Fighting discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in Georgia

Back I Choose Equality campaign and Tbilisi Open Air unite for equality and diversity

‘I Choose Equality’ campaign cooperated with Tbilisi Open Air Festival to raise awareness about the importance of equality and increase the appreciation of tolerance and diversity.

Hundreds of visitors to the festival had an opportunity to engage in various fun and educational activities organised by the campaign to learn more about diversity and equality. With the campaign support the “Equality City” was built on the campsite of the festival which hosted participants from Georgia and neighbouring countries. The activity programme developed for the festival visitors, included quizzes, competitions and discussions on equality and diversity in Georgia. Besides the equality city, various visibility actions were implemented, such as setting up an Equality Corner and recording video messages on equality and diversity with visitors and festival-goers.

Tbilisi Open Air, an annual international music festival, held in Tbilisi since 2009, is the biggest music festival in the Caucasus region. This year the festival’s central theme was equality and diversity focusing on the promotion of the importance of a diverse and equal society amongst the general public, and youth in particular.

The ‘I Choose Equality’ campaign is implemented as part of the Council of Europe co-operation project “Fighting Discrimination, Hate Crime and Hate Speech in Georgia”, conducted under the Council of Europe’s Action Plan for Georgia 2016-2019 with the support of the Danish Neighbourhood Programme in Georgia (DANEP). It aims at raising awareness of human rights and anti-discrimination policy in Georgia.

The campaign photos can be found on the #IChooseEquality Facebook page

Tbilisi, Georgia

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The co-operation project “Fight against discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in Georgia” aims to provide expertise, build competences, advocate and raise awareness among policy makers, legal professionals, law enforcement agencies and civil society organisations to enable them to:

fully align national legislation and bylaws on anti-discrimination, hate crimes, and hate speech as well as relevant monitoring mechanisms to the Council of Europe standards;
ensure their effective implementation;
increase public appreciation for the laws’ contribution towards democracy, human rights, peace and prosperity in the Georgian society.

The project is being implemented by the Council of Europe’s Anti-Discrimination Department (DG2) and the Human Rights policy and Co-operation Department (DG1) together with the Council of Europe Office in Georgia with the support of the Danish Neighbourhood Programme in Georgia (DANEP) under the Council of Europe’s Action Plan for Georgia.

The project runs from February 2018 till December 2021.

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The project will increase the capacity of vulnerable groups including persons belonging to national minorities to make full use of their rights and participate in the Georgian society by providing:

expertise in legislative review of the criminal, civil and administrative legislative framework regarding anti-discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in line with the recommendations of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance and other Council of Europe standards;
support in setting up a mechanism for data collection covering discrimination, hate crime and hate speech;
training of professionals and exchange of practices on anti-discrimination, hate speech and hate crime policies and relevant CoE standards and case law of the European Court for Human Rights to ensure their effective implementation;
raise awareness about human rights and anti-discrimination policy and their importance for securing democracy, peace and prosperity in the Georgian society through the 'I choose equality' campaign.