On 16 January 2019, at the sitting of the Committee on Regional Policy and Self-Government of the Parliament of Georgia, Public Defender Nino Lomjaria presented a report on the situation of human rights in the local self-governments.

On the basis of the report of the Public Defender of Georgia, the Parliament of Georgia has charged municipal authorities with 27 various tasks aimed at eliminating human rights problems.

In her brief review, the Public Defender spoke about several important challenges facing the country, including poverty and access to adequate housing and food. She noted that despite the high demand for free food facilities, the service is not available in all municipalities or the waiting lists represent a challenge. In addition, the challenges related to the realization of the right to adequate housing are of systemic nature and remain the same from year to year.

Nino Lomjaria drew attention to the infrastructure and sanitary-hygienic situation in schools and preschool institutions, insufficient number of kindergartens and low qualifications of teachers, as well as the necessity for rehabilitation of many educational institutions, renewal of inventory and improvement of water supply systems.

According to the Public Defender, the problem of enjoyment of social facilities, municipal transport or road infrastructure by children with disabilities is especially serious in regions. Their involvement in the development of local municipalities’ budget priorities is low. At the same time, social services or adequate housing is not available for many old people, while the targeted programmes and measures taken cannot meet the existing needs.

With regard to gender equality, women's participation in the local self-governance remains a problem. They represent only 13.46% of members of City Councils, while only 1 out of 64 elected mayors is a women. It is necessary to study women's needs at the local level and carry out projects aimed at strengthening women's economic, political and human rights.

The Public Defender spoke about the challenges related to the realization of the right to equality; In particular, in 2017, the Public Defender studied a number of applications concerning various types of discriminatory violations of labour rights in schools, kindergartens and local self-governmental bodies.

In the context of freedom of religion, Nino Lomjaria noted that non-dominant religious groups still have to overcome obstacles in the local self-governments during the construction of religious buildings. She called on local self-governments to observe religious neutrality and the constitutional principle of equality. She once again spoke about the necessity for proper teaching of the state language in the regions populated by ethnic minorities and involvement of national minorities in the process of local self-governance.

With regard to the right to live in a healthy environment, Nino Lomjaria discussed the problems related to urban planning and air pollution. She noted that, along with other problems, the issue of prevention of eco-migration is still unsolved due to the lack of financial resources.

In view of the protection of property rights, the Public Defender considers it necessary to timely determine the real estate to be transferred to members of the cooperative apartment-building for a symbolic price. She noted that the problem of delayed review of cases by the municipal authorities and the commission of recognition of property rights on arbitrarily occupied land plots should be solved.

At the end of her speech, the Public Defender expressed hopes that the meeting would lay the foundations for the strengthening of parliamentary control and deepening of business relations with the addressees of recommendations.