On 9 October the Council of Europe presented the main findings and recommendations of the first of its kind of study implemented in Georgia on accessibility to court buildings for persons with disabilities gathering representatives of the judiciary, government, Tbilisi mayors’ office, civil activists and media.
Mzia Todua, Acting Chief Justice; Giorgi Mikautadze, Secretary of the High Council of Justice; and Cristian Urse, the head of the Council of Europe Office in Georgia addressed their opening remarks.
The study results are based on the inspection of 65 court buildings throughout Georgia. The process included the systematic audit of 40 court facilities by the monitors; in parallel 25 court buildings were evaluated based on the international standard based questionnaire.
Based on the study a large number of court buildings can be modified to ensure the accessibility of judicial services to persons with disabilities. However, the system faces a number of challenges for persons with disabilities that access court facilities, and of services that do not meet international standards and criteria.
Service for persons with physical disabilities is accessible only in several court buildings; however, the buildings are not accessible for persons with sensory disabilities. The complete majority of court buildings do not connect to accessible public transport. Most of the court buildings do not have organised yard and parking facility ensuring safe and uninterrupted access. Absence of information boards, information signs, guide marks and tactile maps are detected. Moreover, information services located within the court buildings, including staff communication tools, complaint boxes, electronic boards, are not accessible to persons with disabilities. The complete majority of the court buildings’ ramps, also, indoor and outdoor stairs, do not meet the approved standard of accessibility.
This study was conducted in order to support the judicial system reform in Georgia, one of the aims of which is to increase accessibility of justice system persons with disabilities.
The study was carried out by the organisation “Partnership for Human Rights” (PHR) with the support of the Council of Europe and the High Council of Justice in Georgia.
The event was organised by the Council of Europe project “Support to the Judicial Reform in Georgia”, funded by voluntary contributions of Bulgaria, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, the Slovak Republic and Sweden to support the implementation of the Council of Europe Action plan for Georgia 2016-2019.
