TBILISI, April 14 – The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, met non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Tbilisi on Tuesday, discussing protests, detainees and recent legal changes. Interpressnews reported that the commissioner met representatives of civic society, including Transparency International Georgia, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association and the Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics. … Read more
TBILISI, April 7 – Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party has moved to amend the country’s law on grants once again, in the latest step in a broader tightening of rules around foreign funding of civil society. According to Interpressnews, lawmakers from the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) have submitted a new bill that would clarify which … Read more
TBILISI, March 5 – A collection of Georgian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) plan a protest march in Tbilisi on March 7, under the slogan “Strength in Unity”. The march will start at 7:00 PM from the Philharmonic Hall and end up outside the parliament building. Announcing the march, organizers emphasized the ongoing civil resistance against anti-Western … Read more
TBILISI, January 29 – Georgia’s ruling parliamentary majority has announced amendments to the country’s Law on Grants that would introduce criminal liability for receiving certain types of foreign funding without prior government approval. The changes were presented on Wednesday after a meeting of the parliamentary majority by its leader, Irakli Kirkhalia. Under the proposed amendments, … Read more
TBILISI, January 21 – A Georgian legal watchdog has filed a written position at the European human rights court in cases brought by Georgian soldiers and their families against Russia, linked to the 2008 war. The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association said it submitted its arguments to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on … Read more
TBILISI, November 26 – Twenty-two Georgian online platforms have accused one of the country’s biggest broadcasters of spreading falsehoods in a recent television report. In a joint statement released Wednesday, the platforms said they have filed a complaint with Georgia’s media regulator, demanding that TV Imedi retract information aired in a recent investigative segment. The … Read more
TBILISI, November 4 – Tbilisi-based watchdog Transparency International Georgia (TIG) has sharply condemned the ruling Georgian Dream party’s latest amendments to Georgia’s protest laws, calling them “repressive” and a de facto abolition of citizens’ constitutional right to freedom of assembly. The group says the legal changes, adopted over the past two years, amount to a … Read more
TBILISI, October 16 – Georgia’s leading legal watchdog, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), has condemned a new legislative proposal from the ruling Georgian Dream party that would ban individuals linked to outlawed political parties from taking part in politics, calling it unconstitutional and contrary to international human rights standards. In a statement released Wednesday, … Read more
TBILISI, October 2 – Three of Georgia’s most high-profile non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have announced they will not conduct election monitoring during the country’s local elections on October 4, breaking with decades of practice. Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) said October 2 that it would abstain from observing the vote for the first time in its … Read more
TBILISI, October 1 – Georgia’s Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), one of the country’s most prominent civil society groups, has filed a new complaint with the Constitutional Court against the recently adopted “Law on Grants.” The organization said it is challenging Article 61 of the law, which in September gave the Anti-Corruption Bureau broad authority to … Read more