Svaneti. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UN Women, the Agrarian Issues Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, and the Mestia Municipality celebrated World Food Day and Rural Women's Day in Mestia on October 16-17. For this day, the farmers' agricultural market, wheat, and bread exhibition were organized in Mestia, where farmers presented various local products, including dairy products, wine, honey, and niche products. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

Tbilisi. On October 13, 2022, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) held a roundtable discussion on how to improve legal safeguards and mechanisms for protecting personal data in cyberspace with the participation of personal data and cyber security experts, lawyers, public, private and civil society representatives. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

America. October 11-13, 2022, Public Defender Nino Lomjaria paid an official visit to Washington, where she held meetings with high officials of the US Senate, the Presidential Administration and the Department of State, as well as heads of international organizations. According to the Public Defender, the main message of our American partners is that the United States of America will unwaveringly stand by Georgia, as long as the Georgian people are willing to receive assistance in the process of democratic development. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

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...

Samegrelo. A car belonging to the Tsalenjikha Mayor, Gia Kharchilava, was set on fire in front of his house. Gia Kharchilava is the only Mayor throughout the country, who was elected from the spectrum of political opposition. He sees a link between the aforementioned incident and his official activity. Transparency International Georgia calls on the Ministry of Internal Affairs to instantly and impartially investigate the fact of burning of Tsalenjikha Mayor’s car and inform society about the results of the investigation. Read more... Source: The organization's page on the social network

Tbilisi. UNICEF Representative in Georgia, Ghassan Khalil delivered a public lecture on the rights of the child at the Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University. The lecture’s main focus was about Living the values when making the change: Leadership with child-rights based approach. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

The European Union (EU) is the largest donor to Georgia. Its portfolio grew significantly from a committed amount of EUR 150 million in 2015 to EUR 225 million in 2020. Between 2014 and 2020, the EU provided support to Georgia of a total of EUR 938.4 million. More …

Tbilisi. On International Day of the Girl Child UNFPA together with the EU decided to use art, a universal language to speak to parents, children and teachers about how essential gender equality is in our society and families and brought a puppet show "Esma Starts a Car” to the stage. “Esma Starts a Car” is a puppet show for girls and boys who dream, break stereotypes, want to make the world a better place and whose families are proud of their children regardless of their gender. Read more… Source: eu4georgia.eu

Tbilisi. IDFI publishes a new study: Overview of the education sector and identification of challenges faced by ethnic minorities and socially vulnerable groups. In 2021, spending on education, science and vocational training was approximately GEL 2.2 billion, 3.6% of GDP, with 1.2% of the spending going to inclusive education. In 2021, the number of students with special educational needs whose status has been suspended has doubled. In 2021, the unemployment rate in Georgia among the labor force with higher education was 15.5%, which is still well above than OECD members (6.1%) and EU countries (5.5%). Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Samegrelo. The city of Poti joined UNICEF’s "Child-Friendly Cities Initiative" (CFCI). A memorandum of cooperation was signed between UNICEF and the Poti Municipality City Hall. At the next stage, an action plan will be developed, after which Poti will gain the status of a "child-friendly city". A child-friendly city is a system of local government where the needs and rights of children are an important part of local policies and programs. Find out more… Source: www.unicef.org

Tbilisi. On October 10, 2022, The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) acquainted Erasmus+ financed study visit participants with the work and achievements of the Memory and Disinformation Studies Direction. The organizer of this event was a non-governmental organization “Gergarti”. "During the study visit, participants met with those organizations and individuals who work on reevaluating the Soviet past. They got acquainted with their research and expressed a wish to apply new knowledge and experience to their future work". Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The report developed by Transparency International Georgia within the framework of the parliamentary monitoring project evaluates the performance of the Gender Equality Council (hereafter – the Council) in the Parliament of 10th Convocation in a period between 11 December 2020 and 1 June 2022 (hereafter – the reporting period). “From the point of view of the protection of women's rights the legislative initiatives developed by the Gender Equality Council of the Parliament should be evaluated positively. Also, the Council was actively involved in the working process of the thematic research groups. The full formation of the Council was carried out lately, which, according to Transparency International-Georgia, was an obstacle to its full functioning. The fulfillment of the important obligations stipulated by the action plan was also not implemented, and the government did not submit reports to the Council within the stipulated time. See the evaluation of the activities of the Gender Equality Council and our recommendations in detail in the report”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

The 2022 Peace Prize is awarded to human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties. The Peace Prize laureates represent civil society in their home countries. They have for many years promoted the right to criticise power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens. They have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human right abuses and the abuse of power. Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy.  source: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2022/summary/

On October 4-7, 2022, IDFI and the e-Governance Academy (Estonia) held 1.5-day interactive masterclasses for civil society organisations (CSOs) and public institutions, to collaborate and design proposals to address the challenges digitally vulnerable citizens are encountering in Georgia. Two 1.5-day masterclasses provided an introduction to a project/service/initiative/policy idea design and the theory behind the methodology. The framework is based on learning-by-doing, which means that each participating team will use the tools and methods during the masterclass to work on their team challenges. Read more… Source: idfi.ge

Guria. On October 8-9, in Guria, in the village of Erketi, Chokhatauri Municipality, the "Rural Women Festival" was organized by Taso Foundation. More than 100 women from different regions joined this year's festival and presented traditional cuisine and cultural activities of their regions. Culinary master-classes, educational space for sharing photos and videos, food stations, space for singing, dancing and other cultural activities were organized at the festival. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

Regions. The lawyers of Transparency International - Georgia visited the regions of Imereti, Samegrelo and Adjara and provided information to the population on the issues of systematic land registration. We gave legal advice to citizens about their rights and duties within the framework of systematic land registration. The systematic registration of land, according to the plan established by the National Agency of Public Registry, is already underway in the entire territory of the country. Under this framework, on its own initiative, the Public Registry measures land plots, searches for relevant documentation and registers ownership. In order to check which relevant documentation is required for the registration of property rights and obtain other additional information, please visit the organization’s website... Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

Denmark. According to the information of “Safari” within the framework of the study tour in Copenhagen, organizations from Georgia and Ukraine visited the "3F” office. Representatives of organizations discussed labor rights and shared their countries’ experiences and practices during the meeting. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

Tbilisi. According to the information of ISFED the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO) condemns the fake “referenda” held by the self-proclaimed “authorities” of the Russian occupied territories of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhia. “These “referenda” are illegal and an act of aggression and political manipulation to attempt to legitimize the Russian Federation’s anti-democratic agenda. Ultimately, the goal of holding these pseudo-electoral processes is to force Ukrainian authorities to concede parts of its territories and further damage its territorial integrity, in violation of international law and fundamental rights”. Read more… Source: isfed.ge

Tbilisi. The Coalition for Independent and Transparent Judiciary reacts to the judicial reform strategy and action plan released by the Parliament at the end of last week within the framework of the Justice Reform Working Group. The Coalition states that the proposed document does not reflect the real challenges in the justice system. Unfortunately, once again, it proves that the ruling political team does not have the readiness for real reform and continues to aim for façade changes. “We believe that the proposed reform strategy and action plan ignore the most pressing problems in the system. Another façade reform will not be enough to ensure the real independence of the justice system and thus will pose an even greater threat to the country's European integration process”. Read more… Source: socialjustice.org.ge

Tbilisi. According to the information of MAC Georgia, October 6th, is World Cerebral Palsy Day. It's a day to recognize those with cerebral palsy (CP) and their families. “Cerebral palsy is a group of disorders that affect coordination and muscle tone/posture. It's caused by damage that occurs to the brain as it develops, most often before birth. Cerebral palsy's effect on function varies greatly. Some affected people can walk; others need assistance. Some people show normal or near-normal intellect, while others have intellectual disabilities”. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

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...

Regions. On September 29-30, 2022, the Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) in cooperation with the National Parliament Library of Georgia held a presentation on the issue of repressed people in Kaspi, Borjomi, and Gori and a screening of the film "Cemetery of the Shot in Batumi" shot by Radio Free Georgia/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). “Before the screening of the film, Anton Vatcharadze, the Memory and Disinformation Studies Direction Head of the Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), gave a presentation on the theme of the repressed and talked about the great terror that took place in Georgia in 1937-1938, introduced a different history from the mentioned era to the audience, and also drew attention to the specificity and significance of the discovery of mass graves. He discussed the history of the tombs discovered in Adjara, the work carried out together with the Eparchy of Batumi and Lazeti and the Institute of National Remembrance of Poland (IPN), steps taken, and future plans”. Read more… Source: idfi.ge