News

Representatives of Public Defender's Office Visit Various Institutions of Council of Europe

On November 2-6, 2015, representativesof the Public Defender's Office visited Strasbourg, France, and familiarized with work aspects of various institutionsofthe Council of Europe.

Realization of standards of the European Convention on Human Rights at the national level, the Council of Europe mechanisms against human trafficking and compliance of the Council of Europe member states’ legislations and practices with the Council of Europe standards for fight against discrimination, racism, xenophobia and anti-semitism were discussed at the meetings. Sexual abuse of children, gender equality, prevention of violence against women, elimination of violence, protection and rehabilitation of victims and other issues of the Istanbul Convention were widely discussed at the meetings.

Other topics of discussion were: the European Social Charter, its principles and monitoring mechanisms of its implementation; the Council of Europe activities for persons with disabilities and the action plan for 2006-2015; effective implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights at the national level through enhancing capacities of judges, lawyers, prosecutors and other specialists in the member states.

Representatives of the Council of Europe institutions showed interest in the work aspects of the Public Defender's Office of Georgia. They noted that the reports of the Public Defender's Office were the valuable source of information for them and expressed readiness for closer cooperation and implementation of joint activities.

The cases related to Georgia, the execution mechanisms and the importance of engagement of member states’ national human rights institutions were discussed at the meetings held in the European Court of Human Rights.

The group members attended the Grand Chamber court hearing concerning the alleged violation of the right of access to public information by the Hungarian authorities in the European Court of Human Rights.

The organizational support of the visit was providedby the CoE project "Improving the operational capacities of the Public Defender's Office of Georgia".

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