On September 30, 2016, the Public Defender held another public debate on the theme: “Elections and inclusive electoral environment." 8 days before the country's general elections, Ucha Nanuashvili discussed participation of women, persons with disabilities and ethnic minority in the political life with international and local non-governmental organizations.

In his speech Ucha Nanuashvili briefly reviewed the topics of the public debate - the general political culture in relation to elections, opportunities of different groups to equally participate in elections, challenges and problems in terms of participation of persons with disabilities, national minorities and women.

The Public Defender noted that for the first time this year the Public Defender's Office will use the powers granted by law and will carry out monitoring of human rights violations in the pre-election period, on the election day and in the post-election period; the Office also will examine the progress of electoral disputes in courts.

Ensuring inclusive election atmosphere in practice is still a problem; lack of adapted transport significantly impedes independent movement of persons with disabilities to polling stations; as it is known, the number of adapted polling stations for this year’s parliamentary elections is 1115, which is only a third of the overall number of polling stations across the country.

Participation of minorities in the political life and electoral process is unsatisfactory; level of their awareness and activity is low; they are minimally represented on the electoral lists of political parties.

"It is unfortunate that political parties still did not take into account the importance of women's participation. Therefore, the prospect of improvement of the situation after the 2016 parliamentary elections is poor, which once again confirms the necessity and importance of a mandatory gender quota", - said the Public Defender.

Speeches were delivered on the issue of political engagement of women, persons with disabilities and ethnic minorities by Koba Nadiradze, representative of the Partnership for Human Rights, Nino Dolidze, Program Officer of the Georgian Mission of the International Republican Institute (IRI), Zaur Khalilov, Executive Director of the Civil Integration Foundation, and Levan Tsutsqiridze, Representative of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy ( NIMD) for the South Caucasus.

The public debate was moderated by Public Defender's Parliamentary Secretary Eka Popkhadze.

The public debates on various important topics are organized on last Fridays of each month, during which representatives of the society, governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations have the opportunity to discuss the problems of population.

The public debates of the Public Defender of Georgia are funded by the EU project "Support to the Public Defender II".