The Public Defender of Georgia echoes the requirement established by the Borjomi municipality program No2 for the newly married couples, which says that the husband must be registered in the town of Borjomi in order the couple to get monetary assistance.

The municipality’s social program provides for one-time assistance (GEL 150) to encourage young people. In order to enroll in the program, the newly married couples have to submit copies of their ID cards and marriage certificates, as well as their bank account numbers. However, another requirement for the married men is that they should be registered in Borjomi.

The Public Defender does not assess the appropriateness of the program itself and realizes that the program may be aimed at encouraging young couples with monetary assistance in the Borjomi municipality, though he believes that such an approach is discriminatory against women registered in the same municipality, as far as, unlike men, their place of registration has no importance. In addition, the legitimate goal of such a different treatment is unclear.

The Public Defender notes that similar requirement of the municipality emphasizes the dominance of men in the family and further strengthens the stereotypes about the roles of women and men in the society.

Pursuant to subparagraph “a” of article 5 of the Law on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination, any institution is obliged to bring its activities in line with the anti-discrimination law or other anti-discrimination legislation in order to eliminate discrimination.

Based on the above, the Public Defender calls on the Borjomi municipality to cancel its discriminatory requirement concerning the place of men’s registration in the program intended for the newly married couples and to promote gender equality in the region through its future activities.