A conference “Equality Policy and Key Challenges in Georgia” was held at Rooms Hotel Tbilisi on April 21, 2017. The conference was organized by Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF) and it was held in partnership with the Coalition for Equality.
OSGF Executive Director Keti Khutsishvili delivered a welcome speech at the conference. The coalition members and their beneficiaries spoke at the conference about how the right of separate groups to freedom from discrimination is protected in Georgia and summarized the equality situation in the country in 2016. The report prepared by the non-governmental organizations also contained particular recommendations to relevant state agencies.
The coalition members claim that after adoption of the anti-discrimination law, the government has not developed any equality policy; inefficient investigation and prevention of hate crimes remains an important challenge in terms of equality; the problem of inefficient investigation of hate crimes creates an unfavorable environment for non-dominant groups, which is based on impunity and enmity.
The report describes human rights situation of various discriminated, marginalized and vulnerable social groups (including women, LGBT community, non-dominant religious and ethnic groups, children, people with disabilities, homeless people, and political opposition).
The 2015-2016 report on the activities of the Coalition for Equality was also presented to the conference. The report focuses on the facts of discrimination studied by the coalition member NGOs. In particular, the report involves detailed review of 36 cases. During the reporting period, the coalition member organizations carried out legal proceedings over a number of discrimination cases on the grounds of disabilities (7 cases), citizenship (3 cases), race (1 case), place of residence (4 cases), political or other views (10 cases), state of health (1 case), property (1 case), gender (4 cases), sexual orientation and gender identity (4 cases), religion (1 case).
The reports were followed by discussions. Various victims of discrimination talked about their own experience.
The Coalition for Equality is an informal union, which was established in 2014 with the support of Open Society Georgia Foundation and which unites seven non-governmental organizations, among them Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC); Identoba; Article 42 of the Constitution; Union Sapari; Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA); Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group (WISG) and Partnership for Human Rights (PHR).
Since the day of its establishment, the coalition’s activities have been supported by Open Society Georgia Foundation.
The Coalition for Equality aims at strengthening the mandate of anti-discrimination mechanisms and promoting efficient struggle against discrimination.
