Kvemo Kartli. Part of civil society organizations responds to the case of alleged political harassment of Ramiz Ramazanov. The organizations call on the Government to take all measures to protect his safety and dignity. “Ramiz Ramazanov has been missing from home for 2 days already. There are mobilized police forces around the vicinity of his house. According to his family members, Ramiz Ramazanov is in contact with them, however, they do not know of his whereabouts and exactly what is happening to him. So far, neither the Ministry of Internal Affairs nor any other agency have given an official explanation”. Read more… Source: socialjustice.org.ge

Tbilisi. Mark Clayton, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Georgia, met with Nino Lomjaria, Public Defender of Georgia, and expressed his support to the Public Defender’s Office and personally to the Public Defender of Georgia. The Ambassador noted that he closely monitors the assessments made by the Public Defender and trusts her statements as an objective source of information. Read more… Source: ombudsman.ge

Tbilisi. December 9 is the International Anti-Corruption Day. Due to this day Transparency International Georgia releases a statement. “At one time, Georgia was recognized as a country successfully combating corruption. Progress made in the fight against bribery (petty corruption) is maintained to this day, which is an important achievement. However, at the same time, the country is seeing an alarming increase in more complex manifestations of corruption, such as: High-Level Corruption – participation of high-ranking officials or influential individuals associated with the ruling party in corruption-related violations; and State Capture – a situation when state institutions are not accountable to the country and its citizens and are, instead, serving the interests of influential private individuals". Read more… Source: transparency.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...

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) publishes a study - “Chronology and legal review of July 5-6 developments”. “The study revealed that on July 5, 2021, the state did not take appropriate measures to protect public safety and health”. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia publishes the survey: The Problem of Anonymous Company Ownership. “In recent years, secret financial documents have been occasionally made public (for example, Panama or Pandora Papers), which confirms that public officials throughout the world often utilise anonymous ownership of companies in order to avoid the restrictions on entrepreneurial activities imposed upon them. Anonymous ownership of companies is also often used by the world’s richest people for the purposes of tax evasion, money laundering and for making secret deals. This problem is relevant for Georgia as well”. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Kvemo Kartli. 65 entrepreneurs from 8 municipalities of Georgia operating in agriculture and tourism sectors presented their products and services at the "Agrotourism Festival 2021" organized in Ambrolauri with support from the EU, Austria and Sweden. Read more… Source: eeas.europa.eu

Tbilisi. The Social Justice Center publishes an analytical document prepared by Tamar Keburia: “Informality before and after the pandemic”.  “The purpose of the document is to study anti-crisis measures and social policies applied by the state during the year 2020 in order to support those affected by the pandemic, in particular informal workers, and, thus, analyze how state institutions conceived and responded to informal employment before the pandemic, how the pandemic changed this vision and what opportunities are there in the future to transform the state policy towards informally employed people”.  Source: socialjustice.org.ge

Tbilisi. The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in the process of Open Government Partnership (OGP), express concern about continued inaction on the part of the Government of Georgia, due to which the OGP process in Georgia has been suspended for over two years.  “We, the member NGOs of the Open Government Georgia Forum and the Coordination Council, call on the Government of Georgia to immediately restore the process of open government partnership and ensure effective involvement of NGOs in this process. Otherwise, it will become clear to everyone that the open government process, its mission and values are no longer a priority for the Government of Georgia. We also call on the OGP Secretariat (the Support Unit) to become actively engaged in resolving this lengthy crisis and to call on the Government of Georgia to take effective steps with the aim of restoring this process”, is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: civilin.org

Tbilisi. Mission Director Peter Wiebler gave remarks at the launch of the USAID Civil Society Engagement Program, a new five-year program that will broaden and deepen its partnerships with Georgian civil society, empower citizens to develop their own solutions to key concerns and priorities, and support them to become part of a genuinely citizen responsive democracy. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

Tbilisi. The twelfth-century marriage between a Georgian queen and an Ossetian prince is one of the most potent symbols of Georgian-Ossetian relations. The story of love and dynastic marriage, enriched with the historical background of the Georgian ‘Golden Age’, was brought onstage at the Shota Rustaveli Theater and Film State University with support from the United Kingdom (UK) and UNDP.  “Adapted by Nino Popiashvili, directed by Tamar Khizanishvili and produced by the non-governmental organization Caucasian Mosaic, the play features a rich cast of ethnic Georgian and Ossetian actors (Tinatin Kobaladze, Manana Tsintsadze, Lili Khuriti, Nana Khuriti, Vazha Pukhaevi, Viktoria Jusoeva and Megi Tedeeva). Presented in both Georgian and Ossetian and using music composed by ethnic Georgian and Ossetian composers, the play quotes from the Georgian epos ‘Knight in the Panther’s Skin’, written during Queen Tamar’s reign”.  Read more… Source: www.ge.undp.org

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia has outlined enforcement of the “Law on Conflict of Interest and Corruption in Public Service” in practice referring to the example of ministries of Georgia. According to main findings: “In 2016-2020 years, there were not detected cases of corruption-related offence, conflict of interests, possession of unjustified property, acceptance of an offer prohibited by law and violation of restrictions related to gifts at ministries. Which fact signifies that detection of violations is not performed in practice. Only 1 case of position mismatch was identified. Development of a national anti-corruption policy, monitoring and coordination of implementation, as well as functioning of the Anti-Corruption Council have been suspended. The Secretariat of the Anti-Corruption Council does not really exist”, - is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Lusine Dostibegian has been awarded a runner-up prize of the local Human Rights Tulip by the Ambassador of the Netherlands. “Lusine is an activist from Tetritskaro. She works hard every day to change the lives of people in her municipality for the better. Lusine has many other plans for her municipality and we hope the embassy prize inspires her to keep up with the great work”. Read more… Source: Embassy’s page on the social network

Tbilisi. The Social Justice Center publishes an article written by Salome Kajaia: “Labor beyond employment”. “The labor market is not divided only into formal and informal sectors, contracted and self-employed workers. A number of forms of labor and labor relations are among these categories, or even beyond them." Read more… Source: socialjustice.org.ge

Tbilisi. According to GYLA, the Committee of Ministers has called on the state to take more active steps to conduct an effective investigation into the July 5 cases and finalize legal proceedings related to the Identoba group. “The Committee is deeply concerned about developments of July 2021 (“Pride March”) and urges the authorities to demonstrate strong political will to combat hate crime as well as to safeguard the right to freedom of assembly via conveying a clear message regarding zero tolerance”. The Committee calls on the authorities to take all necessary measures to ensure smooth materialization of the right to peaceful assembly by the LGBTI community and activists, including through provision of adequate security, and inform the Committee about consequences”. Read more… Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. On 3 - 4 December IDFI conducted a two-day workshop for public servants with the support of the European Union. The topic of the workshop was “Public Administration and Best Practice of Policy-Making”. Learn more… Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. “Rights Georgia” NGO has published research at the intersection of national security and asylum procedure in Georgia. The research aims to identify procedural and normative deficiencies and to offer solutions thereto. The research covers the issues, such as rejecting asylum applications based on national security grounds and examining the case at the administrative authorities and the common courts of Georgia. The Research… Source: rights.ge

Tbilisi. MAC Georgia is pleased to present you movie ‘Twelve Lessons’, directed by Giorgi Mrevlishvili. “Filmed in Guria, Georgia, Twelve Lessons follows the life of Valeri Kotrikadze as he seeks to prepare Vako, his grandson with Autism, to be an active and productive member of society. Faced with tremendous challenges and the absence of services and local support, Valeri fights on, determined to teach Vako the lessons he needs in order to succeed”. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

Tbilisi. On December 2, the Embassy of the Netherlands in Georgia awarded the winners of the Local Human Rights Tulip 2021. The HRC Shida Kartli regional office coordinator, lawyer and human rights defender Aleksi Merebashvili received the second award of the Embassy. “The women – victims of the gender violence, internally displaced people, inhabitants of the villages alongside the ABL and victims of the harassment from the side of the law enforcement bodies managed to fight for their rights against the state institutions and harassers”. Read more… Source: The organization’s page on the social network

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) publishes a study: “The right of disabled children to education during COVID-19”.  “The document aims to:  assess access of children with special educational needs to the right to education and its effectiveness;  identify existing challenges on the basis of analysis of the legislation of the country and international acts;  overview steps taken by the state to materialize the right to education in the conditions of the pandemic”.  Read more…  Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Part of civil society organizations responds to the fact of creation of the mechanism for implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by the Government. “We call on the executive authority to spend maximum efforts to ensure effective functioning of this institution and its further refinement. Undersigning organizations are critical about creation of this mechanism with the seven-year delay so that there have not been provided proper guarantees for its effective functioning”. Read more… Source: socialjustice.org.ge

Tbilisi. Hurie Abashidze was nominated for this award by the Rondeli Foundation. “Hurie is a really outstanding human rights activist from Khulo. She defends rights of Muslim women, supports them in employment, works on protection of cultural heritage and development of a regional community, as well as takes care of community mobilization of young people living in local villages and their participation in self-government”, - is stated on the website of the Netherlands embassy in Tbilisi on a social network. Read more... Source: The website of the embassy on a social network