Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Groups say 25-year old's fatal stabbing in Tbilisi was motivated by xenophobia

TBILISI, DFWatch–A young human rights activist who was stabbed to death in Tbilisi nearly two weeks ago was murdered by members of a neo-Nazi group, Georgian civic activists say. Vitali Safarov, a 25 year old employee of a Georgian non-governmental organization (NGO) advocating minority rights, was severely beaten and stabbed several times at a pub … Read more

NGOs criticize Georgia for not protecting minorities

 პარასკევის ლოცვა ორთა ჯამეს მეჩეთში. (DF Watch.)
The overcrowded mosque in Batumi. (DF Watch.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Georgia criticize the government for not doing enough to eliminate discrimination of religious minorities, and underline that over the last two years, the country has seen a number of conflicts on a religious

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How Georgians view minorities: Protect minority groups but not gays

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One of the injured in the anti-gay rally on May 17, 2013. (DF Watch.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–63 percent of Georgians think it is important to protect the rights of minorities, but they don’t want such protection extended to sexual minorities.

National Democratic Institute (NDI) on Monday published the results of its newest survey of public

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New report details obstacles for minorities in Georgia

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Exams in Marneuli, a predominantly ethnic Azeri town south of Tbilisi. (DF Watch.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–There are many obstacles to integrating minorities in Georgia, according to a new report published on Thursday by the Ministry of Reconciliation and Civil Equality.

Problems include access to information and education, not knowing the

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How well did Georgia's local election include minorities?

Zurab Jibghashvili - Zaur Khalilov - Agit Mirzoyev
From left to right: Zurab Jibghashvili, constitutional expert, Zaur Khalilov, Executive Director of Civic Integration Foundation, and Agit Mirzoyev, Director of the Analytical Center for Cooperation and Consultations Between Ethnicities. (DF Watch.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–On June 23, DF Watch invited members of three non-governmental organizations working with minority issues to discuss how well ethnic minorities were able to participate in the June 15 local election.

Our point of departure was the fact that

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School children in Tbilisi harassed due to teacher neglect

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School children in Tbilisi are being harassed because of their religion, ethnicity, appearance or other reasons, a new study shows. (Ministry of Education.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–A new study has found that children in Georgian schools are verbally and physically harassed because of their ethnicity, belief, appearance or for other reasons.

The study is based on interviews with all pupils from 8th to 11th grade at six public

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What can be done to improve integration of minorities?

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Van Baiburt (left), Deputy Head of Armenian Union of Georgia, and Manana Nachkebia from the New Rightists Party. (Click on image to watch video.) (DF Watch.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–DFWatch organized a discussion about the problem minorities are experiencing with getting involved in politics and state affairs.

A representative of a minority diaspora and a spokesperson for an opposition party participated in our discussion.

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Discussion: Ethnic minorities and language skills

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Agit Mirzoev (left), Executive Director of Analytical Center for Inter-ethnic Cooperation and Consultations, and Ali Babayev, from the Congress of Georgian Azerbaijanis. (DF Watch.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–Representatives of NGOs working with minority issues took part in a discussion organized by DFWatch.net about how ethnic minorities often lack skills in Georgia’s only official language – Georgian.

Agit Mirzoev, Executive Director of Analytical

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Debate: Minorities and local government reform in Georgia

Rusiko_Machaidze_-_Zaur_Khalilov_-_Levan_Vepkhvadze_2014-04-17_Cropped
Journalist Rusiko Machaidze, Zaur Khalilov from Civil Integration Fund and Levan Vepkhvadze of the Christian-Democratic Movement.  (DF Watch.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–On March 14 , DFWatch.net organized a discussion about ethnic minorities’ participation problems in pre-election process.

The non-parliamentary opposition and representatives of NGOs working with minority rights participated

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Language barrier prevents minorities from going into politics

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Rusiko Machaidze, Agit Mirzoev, Tina Ghogheliani, Manana Nachkebia and Levan Vepkhvadze. (DF Watch.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–Participants at a round table discussion organized by DF Watch said lack of language skills is preventing ethnic minorities from engaging in politics in Georgia.

The discussion was held on December 28, and the topic was what obstacles there are

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