Council of Europe together with Public Defender’s Office organized a public event “Human Rights Talks: Equality Matters” to mark the Human Rights Day on 10 December. The aim of the event was to present the concept of equality, importance of diversity, and fight against discrimination from various angles such as literature, psychology, cinematography, youth activism and personal stories.

Human Rights Talks was opened by Head of Council of Europe Office in Georgia Cristian Urse and Public Defender Nino Lomjaria. Main speakers talked about equality, and combatting violence and hate in the context of Christianity, Georgian literature, cinematography and psychology. Apart from this, the director of the Kobuleti Public School N5 spoke about integration of school children from the Kobuleti Roma community. A youth activist from Skopje presented her experience with regards to the Council of Europe campaign “No Hate Speech Movement”, importance of fighting hate speech, and the role of youth in campaigning.

The event gathered students, representatives of civil society organizations and embassies. Participants of the event were able to share their thoughts about the importance of human rights, equality and diversity and leave messages on the specially designed Human Rights Wall.

_{Public event “Human Rights Talks: Equality Matters” was organized in the framework of the Co-operation Project “Fight against Discrimination, Hate Crimes and Hate Speech in Georgia”, which is implemented under the Council of Europe Action Plan for Georgia 2016-2019.}