Former Public Defender of Georgia Nino Lomjaria and the team of the Public Defender’s Office have received annual Global Human Rights Defender Award from the U.S. Department of State.

„Ms. Lomjaria served as Public Defender of Georgia from 2017 through 2022. Under her leadership, the Public Defender’s Office (PDO) was widely considered the most independent democratic institution in Georgia. Throughout her tenure, Nino and her team advocated strengthened human rights protections for all, at times under intense political pressure; they maintained their independence throughout. The PDO’s work to fight discrimination, and to defend the rights of children, people with disabilities, prisoners, LGBTQI+ persons, and members of religious minorities, without regard to political affiliation, hasendeavoredto build a democratic state that lives up to the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of its citizens’, reads the statement released by the Department of State.