Deputy Public Defender of Georgia, Ekaterine Skhiladze, took part in the workshop of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance in Strasbourg, France, on May 23-24, 2017.

The main objective of the workshop was to review the Commission’s basic recommendation N2 – specialized bodies against racism and intolerance at the national level.

The meeting was attended by members of the Commission and representatives of equality mechanisms from various countries. Changes to be made to the recommendation were discussed at the workshop. Participants of the workshop expressed their views on the situation of the fight against racism and intolerance, as well as challenges and future plans.

Together with the main presentations, participants were able to discuss the prospects of implementation of the main issues of the recommendation in the working groups, as well as to express their opinions on the proposed changes.

In the working group, the Deputy Public Defender of Georgia underlined the importance of reflecting the changes in the recommendation and spoke about the specifics and mandate of the equality mechanism in Georgia.

At the same time, she focused on the positive side of reflecting the necessity of availability of equality mechanisms for persons with disabilities in the recommendation, as this issue represents a significant challenge for the Public Defender of Georgia due to absence of a relevant building.