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Human Rights house Tbilisi organizes a round table on “Ecological Migration in Georgia”
The round table will be held at the office of Human Rights House Tbilisi (Niko Nikoladze 7) on Wednesday, 6 April, 2011 at 2:00 p.m.
Speakers:
• Rezo Getiashvili- Project Coordinator at Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN)
• Rusudan Mchedlishvili – Article 42 of the Constitution
• Sopho Benashvili – Public Defender’s Office of Georgia
Moderator: Nino Gvedashvili

Human Rights House Tbilisi organizes a round table on “the rights to freedom of speech and expression”.
The round table will be held at the office of Human Rights House Tbilisi (Niko Nikoladze 7) on Friday, 1 April, 2011 at 2:30 p.m.
Speakers:
• Giorgi Gotsiridze – Lawyer of Constitutional Litigation, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA).
• Tamar Gabisonia – Chairperson of the Article 42 of the Constitution
• Beka Jikia – legal officer at Human Rights Centre
Moderator: Ia Antadze (a journalist from Radio Liberty)

Fifty-three percent of the Georgian population is made up of women. However, very few of them hold decision-making roles within the various governmental bodies in Georgia. Since the beginning of Georgia’s independence, participation by women in parliament has been very low. Historically speaking, 2008 marked the lowest representation by women in the Georgian Parliament on record. By looking at the results from previous elections, the dynamics of women’s representation in parliament does not provide much basis for optimism. In 1992, only 5% of parliament consisted of women; in 1995 – 5.8 %; 1999 – 6.8 % and in 2004 – 9.3%.

On March 25 the patrol police officers dispersed a peaceful protest rally held in support of prisoners at the Ministry of Corrections, Probation and Legal Assistance. Seven participants of the rally, in particular Giorgi Burjanadze, Vladimir Sadgobelashvili, Merab Chikashvili, Otar Bekauri, Akaki Chikovani, Besik Tabatadze and Giorgi Kharabadze were detained under the charges of the breached administrative law.

Freedom of information is ensured by Georgian legislation. In practice however, public agencies often fail to meet the requirements of the law. The inquiries conducted by various NGOs and the experiences detailed by some lawyers illustrate some disturbing trends. Georgian state bodies often deny its citizens the access to public data which should be readily available in all democratic societies.

2010 marked several novelties as well as the continuation and strengthening of some trends observed in previous years in Georgia. The report represents the summary of work carried out mostly by Human Rights Centre in 2010. The report also relies on the work of Human Rights House Tbilisi, also the Public Defender, International Organizations as well as other partner NGOs. It covers the main points of concern regarding the dynamics of democratic transition in the country and shows that the effective execution of power achieved by the current government is used not to eliminate alarming trends in the field of basic rights and freedoms but abused in many cases to further strengthen the position of the ruling elite.

On March 10, 2011 Georgian, Azeri and Armenian human rights defenders held a protest action in front of the UN Office in Geneva.

Georgia is becoming a major transit corridor for drugs of abuse produced elsewhere,- says the US State Report published on March 3. The report lists the reasons for is, wich is, geographical situation of Georgia, occupied territories within the country, as well as Georgia’s agreement for visa free travel with the Islamic Republic of Iran is seen as a danger by the US state department.

According to the World Health Organization every 40 seconds someone commits suicide. For the last 50 years the cases of suicide have increased by 60%. The number of attempted suicides exceeds the number of actual suicides by 20 times. The research shows that the high occurrence of suicides is particularly observed in developing countries. According to the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs, in 2010 the number of suicides has decreased by 2% compared to the year of 2009. However, the number of suicide attempts has increased considerably. 334 cases of suicides and 1,106 attempts of suicide were observed in 2010. As for the year of 2009; 340 people committed suicide and 1,091 made attempts.