On October 29, 2020, Nino Lomjaria, Public Defender of Georgia, participated in the UN Human Rights Council's high-level online seminar - "20th anniversary of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement: A Plan of Action for Advancing Prevention, Protection and Solutions for Internally Displaced People 2018-2020”. The event was organized by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The participants shared their best practices and experience gained from the implementation of the plan of action and discussed the opportunities of the international community for reducing displacement, protecting displaced persons and solving their problems.

The Public Defender of Georgia spoke about the efforts of the Public Defender’s Office for the implementation of the Plan of Action for Advancing Prevention, Protection and Solutions for Internally Displaced People 2018-2020 and the problematic issues that were resolved with the involvement of the Public Defender. In particular, Nino Lomjaria reviewed the efforts of the Office aimed at promoting the involvement of IDPs in IDP-related issues, improving the legislation and bringing it in line with the UN guidelines, processing the IDP data and facilitating the long-term resettlement of IDPs. In addition, she addressed the problems facing the IDPs today and the main challenge – the rights situation of IDPs living in facilities at risk of being ruined, inter alia, the lack of accurate data on such buildings, which hinders the effective planning of relevant state programmes and leaves some of the endangered families beyond the care of the state.

Finally, for the purpose of strengthening the national human rights institutions and the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), the Public Defender presented her recommendations to the international community relating to the protection of the rights of IDPs.

The seminar was moderated by Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons. The event was opened by Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.