At the another public debate organized by the Public Defender, a legislative proposal of the Public Defender of Georgia on changes into the anti-discrimination legislation was discussed.

During his welcoming speech at the event, Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili spoke about importance of the anti-discrimination law. He noted that with the view of full implementation of the law that was adopted a year ago, also for elimination of discrimination in the country and raising public awareness on the issue, the Department of Equality has been working already for several months now at the Public Defender’s Office of Georgia.

Human Rights Attaché of the EU Delegation to Georgia Eva Pastrana talked about support of the European Union to the activities of the Public Defender and especially work for elimination of discrimination.

Head of the Department of Equality of the Public Defender Maka Gioshvili presented draft amendments that are to be introduced into a legislative package aimed at improving the Law of Georgia on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination.

The Public Defender’s Initiative includes three main issues: one concerns a legislative change that will allow the Public Defender not to abort examination of the case of discrimination even if a court hearing is under way on this very case. The second issue concerns improvement of mechanisms of control of realization of the law in private sector, while the third issue relates to participation of the Public Defender as the Friend of the Court during hearing of discrimination-related cases.

Member of the Parliamentary Legal Issues Committee Tamar Kordzaia gave a positive assessment to legislative changes to be introduced for effective implementation of the anti-discrimination law and expressed readiness to discuss the initiative and work for improvement of the law.

Representative of the Coalition for Equality Lana Ghvinianidze noted that the Coalition agrees to issues included in the legislative package and will support the Public Defender in realization of the initiative.

Participants of the debate that was moderated by the Parliamentary Secretary of the Public Defender Ekaterine Popkhadze included representatives of international and non-governmental organizations.