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Covid-19 Hampers Workplace Safety in Georgia’s Mines

Labor Inspectorate Needs More Resources to Put Reforms into Effect

Two people died in a mining accident in the country of Georgia’s western coal mining town of Tkibuli last week. The accident in itself was tragic, but even more heartbreaking when you consider the context. The dangers of working in Georgia’s mines…
Miners going to work
News

App-Based Jobs Emerge as Battleground for Workplace Safety in Georgia

Labor Inspectorate Should Prioritize Regular Inspections of Delivery Companies

The Covid-19 pandemic has spurred a boom in food delivery services in Georgia, where the streets are packed with mopeds carrying branded boxes for companies like Glovo or Bolt Food. These app-based employers offer a seductive pitch for would-be…
Bolt Food couriers protest in Tbilisi, Georgia, on March 24, 2021
News

Georgia Passes Sweeping Labor Reforms

New Regulations Bring the Country Closer to International Standards

In an important move to protect workers, this week Georgia’s parliament adopted sweeping amendments to the country’s labor code. The reforms regulate such crucial issues as work hours, overtime, night shifts, weekly rest, daily breaks, and perhaps…
A plenary session of Georgia's Parliament, September 16, 2020. 
News

Georgia: Labor Reform Introduced in Parliament

Adopt New Regulations, Increased Oversight

(Tbilisi) – Georgia’s parliament is scheduled to begin discussing a package of amendments to the country’s labor legislation this week, Human Rights Watch said today. If adopted, the amendments would offer much greater protection to workers and go a…
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News

A Gay Film Sent an Entire Nation Into a Frenzy

Conflicts around gender and sexuality are often indicators of social tension. A recent public clash over the screening of a film in Tbilisi gives insight into the fault lines of contemporary politics in Georgia. …
Demonstrators in Tbilisi burn an LGBT flag before the screening of the film And Then We Danced.
News

Protests Erupt in Georgia over Failed Electoral Reforms

Authorities Should Ensure Citizens’ Right to Peaceful Protests

Spontaneous protests have erupted in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi following the parliament’s failure to adopt a critical electoral reform. Opposition parties and civic activists have called for continuous protests in front of the…
Protest rally in front of the Parliament of Georgia over failed electoral reforms.
News

Arsenic and Lead in Tap Water

What Trump's Deregulation Crusade Really Means for Mining Communities

As a candidate, Donald Trump promised that he'd shake up the economy to benefit "the forgotten man." But his economic policies have included deregulation in ways that can harm the very people he promised to help. The repeal on September 12 of a…
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Report

“No Year without Deaths”

Summary Mikheil, a miner for 35 years, died along with three other miners on July 16, 2018, in an underground explosion in the Tkibuli coal mine, in Imereti, Georgia. He was 54 years old and left behind his wife and his son, also a miner. Mikheil’s…
News

Georgia: Worker Rights, Safety at Risk

Regulation, Oversight Urgently Needed to Protect Miners

(Tbilisi) – The safety of workers in Georgia’s mines is at serious risk due to insufficient government regulation and resulting mining practices that prioritize production quotas and put workers’ safety in jeopardy, Human Rights Watch said in a…
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Video

Video: Miners at Risk for Death and Injury in Georgia

The safety of workers in Georgia’s mines is at serious risk due to insufficient government regulation and resulting mining practices that prioritize production quotas and put workers’ safety in jeopardy. Georgian labor law does not sufficiently regulate…
News

Georgia: Police Use Teargas, Rubber Bullets Against Protesters

Authorities Should Investigate the Use of Force in Protest Outside Parliament

(Tbilisi) – Riot police in Tbilisi fired rubber bullets and used teargas without warning against thousands of nonviolent protesters outside the Georgian Parliament on June 20, 2019. As a standoff continues between protesters…
In this image from video, some thousands of protesters gather outside the parliament building in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.
News

Who Helped Abduct Azerbaijani Journalist?

Azerbaijan and Georgia need to answer urgent questions about reporter’s kidnapping and imprisonment.

Two years ago, prominent Azerbaijani journalist and IWPR contributor Afgan Mukhtarli vanished from the centre of Tbilisi.  That evening he had met a friend in a cafe, picked up some bread on the way back and called his wife Leyla Mustafayeva, also a…
Afgan Mukhtarli
News

Georgia Miners Strike for Better Working Conditions

Inadequate Laws and Oversight Fuel Labor Abuses

Protesting poor working conditions and demanding higher wages, about 150 workers at a manganese mine in Chiatura, Georgia, went on strike May 15. On Friday, 15 of the workers reportedly began a hunger strike. Manganese is an element…
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News

Hope for Justice for Georgian Nationals Expelled from Russia

Russia Ordered to Compensate Thousands of Expelled Georgians

A recent judgement by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) should help deliver long-overdue compensation to thousands of Georgian nationals arbitrarily detained and expelled from Russia more than a decade ago. The court…
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News

A narrow definition of safety harms workers in Georgia

Georgia’s newly adopted law on labour safety is lacking statutes on workers’ rights due a narrow definition of safety — working hours, overtime payment, and required breaks are still not sufficiently regulated. Due to such weak edicts, worker fatalities…
© 2017 Human Rights Watch
News

Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child on Georgia

82nd pre-sessional, 2018

This submission relates to the review of Georgia under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. It focuses on the issue of the protection of students, teachers, and schools in…
News

German Chancellor Makes First Trip to South Caucasus

Merkel Should Put Rights on Agenda in Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan

This week marks German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s first trip to the South Caucasus region, where she will visit Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan for meetings with each country’s leader. She is expected to discuss a range of topics…
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Report

Harsh Punishment

  Summary In February 2016, a 23-year-old musician and DJ, Kote Japaridze and two of his friends acquired two grams of MDMA, a recreational synthetic drug that acts as a stimulant and hallucinogen, producing distortions in…
News

Georgia: Severe Toll of Abusive Drug Laws

Public Health Approaches Needed to Remedy Harmful Use of Drugs

(Tbilisi) – Georgia’s drug laws and their aggressive enforcement is causing severe and unjustifiable harm, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Drug prosecutions for consumption and possession often lead to long prison…
A sign which reads “Care instead of Punishment” is held aloft at a protest rally calling for decriminalization of personal drug use.
News

ICC Prosecutor Can Spur National Justice

Case Studies of Colombia, United Kingdom, Georgia, Guinea

(The Hague) – The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has important leverage to encourage countries to investigate and prosecute grave international crimes, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.…
Relatives hold pictures of their beloved during a March 6, 2009 march in Bogota against the “false positive” killings and enforced disappearances.