On 6-8 February Council of Europe organised working meetings to discuss draft recommendations for gathering data on cases of discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes in Georgia.

The draft recommendations developed by the Council of Europe international expert were discussed within the working group on data collection consisting of representatives of Ministry of Internal Affairs, Prosecutor’s office, Ministry of Justice, the Court, Legal Aid Service and Public Defender’s office on 7-8 February. Prior to that the topic was discussed with the representatives of the NGOs working on anti-discrimination issues on 6 February.

The meetings provided a platform for in-depth discussions on the ways to improve the data collection mechanism in Georgia. Outcomes of the meetings will be reflected in the final document.

The work on improving joint data collection on discrimination, hate crimes and hate speech in line with Council of Europe standards and practices started in September 2018. It includes developing recommendations, guidelines and capacity building to improve the data collection practices.

This process is supported by the Council of Europe 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.