On June 15, 2015, the eighth round of the Georgia-EU Annual Human Rights Dialogue was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia. At the meeting, the Public Defender of Georgia reviewed the general situation in human rights and fundamental freedoms in Georgia and spoke about activities conducted, steps forward and existing challenges in this direction in the period following the round that was held in June 2014.

The European Union welcomes work conducted by the Public Defender’s Office and progress that exists in the direction of improvement of the criminal justice policy, betterment of the situation in preliminary detention facilities, efforts undertaken against domestic violence and discrimination, also, activity of the Public Defender in the light of protection of rights of people living in conflict regions.

The EU called on the Georgian authorities to strengthen independence of judicial authorities and establish the independent investigative mechanism. One of the recommendations concerned necessity of establishment of labour inspection.

During the meeting, the Georgian delegation was chaired by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Gigi Gigiadze while the European Delegation was headed by Head of the Department for Human Rights Policy of the European External Action Service Elizabeth Tyson.

Next round on the human rights issues is planned in Brussels, in 2016.