In April-November 2016, the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) implemented a project 'Spotlight on Heavy Industry: The Case of Chiatura' with a main goal to identify and draw into spotlight the existing systemic problems, formulating them into social demands and attracting public attention, especially that of workers and activist- and interest groups.
In the recent years, Georgia has developed economic policies aimed at the establishment of the attractive environment for business investors, mainly focused on easy procedures to start a business and liberal control mechanisms during the course of a business. The approach was implemented through maximal deregulation of business activities, minimization of state monitoring mechanisms, and reduced legal standards for the protection of human rights and the environmental resources. The conditions are especially harsh in heavy industries and extractive work corporations, where the occupational health and safety issues of the working environment are crucial to the lives and health of employed.
Chiatura illustrates how severely the deregulation policy affects not only labor rights, but also the environment in heavy industrial zones. In most industrial cities of Georgia, and particularly in Chiatura, the local population brings serious allegations of the damage caused to lands through uncontrolled extractive works, river pollution through uncontrolled dumping of corporate waste, and air pollution through uncovered transfer of various chemicals by open trucks.
The project implementation has 2 phases: (1) Processing available information and creating new information to illustrate existing problems and (2) Communicating the processed information through various mediums and in different spaces to increase public outreach and raise sensitivity.
List of products prepared in the frameworks of the project:
- Chiatura: Control and Hatred [ჭიათურა: კონტროლი და სიძულვილი]
- Review►Chiatura manganese enriching plant and environmental problems [მიმოხილვა►ჭიათურის მანგანუმის გამამდიდრებელი საწარმო და გარემოსდაცვითი პრობლემები]
- Problems of availability of information about minerals [წიაღის შესახებ ინფორმაციის ხელმისაწვდომობის პრობლემები]
- Secrecy of results of inspecting the labour conditions [შრომის პირობების ინსპექტირების შედეგების დახურულობა]
- Urgency of creating the efficient mechanisms for labor inspection [შრომის ინსპექტირების ეფექტური მექანიზმის შექმნის აუცილებლობა]