From March 21 to March 25, 2016, the Human Rights Academy of the Public Defender held the training for 42 prosecutors and investigators of Tbilisi and regional Prosecutor's Offices. The theme of the training was: "Prosecuting hate crimes".

The training program included both theoretical and practical elements. The course was aimed at raising awareness about the methods of prosecuting hate crimes. During the course, the participants learned about the bias indicators, International and regional standards on hate crimes, applying Georgian hate crime laws, standards of prosecuting ill-treatment according to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the national legislation, and other key issues.

The training was led by international experts, hate crime officer Ales Hanek (OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights), and Tome Shekerdjiev, officer of the OSCE mission to Macedonia, as well as the representatives of the Public Defender's Office Levan Meskhoradze and Maka Stevenson. After completing the course, the participants were awarded certificates.

The training was held within the project “Support to the Human Rights Academy of the Public Defender”, which is funded by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. 8 more trainings are planned this year within this project. The trainings are aimed at deepening knowledge, research and analytical skills of target groups in legal and other aspects of human rights.