcouncil.ge

Tbilisi. Placement of a hotel and any other type of building in Vake Park is unacceptable for the majority of city population. ''Such an approach to the issue will cause irreparable harm to the ecological environment that is in a critical condition even without this, as well as neglect the demand of the society and create a damaging precedent for protection and development processes of ecosystem services in the future. Besides, we underline that the disputed area is within the borders of Vake Park, represents a recreation zone and allowing construction on it contradicts both law and public interest'', - is noted in the joint statement. Read more… Source:The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary publishes a manifesto: To save justice. ''Since enactment of new edition of the Constitution in December 2018, the Georgian society faced a qualitatively new threat - a predominant group in court, which was a court control instrument in times of the previous government, has already been given a possibility to staff fully and permanently the highest and last instance court of the country. Respectively, there is a real danger that the society will lose the last hope of forming an independent court while the judiciary system will be ruled by a clan for decades”, - is stated on the website of ''Transparency International Georgia''. Read more... Source:www.transparency.ge