Tag Archives: rights and freedoms

Georgian activist challenges gay marriage law

FEB. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Giorgi Tatishvili, a Georgian gay rights activist, has filed a lawsuit challenging a law in Georgia which states that marriage can only be between a man and a woman, the Eurasianet website reported. Georgia is a staunchly conservative country and the Orthodox Church plays a major role in society. Mr Tatishvili’s lawsuit provides a potential litmus test for Georgian society over whether it wants to relax its strong traditional viewpoints.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 267, published on Feb. 12 2016)

ArcelorMittal cancels second pay rise for Kazakh workers

ALMATY, FEB. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — ArcelorMittal’s steel factory in Kazakhstan scrapped plans to raise workers’ salaries in June because of worries about continued weak market conditions for its products.

In January, ArcelorMittal increased salaries for its 14,000 workers at its steel plant in Temirtau, central Kazakhstan, by 6.8% and had promised another pay rise of 6.8% six months later, but in a letter to employees Vijay Mahadevan, the factory’s CEO, said that this was not now going to happen.

“Unfortunately, we have not fulfilled our plans for 2015, and therefore will not be able to pay the remainder of the wage increase this year,” he said.

“I know that this news will disappoint you, but no-one would benefit from a salary increase which will only put additional pressure on our company.”

A 50% drop in the value of the tenge and rise in inflation has hit workers’ real wages in Kazakhstan and forced many employers to raise salaries.

ArcelorMittal Temirtau is one of the biggest employers in Kazakhstan. It has had, though, tempestuous relations with its workers over salaries in the past few years and had to make thousands of staff redundant. The factory has added symbolic importance as President Nursultan Nazarbayev worked there before moving into politics.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Kazakhstan’s ArcelorMittal increases salaries

JAN. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Steel-maker ArcelorMittal Temirtau said it would retroactively increase salaries for its workers by 6.8% from Jan.1, 2016. The company, a subsidiary of India’s ArcelorMittal, operates steel plants and coal mines in the Karaganda region in central Kazakhstan. In 2014 and 2015, the company argued with workers and the government over salaries and VAT refunds.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 264, published on Jan. 22 2016)

40,000 workers in Kazakhstan face threat

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik said 40,000 people working in the country’s oil and gas sector could lose their jobs next year if energy prices continued to stay low. He said the depressed price of oil had decimated the oil and gas sector.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Georgia’s court acquits 4 of anti-gay attack

OCT. 23 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Tbilisi acquitted four men of organising a violent attack on a gay rights march in 2013 that injured 28 people, pitting Georgia’s pro-rights lobby against a strong traditionalist group.

The four men, including one priest who was photographed carrying a wooden stool at the 2013 march apparently as a weapon, were accused of being the ringleaders behind the homophobic attack in central Tbilisi.

Human rights groups have accused Georgia of homophobia in the past but traditional values hold sway – the Church is still very powerful and has spoken out strongly against gay rights, – and the court’s verdict will have resonated with many people.

One user on the kavpolit.com website said: “Gay parades are not for the Caucasus. Well done to the priests and the judges. Let them go to Western Europe.”

In 2014, a poll in Georgia found that only 24% of people thought that protecting gay rights was important.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Azerbaijan refuses entry to Amnesty researchers

OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Border guards at Baku’s airport blocked two Amnesty International researchers from entering the country and the Council of Europe said it was pulling out of human rights talks with Azerbaijan because of what it described as a deteriorating situation.

Both incidents highlight the worsening relations between the West and Azerbaijan.

The West has accused Azerbaijan of clamping down on human rights over the past couple of years. Azerbaijan, in retaliation, has said that the West has been trying to organise a coup.

The Council of Europe, an intergovernmental body that covers Europe and countries on its eastern fringe that used to lie inside the Soviet Union, has been meeting members of the Azerbaijani government since October last year to try and improve dialogue between it and various civic groups.

Now it has effectively said that the situation is hopeless.

“Despite this initiative, the overall situation of human rights defenders in the country has deteriorated dramatically,” the Council of Europe said in a statement. “An increasing number of human right defenders has recently been imprisoned, and the Council of Europe has received worrying reports about unacceptable detention conditions.”

Europe’s relationship with Azerbaijan is complicated. It has derided the government’s attitude towards human rights and free speech but it has also continued to woo Azerbaijan because it needs its gas. The risk for Europe is that the row over human rights will push Azerbaijan further towards Russia.

The same day as the Council of Europe said it was pulling out of talks with Azerbaijan, Amnesty International released a statement saying that two of its researchers were deported when they tried to enter the country through Baku airport.

“The deportation of our staff adds to a sad litany of journalists and human rights defenders being targeted, detained and jailed simply for carrying out their work,” an Amnesty International statement said.

The Azerbaijan government has not commented.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Woman to lead Muslim community in Georgia

SEPT. 29 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — A village in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge, a Muslim area that retains strong links to the North Caucasus, has elected a woman as its leader, media reported.

The election of school teacher Tamar Margoshvili, 55, as head of Duisi village is notable because traditionally only men could lead the village.

“I am not any less skilled compared to the men of the village,” media quoted Ms Margoshvili as saying.

Ms Margoshvili’s promotion is a victory for modernisers who will be heartened that a woman has been able to break through one of the most traditional societies in Georgia.

Renata Skardžiūtė, political scientist at the Georgian Institute of Politics said: “Women started gathering in clubs in different villages, then managed to create women’s council of elders, something quite unprecedented in Muslim communities.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)

Radio Free Europe complains about Azerbaijan to European court

Homophobia spreads in Kazakhstan

JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a report entitled “‘That’s When I Realized I Was Nobody’: A Climate of Fear for LGBT People in Kazakhstan”, Human Rights Watch said that homophobia in Kazakhstan was rife. Almaty is bidding to host the Winter Olympics in 2022. The HRW report was released on the eve of the IOC decision on who to award the Games to.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)

Georgia PM says no to gay marriages

JUNE 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBILISI — In the wake of the decision by the US Supreme Court last week to legalise same sex marriages, Georgian PM Iralkli Garbashvili promised a constitutional ban on homosexual marriages in Georgia.

His decision plays well to Georgia’s conservative society and highlights the divide between the country and the far more liberal West, whose groups Georgia aspires to join.

“As a prime minister and a citizen, I will do everything to include a clause in the constitution that defines marriage and the family as the union of a man and a woman,” Mr Garibashvili said in an interview with a conservative newspaper Asaval-Dasavali.

It is not the first time he has suggested changing the constitution to include the definition of marriage. Last time was in 2014, when parliament discussed an anti-discrimination bill required by the EU for further integration. The Georgian Orthodox Church heavily criticised the bill in 2014 as it forbade discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

According to the Caucasus Research Resource Centre opinion polls, the majority of Georgians support EU and NATO membership, and the US is seen as Georgia’s main ally but 88% of Georgians also said that homosexuality can never be justified.

These views are easy to find on the streets of Tbilisi.

“Sure, the US is a friend to our politicians. But gay marriages just don’t look pretty, do they? Here, in Georgia, we don’t like such kind of people,” said Giorgi, a hairdresser.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)