The second Steering Committee meeting of the project “Promoting the Effective Protection of Equality and Non-Discrimination in Georgia” was held in Tbilisi on 15 March 2023 to assess the progress of the project and agree on the upcoming priorities under the project.
The members of the Steering Committee learned about the progress and achievements of the project, such as, the effective cooperation with the private companies; The capacity building activities with the representatives of Ministry of Internal Affairs, Prosecutor's Office, justice system, Public Defender’s Office, Resource Officers, social workers, civil society organisations, journalists, local community activists and Equality Ambassadors; The improvement of investigation, prosecution, and adjudication of hate motivated crimes in Georgia; Further alignment of data collection practices on hate motivated crimes together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor's Office, and the Supreme Court of Georgia and an awareness raising campaign to promote equality and diversity through participation inTbilisi Open Air Festival, the DataFest, and the organisation of Equality Week
“We have achieved a lot since the start of our work towards equality and non-discrimination in Georgia. The justice sector publishes annual hate crime data, specialised prosecutors contribute to proper prosecution of hate motivated crimes, resource officers work with schoolchildren to improve their understanding on equality. However more work needs to be done towards investigation of hate motivated crimes, protecting equality standards in business sector, ensure media coverage standards of media reporting on discrimination cases” - noted Menno Ettema, Programme manager, No Hate Speech and Cooperation Programmes Unit of the Council of Europe.
During the meeting the members of the Steering Committee approved the work plan for the future activities till the end of the 2023.
The role of the Steering Committee (SC) is to supervise the implementation of the project and take relevant decisions. It addresses any major risks and problems that the project might face. SC is composed of the Council of Europe (CoE), and the representatives of the key beneficiary institutions (Public Defender’s Office, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Prosecutor’s Office, The Supreme Court of Georgia, Office of Resource Officers of Educational Institutions and Special Investigation Service). Its invited members consist of the Parliament, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education and Science, State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, Administration of the Government of Georgia, High School of Justice, NGOs (represented by the Coalition for Equality) and representatives of businesses.
This activity is implemented in the framework of the Project “Promoting the Effective Protection of Equality and Non-Discrimination in Georgia”. The Project is funded through the Council of Europe Action Plan for Georgia 2020-2023.
