Social workers held press-conference and announced about the strike on 21 March . (Tabula)
Georgia’s social workers will begin a strike on Monday after negotiations with the Ministry of Health failed to achieve a resolution to their complaints. Staff from the Social Services Agency are demanding more resources and better working conditions. [Read more…]
Youth activist Giyas Ibrahimov, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2016, addresses supporters upon being released. (Turan Information Agency)
Almost 400 prisoners have been released in Azerbaijan after President Ilham Aliyev issued an amnesty to mark the Novruz holiday. Fifty-two of those receiving pardons are widely considered by rights groups and international organisations to be political prisoners. [Read more…]
Deputy Interior Minister Natia Mezvrishvili, who initiated the bill. (Pirveli)
The Georgian government has lodged a bill in parliament that aims to update Georgia’s Criminal Code in order to tackle sex crimes against children, including by creating a child-sex offenders registry. [Read more…]
Demolition of cafés in the park around the National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Yerevan. (Armine Avetisyan/OC Media)
Authorities in Yerevan have begun to demolish cafés in the park around the National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, leading to protests from staff and owners. [Read more…]
Oyub Titiyev in court on Monday (Dima Borko)
A prominent rights activist in the Russian Republic of Chechnya has been sentenced to four years in prison on drug charges. [Read more…]
(Ministry of Defence of Georgia)
The head of the Georgian Parliament’s Defence Committee is set to introduce a bill to scrap exemptions from mandatory military service for religious clerics, with the exception of Georgian Orthodox priests. [Read more…]
(RFE/RL)
A Georgian citizen has died in detention in Abkhazia’s eastern Gali District after being arrested for ‘illegally crossing the border’. According to Abkhazian officials, 29-year-old Irakli Kvaratskhelia hanged himself at a Russian border service unit where he was taken to file documents. [Read more…]
Ana Bagration-Gruzinsky and Davit Bagration-Mukhraneli at their wedding. (marshalpress.ge)
Two families claiming to be from Georgia’s Bagrationi royal dynasty have gone to court over a dispute regarding who is authorised to speak and give away gifts in the name of Georgia’s defunct monarchy.
[Read more…]
Mamuka Khazaradze addressing parliament on 4 March (Mzia Saganelidze / RFE/RL)
Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party has said they will not open a parliamentary probe into claims by former TBC head Mamuka Khazaradze that the interior minister threatened him. [Read more…]
(Fargana Novruzova)
Police in Baku dispersed a march for equality and against violence against women on 8 March, International Women’s Day. [Read more…]
