On July 9-10, 2024, the Public Defender of Georgia took part in the second Georgian-American international conference held in Batumi, where the role of religious education in overcoming modern global challenges was discussed.

At the conference, the Public Defender of Georgia discussed the challenges that have been studied over the years relating to the religious tolerance and the practice of the Office in the direction of their elimination. He emphasized the role of the Public Defender's Office in realizing the right to freedom of religion and presented recommendations.

In addition, Levan Ioseliani focused special attention on the issue of returning the religious buildings confiscated during the Soviet period to their historical owners and on the need to start the process of evaluating the amount of damage and confiscated property. He also reviewed the current situation in terms of freedom of religion in the occupied territories of Georgia.

Among other issues, the Public Defender talked about the importance of close cooperation and communication between the central government, self-government bodies and religious organizations operating in Georgia and called on the Government to consider the recommendations of the Public Defender, including the recommendation to declare the religious holidays of minorities as non-working days in the Labour Code, in order to solve the existing problems.

The conference was organized by the State Agency for Religious Issues and the US authoritative non-govrnmental organization - Institute for Global Engagement.