Fighting discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in Georgia

Back Launch of the first Equality Week in Georgia

The Council of Europe Office in Georgia and partner organisations launched the first ever Equality Week (15-22 November). This week is part of the “I Choose Equality” awareness raising campaign and marks the International Day for Tolerance (16 November).

Equality Week aims to increase tolerance through raising awareness about the importance of diversity and equality in Georgia as well as by providing information on available redress mechanisms for the victims of discrimination.

Various state and non-governmental institutions are supporting Equality Week. The launching event was opened by Vahagn Muradyan, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Georgia; Lia Gigauri, Deputy State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality; Giorgi Burjanadze, Deputy Public Defender; Lela Akiashvili, Prime Minister's Advisor on Human Rights and Gender Equality; Magda Kapanadze, Head of the Administration, General Prosecutor’s Office and Sulkhan Saladze, Chairperson of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association and of the NGO Coalition for Equality. The opening remarks on the importance of equality were followed by a video presentation on how to overcome prejudices and a discussion on how to fight stereotypes and discrimination.

“I am happy that today together with our project partners we are opening an equality week for the first time in Georgia. I believe that it is the joint efforts that bring us closer to ensuring equal rights to all” – said Vahagn Muradyan, Deputy head of the Council of Europe Office in Georgia.

During Equality Week various information meetings are planned in Tbilisi and in the regions of Georgia, where youth and representatives of various groups will have the opportunity to receive information as to why equality is important and how they can react in case their right to equality is violated. The meetings are organised together with partner institutions.

The detailed programme of the Equality Week can be found here.

Interested parties can learn more about the Equality Week on the I Choose Equality campaign’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/IChooseEquality/

16 November 2019

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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.