Legal and political aspects of non-discrimination were in focus of a workshop for legal practitioners that took place at Courtyard Marriott today.
The workshop brought together representatives of the Government and Parliament of Georgia, Public Defender’s Office, Constitutional Court, practicing lawyers and leading Georgian non-governmental organizations working in the area of human rights.
European non-discrimination standards and policy recommendations to combat discrimination developed by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, the Council of Europe’s body, were the main topics discussed during the first session of the workshop. The audience also learned of the findings of the UN Development Programme on the state of minorities in Georgia. The second session touched upon the challenges in the application of the existing mechanisms for combating discrimination in Georgia, while the third session overviewed the good practices of advocating against discrimination.
Caterina Bolognese, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Georgia; Eva Pastrana, Human Rights Attaché, European Union Delegation to Georgia; Shombi Sharp, Deputy Head of UNDP in Georgia; Keti Khutsishvili, Executive Director of OSGF; Danielle Reiff, Democracy and Governance Office Director, USAID, and Mamuka Mamatsashvili, Deputy Country Director of the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative Georgia addressed the participants at the opening session.
The workshop was organised by a group of international organisations in Georgia: Council of Europe and European Union in the framework of their joint programme “Strengthening the capacity of lawyers and human rights defenders for domestic application of the European Convention on Human Rights and of the Revised European Social Charter”, European Union through its Project on Criminal Justice System Reform, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Judicial Independence and Legal Empowerment Project of the East-West Management Institute (EWMI/JILEP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Open Society – Georgia Foundation (OSGF) and the American Bar Association, Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI).