Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) publishes a blog post: Review of a new Batumi mosque construction case in court is still delayed. ''We consider that despite the problem of overloading of courts, the court violates all reasonable deadlines for reviewing the dispute in the present case'', - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more... Source:emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Center extends its condolences to the families of those deceased due to explosion in a residential building on January 16 in Didi Digomi. The organization expresses its readiness to provide free legal assistance to those affected by the explosion. Read more... Source:The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Do you want to know more about the attitudes of the population and business entities of Georgia towards civil society organizations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes? Here are the main findings of the surveys conducted by the CRRC-Georgia in the framework of the "Georgian Civil Society Sustainability Initiative" project: 1.    "Attitudes of the Population of Georgia towards Civil Society Organisations, European Integration and Business Entities"  See more… 2.    "BUSINESSES IN GEORGIA: Attitudes towards Corporate Social Responsibility and Civil Society Organizations" See more… ”Georgian Civil Society Sustainability Initiative” was developed and is implemented by the consortium lead by the Konrad­-Adenauer­-Stiftung in cooperation with four Georgian Civil Society Organizations: 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 and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.

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...  

The National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia (NALAG) started consultation meetings regarding a draft National Strategy for Decentralization in Regions of Georgia. ''Meetings were opened by Executive Director of the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia. David Melua talked about importance of the project and stated that these meetings aim at conducting a dialogue between central and local governments regarding decentralization issues and considering interests of a local government in the new strategy for decentralization'', - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more... Source:nala.ge

Tbilisi. Discussion of the case of femicide sent from Georgia to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is underway. The case is one of the incidents that occurred in 2014 when a former husband has murdered a woman as a result of domestic violence. The woman has addressed to the law enforcement agencies for violence, but they did not take appropriate measures to prevent the femicide. Furthermore, there has not been any investigation and punishment of the case of femicide as a gender crime. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) has filed a lawsuit in the Constitutional Court. EMC considers that norms of legislation, which, on the one hand, significantly complicate the process of granting a status of victim to a person, while on the other hand, substantially restrict participation of a victim in a criminal proceeding, even in the case when the status is granted, are unconstitutional. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies publishes a blog post: A New Chance for Circular Labor Migration between Georgia and the EU. ''Every year, three-to-four thousand Georgian citizens try to stay in EU Member States (MS), looking for a (usually illegal) job. If each of the 16 EU MS as signatories of the Mobility Partnership with Georgia provides the country with a yearly quota of a few hundred migrants for legal circular employment, it could significantly lower the above-mentioned number of citizens striving to stay there illegally'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.gfsis.org

Tbilisi. UN Women has been supporting national partners in Georgia to end violence against women and girls and domestic violence (VAWG/DV) since 2010. ''Our journey to promote zero tolerance for the practice of VAWG/DV in Georgia has been inspired and guided by the United Nations Secretary General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign launched in 2008. This brief publication captures specifically UN Women’s partnership with sports to promote zero tolerance for VAWG/DV since 2010. Its purpose is to describe joint journey through the achievements and challenges we have encountered and to share our experience with partners within the UN family, civil society and beyond'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: georgia.unwomen.org

Tbilisi. Georgian Democracy Initiative (GDI) sues Irakli Kobakhidze, Chairman of the Parliament, for restricting freedom of expression. ''The case concerns restriction of critical views of Mariam Dolidze, protected through freedom of expression, by Irakli Kobakhidze on his official Facebook page. With mentioned lawsuit GDI demands from Irakli Kobakhidze to unblock the plaintiff on the official Facebook page'', - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source:gdi.ge

Tbilisi. According to information of ''Transparency International Georgia'', 6 officials at Khulo Municipality have filled in property declarations incompletely. The organization considers that this fact should become the basis for the Civil Service Bureau to respond as stipulated by law. Read more… Source:www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. ''Media Advocacy Coalition'' responds to statements made in regard to legislative amendments related to defamation. ''According to a statement of the President of Georgia, there is a necessity of legislation that ensures both more protection of human dignity and freedom of speech. While the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia has stated that there should start a discussion to settle problems of not only defamation, but also heavy insult and frequented swearing. We are quite convinced that any legislative amendment, worsening an existing standard of freedom of expression, will threaten democratic development of the country'', - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source:qartia.ge

Tbilisi. According to findings of ''Transparency International Georgia'' (TI), part of State Attorneys - Governors and their Deputies filled in property declarations for 2018 incompletely. ''''Transparency International Georgia” studied property declarations of more than 20 officials. As a result, there were revealed 5 facts of incompletely filled in property declarations, 1 fact of activity incompatible with occupied position and 2 facts of non-transferring possessed shares to other individuals via proxy'', - the information released by TI states. Read more... Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. South Caucasus Regional Office of the Heinrich Boell Foundation presents a lecture course for students "War and Peace". Local and international experts working on peace building and conflict transformation will deliver speeches on different topics. Read more… Source: The webpage of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. According to conclusion of ''Transparency International Georgia'' (TI), municipalities of Imereti do not provide public information within deadlines stipulated by legislation, whereas in most cases information provided by them is incomplete. ''While preparing studies and articles, ''Transparency International Georgia'' often relies on public information received from municipalities. In the case of municipalities of Imereti, we have experienced problems in this regard several times'', - the information released by TI states. Read more... Source:The website 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. According to the information of ''Transparency International Georgia'' (TI), 43 of the 61 factions, created at city assemblies of 2017 convocation of Imereti, have not initiated any issues since the date of registration through November 1, 2018. ''Creation of a faction is a way for members of city assembly to receive a salary because member of city assembly is not a paid job. In total, more than GEL 1 million 800 thousand have been spent for labor remuneration and other expenses of officials of factions'', - is stated in the information released by TI. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. The Coalition is calling on the Parliament to immediately elaborate rules for the selection of the Supreme Court judges. ''We believe that in view of the Supreme Court’s importance and role, its judges have to meet higher standards compared to the first and second instance judges. The Supreme Court has to include professionals, who are not only knowledgeable and experienced but also highly reputable in professional circles and the larger society. The judges, who are not trusted in the society and are not distinguished for an honest and impartial attitude to work, will not be able to ensure justice and will keep the judiciary in the state of the least trusted institution for decades thereby hampering the country’s democratic development'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. ''Georgian Democracy Initiative'' (GDI) submits a suit to the Constitutional Court of Georgia demanding abolishment of forced engagement of citizens into the pension system and suspension of its functioning until a decision is made on the case. ''GDI considers that obligatory engagement into the accumulative pension system and imposition of a compulsory contribution into the pension fund unjustifiably restrict property rights of an employed, while for an employer it equals to deprivation of a property'', - is noted in the statement released by GDI. Read more... Source:The website of the organization

The web-page of Civil Society Organizations wishes you happy holidays. At the same time we hereby inform you that CsoGeorgia.org will resume its work from January 8.

Tbilisi. From January 15, 2019, Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF) will start receiving online grant applications. According to the new rule, online applications should be filled out and submitted through the Apply section of the Foundation’s website. Under the new rule, the Foundation chooses direct contact with references rather than recommendations provided in a written form attached to the project. The recommendation should refer to both a project and an applicant. In full  Source: The organization’s webpage

Tbilisi. The Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary is concerned by the nomination of candidates for the Supreme Court Justice position by the High Council of Justice (HCOJ) on December 24. ''The nomination was made without observing any procedure, and a majority of the candidates nominated are associated with unlawful and unjust justice for the society. It is clear that confirmation of the nominated candidates by the Parliament will bring about a further strengthening of clan governance of the judiciary and will make independence of the judiciary an impossible feat for the decades to come. Based on all of above, the Coalition calls on the Parliament of Georgia to: decline the list of the candidates nominated for the Supreme Court appointment; immediately start working on legislative amendments which will bring the rules and criteria for selecting Supreme Court justices in line with the Constitution and international standards; start the selection process of Supreme Court justices only after adopting the legislative amendments and nominate the candidates anew, following the rules that are established'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: coalition.ge