Marina Alanakyan (Dato Parulava /OC Media)
Vitali Safarov, a 25-year-old Jewish Georgian man, was stabbed to death in Tbilisi in September 2018. Two men were jailed for 15 years each on charges of group murder, however, the court ruled his killing was not ethnically motivated despite witness testimony that he was killed by neo-Nazis because he was Jewish.
Georgian Manganese’s enrichment plant in Chiatura. (Mari Nikuradze / OC Media)
After starting a sudden and unsanctioned strike earlier this month, miners in Chiatura stitched their lips together to demonstrate how much their hazardous occupations cost. [Read more…]
Vitali Safarov (Facebook)
The key witness in the trial over the murder of Vitali Safarov in Tbilisi has testified that Safarov was killed because he was Jewish. [Read more…]
Georgian women marched against sexual violence and labour exploitation. (Tamuna Chkareuli / OC Media)
On 8 March, International Women's Day, dozens of Georgian women took to the streets of Tbilisi to protest against sexual violence and to demand proper labour conditions for women.
Vake Park (Dato Parulava / OC Media)
Green activists and their supporters gathered in Vake Park in Tbilisi on 27 January to celebrate the end of an almost six-year battle to halt construction of a hotel in the park. [Read more…]
Salome Zurabishvili
Salome Zurabishvili has been elected the 5th president of Georgia in 28 November’s presidential runoff, winning 60% of votes according to preliminary results. Her win is historic, given that she is the first woman to run and succeed in the marathon for the presidential seat. Constantly emphasising her European origins, she has promised to help Georgia integrate into NATO and the EU and as she likes to say, ‘bring Georgian society together’.
The European Parliament (Dato Parulava /OC Media)
The European Parliament has expressed concerns over high-level corruption, human rights protection, labour safety, judicial independence, and more in Georgia in a report on the implementation of the country’s EU Association Agreement. Despite criticisms, the report’s summary said overall assessment of the implementation process was positive. [Read more…]
Guram Kashia against the backdrop of anti-queer protesters (Background photo: Giorgi Gogua /Liberali. Front photo: Reuters)
Dato Parulava is a staff writer at OC Media and Liberali.
In the face of abuse and threats over wearing a rainbow armband at a match, Georgia’s football captain, Guram Kashia, has received an unprecedented outpouring of support. Regardless of how much this support means for the queer community, we need to ask whether it is really for them, given that Kashia’s most prominent supporters have avoided mentioning queer people entirely. [Read more…]
President Giorgi Margvelashvili (Facebook)
Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili has come under fire from civil society groups as well as ruling party and opposition MPs for refusing to nominate a candidate to head the Supreme Court. Some critics warned the move could allow a ‘dominant group of judges’ on Georgia’s High Council of Justice to strengthen their grip over the judiciary. [Read more…]
The 10 December 2017 ‘Take Back the Night’ rally organised by the Independent Group of Feminists against sexual violence, demanding efficient legislation against sexual harassment (Dato Parulava /OC Media)
Despite a rise in the awareness of women’s rights in Georgia, feminist activists have found themselves up against a deeply-rooted culture that hinders further progress. Early marriages, a lack of recognition of the need for more female decision-makers, and impassivity towards women’s issues in the male-dominated parliament create a compounding, socially-driven force that stands on the way of gender equality.
