Western Georgia Division
The Western Georgia Division represents a primary structural unit of the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia. The Division shall act on behalf of the Public Defender of Georgia when performing its functions. The Division is accountable to the Public Defender of Georgia and the Deputy Public Defender, who oversee the Division in accordance with the rules established by law.
The objective of the Western Georgia Division is to ensure the proactive detection of human rights violations in order to facilitate the effective implementation of the Public Defender's mandate.
Functions of the Western Division:
- Create information channels for proactive detection of human rights violations and facilitate their functioning;
- Identify and document individual and systemic violations;
- Advocate for resolutions to systemic rights violations and problems;
- Develop proactive detection methodology and generalize the existing practices;
- Facilitate the activities of the relevant structural units of the Office through the staff of the Division, including by visiting penitentiary establishments, temporary detention isolators and other institutions in the regions, holding meetings with local governments and communicating with beneficiaries;
- Carry out educational activities in the field of protection of human rights and freedoms;
- Register the correspondence, applications/complaints and other documents received by the regional office of the Public Defender in the electronic case processing system;
- Receive stakeholders in the regional office of the Public Defender, provide legal consultation as well as information on the mandate of the Public Defender;
- Hold meetings with representatives of state and non-state bodies, attend meetings held with them on matters related to the activities of the Office;
- Carry out other functions arising from the specifics of the Division's activities.
The operation area of the Western Georgia Division covers the following territories: a) Imereti, b) Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, c) Autonomous Republic of Adjara, d) Samegrelo, Zemo Svaneti, e) Guria. In addition, persons employed in the territory of Western Georgia within the framework of various grant projects are subordinated to this Division. The main workplace of the Head of Western Georgia Division is Kutaisi.
