On May 2, 2017, the Public Defender of Georgia held a conference, the topic of which was: “3 years from the enactment of the anti-discrimination law: achievements, challenges and future prospects”. The Public Defender, MPs, representatives of the Ministry of Justice, common courts and non-governmental organizations introduced their opinions about the gaps in the laws and necessary changes for their improvement.

At the opening of the conference, the Public Defender said that the adoption of the anti-discrimination law was an effective step forward in protecting human rights, namely the right to equality. According to him, a significant achievement is that the law applies to both public and private individuals and prohibits discrimination on all grounds in all fields of public life.

It should be noted that since the adoption of the law, the Public Defender’s Office has studied more than 350 cases of alleged discrimination and established that discrimination had occurred or had been promoted in 30 cases. Due to the efforts of the Public Defender, many people or groups were protected from further violations of rights. However, a number of legislative shortcomings, with regard to which the Public Defender had appealed to the Parliament of Georgia, still remain to be a challenge. The Public Defender considers it appropriate the natural and legal persons of private law to be obliged by law to provide information requested by the Public Defender for studying a case. The package of amendments also includes changes aimed at obliging private persons to present information about the measures taken by them for the implementation of the Public Defender’s recommendation, increasing the term for appealing to the court, strengthening the standard of the burden of proof and giving the Public Defender the opportunity to study a case during the administrative proceedings. In addition, the law does not directly prohibit separate forms of discrimination, such as harassment and sexual harassment. Unfortunately, no relevant amendments have been made to the law so far.

At the conference, Tamar Chugoshvili, First Deputy Chairman of the Parliament, and Sofio Kiladze, Head of the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee, noted that the Parliament supports amendments to the anti-discrimination law.

The event was attended by representatives of the Government, diplomatic corps, international and local organizations.

Apart from the Public Defender’s Office, the event was organized and supported by the USAID-funded program "Promoting Rule of Law of Georgia" (PROLoG) that is being carried out by the East-West Management Institute, the EU project “Fight against All Forms of Discrimination in Georgia”, the Open Society – Georgia Foundation (OSGF ) and the Coalition for Equality.