The Public Defender's Office is responding to the discussions in the social media about the rented building of the Public Defender's Office. Unfortunately, the above discussion is sometimes aimed at discrediting the Public Defender and the activities of the Public Defender's Office and has nothing to do with constructive criticism. Despite the fact that the Public Defender has repeatedly made statements about the above problem, we would like to provide detailed information to the society interested in this issue.

According to the Organic Law of Georgia on the Public Defender, in order to ensure the independence of the Public Defender, the State is obliged to create appropriate working conditions for this institution. Providing a building is a very important guarantee in this direction. The Public Defender's Office had been working in a damaged building for the last few years. Regrettably, despite our repeated requests, the State says that there is no alternative space under the state ownership, where the Public Defender's Office would be able to function free of charge.

The Paris Principles, which defines the status of national human rights institutions, indicates with regard to the guarantees of independence that “The national institution shall have an infrastructure which is suited to the smooth conduct of its activities”.

The long-term rehabilitation of a road launched in the vicinity of the Public Defender's Office in 2018 and the vibration caused by the earthquakes further damaged the building of the Public Defender's Office. In addition, 2 floors of the building were located half underground and some of the employees had to work in a dark and damp environment, causing health problems for some of them. According to the report of Levan Samkharauli Forensics Bureau, the damage was expected to increase and thus it was dangerous to continue activities in the building. Due to this, the Office suspended functioning for several days in 2018. Since August 2018, the Office has been functioning on Davit Aghmashenebeli Avenue.

Tbilisi office of the Public Defender's Office has about 150 employees. Consequently, normal functioning of the Office requires a building, where it would be possible to create proper working conditions for at least this number of people (up to 2000 square meters), with heating and air conditioning system, a meeting room; in addition, the building should be adapted for persons with disabilities and its location should be accessible for all citizens.

Under the circumstances when we had to shut down the Office and employees were working remotely, we found 3 buildings that met all the minimum requirements and we chose the cheapest among them (taking into account that we would not have repair costs). The Office has spent quite a lot of energy and time to move the inventory to the new building, arrange electronic network and communications, although the Office still has many problems.

It should be noted that finances for the rent were allocated for the Public Defender's Office from the Government’s Reserve Fund in 2018, while since 2019 the Office has been paying the rent from its own budget.

It is unacceptable to the Public Defender that the body responsible for the protection of human rights in Georgia does not have its own building and we periodically face the risk of remaining without a roof over our head. It is unjustified that 1/6 of the funds allocated from the state budget for the functioning of the Office, which should have been spent on strengthening the capabilities of our institution, is now being spent on the rent. However, due to the current situation, we are doing our best to save finances from our budget in order to pay the rent and continue functioning and assisting tens of thousands of citizens. We planned this budget year so that we could not afford to increase the salaries of our employees at all and we had to reject many planned projects. We would like to thank various donor organizations, which expressed readiness to help us in this direction. Unfortunately, the current situation is not our choice, but the only option at this stage.

For the purpose of solving the problem, the Public Defender's Office has active communication with state agencies. We are considering any option: any existing area, restoration of the old building, allocation of land plots and construction of a building. To this end, the State offered one of the buildings on Tsotne Dadiani Street in the Nadzaladevi district. However, the building was examined and turned out to be damaged, unfortunately. At the same time, we are considering the purchase of several land plots and construction of a building there (we are studying each land plot in advance to find our whether construction is permitted there, how many square meters of building can be built there, if there is complaints of third parties, etc.).

The Public Defender will meet with the Prime Minister of Georgia in the nearest days. In addition, the Public Defender will urge the Parliament of Georgia to call the relevant committee meeting in the nearest future, summon responsible persons and request explanations about the steps being taken for the provision of a building for the Public Defender. We also have active communication with state agencies. The Public Defender is grateful to all local and international organizations for showing support and strictly raising the mentioned problem at the meetings with representatives of the authorities.

We hope that the current situation, which, first of all, is a big financial and technical burden for the Public Defender and people employed in the Public Defender's Office and which in many cases impedes the functioning of the Office, will not be used by certain people to discredit the activities of the Public Defender's Office.