Tag Archives: society

Georgia moves towards EU visa-free entry treaty

DEC. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Commission said that Georgia had passed its benchmark test required for it to be eligible for a visa-free treaty with the EU, a major step towards the Georgian government’s key foreign policy objective of integrating more closely with the West.

It’s now expected that the European Parliament will vote sometime in the first half of next year on whether to formally allow Georgians visa-free entry to the Schengen region.

The Schengen region is named after the town in Luxembourg where EU members states struck a deal to ease travel requirements. Britain and Ireland, both EU members, declined to sign up to the deal. Norway, Ice- land, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are non-EU members who have signed up to the agreement.

And Georgia’s leaders appeared confident the European Parliament would vote to allow them easier access to Europe.

PM Irakli Garibashvili called it a historic day.

“Our country has confirmed once again that we are frontrunners among EU’s Eastern Partnership countries,” he said. “In response, Europe tells us that it is open for Georgian citizens.”

If the European Parliament did vote to allow Georgians visa-free entry it could irritate Russia which is sensitive about former Soviet states moving towards the West.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)

Uzbekistan restricts the arts

DEC. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Uzbek government is imposing increasingly tough rules over artists and singers, the BBC reported. It said singers will have to provide quarterly reports on their performances so that the authorities can ensure that they are hitting the required level of “spiritual and cultural values and national traditions”.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)

Armenian murder trial begins

DEC. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The trial has started of Valery Permyakov, a Russian conscript accused of killing seven members of the same family in January. The murders shocked Armenia and strained relations with Russia. Russia keeps a major military base in Armenia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)

Georgian Patriarch flip-flops on pardons

DEC. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Patriarch Ilia II, head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, appears to have embarrassed Georgian PM Iralik Garibashvili by asking to be granted the power to pardon prisoners only to withdraw the request after Mr Garibashvili issued a statement in support of the idea.

After watching a play put on by prisoners with Mr Garibashvili, Patriarch II told reporters that, alongside the president, he should have the right to pardon them of their crimes.

Mr Garibashvili didn’t comment at the time but the next day, his office said that he would push for the issue to be debated in parliament.

Shortly after Mr Garibashvili’s statement, though, Patriarch Ilia II appears to have changed his mind.

The Patriarch’s press office said: “It was an idea voiced with the desire for solidarity, support and compassion towards them [the prisoners] and not as a demand to discuss this proposal at a legislative level.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Uzbekistan receives Aids grant

DEC. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Global Fund to Help Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria has given Uzbekistan a grant of nearly $14m, media reported . Uzbekistan has one of the fastest growing rates of aids in the world.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

World Bank funds road in Georgia

DEC. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The World Bank has approved funding of $140m to upgrade a motorway running east-west across Georgia, media reported. Georgia’s infrastructure needs upgrading and the east-west motorway has been identified as an important project which will improve transport routes for 2.2m people.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

EU says to give Georgia grant

NOV. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Union confirmed that it was preparing to give Georgia a grant of 100m euro to help improve parts of its society and business climate. Most of the grant is directed to Georgia’s agriculture sector but public bodies and utilities will also receive a chunk of the grant.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Turkmen authorities organise choir record

NOV. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officials in Turkmenistan organised 4,166 people to sing a song written by Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, AP news agency reported, breaking a previous world record for the largest choir. The choir sung in a giant yurt.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Georgian budget increases

NOV. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliament approved an increase of 96m lari ($40m) in next year’s budget to improve healthcare. The extra cash will be used by the ministry of health to bring in its universal healthcare programme. Introducing universal healthcare is a key policy of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Uzbekistan reduces child cotton pickers

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A report by the UN’s International Labour Office (ILO) said the use of child labour to pick cotton in Uzbekistan has reduced although it hasn’t been totally eradicated.

The ILO’s findings are important because Uzbekistan has come under growing criticism for its use of children, medical staff and teachers for picking cotton. Cotton is one of Uzbekistan’s biggest exports, although many Western companies have stopped buying Uzbek cotton.

“The use of children in the cotton harvest has become rare and sporadic,” the ILO said in its report. “Authorities have taken a range of measures to reduce the incidence of child labour and make it socially unacceptable.”

It said that a campaign to stop teachers and medics being used to pick cotton has been less successful.

Activists rank Uzbekistan as one of the worst countries in the world for upholding human rights.

ENDS

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