Extending Capacity of the Public Defender's Office, by Establishing Regional Offices and Specialized Centers  for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights in Georgia

Sector: Human Rights
Duration: 12 months
Estimated Budget: USD 332,000

The Public Defender’s Office (PDO) is a recently established independent national institution, working for the protection and promotion of human rights with three primary areas of responsibility:

• Receiving, investigating, and where appropriate acting upon complaints of human rights violations.

• Human rights awareness raising and education.

• Providing high-level policy advice and assistance to the Government of Georgia on human rights matters.

There are a number of obstacles to effectively address the issues above, the most serious among them is the lack of funding from the State. Therefore, UNDP has supported this initiative from it’s initial stage by bringing together different donors for the implementation of several projects within PDO related to; training, awareness raising, outreach and capacity building within the office. Due to the importance of the PDO in institutionalizing human rights in Georgia, there is a need to provide further assistance to the PDO to be able fulfill it’s new objectives for promotion and protection of human rights.

Objective:

The overall objective of the project is to further increase the capacity within the PDO to be able to provide professional support in the various fields of human rights and to extend its activities throughout the regions. In order for PDO to be able to respond to various needs it would be essential to establish specialized centers within the office. Based on experience collected by the office over its years of operation these centers would focus on: Research and protection of religious rights, Protection of women’s rights, Rights of military personnel, and Legislative matters as well as developing four regional offices.

Activities:

• Establish regional PDO offices in the Kakheti, Kvemo Kartli, Imereti and Mtskheta Tianeti regions, supported by the office in Tbilisi.

• Establish a center for the protection of religious rights and the rights of ethnic minorities.

• Establish a center for the promotion and protection women’s rights within all regions.

• Establish a center for the protection of military personnel as well as prevention of human rights violations within the military.

• Establish a center that will review laws and other legislative acts and actively participate in the process of adoption of new legislati

Successful implementation of the project would lead to increased capacity in the above-mentioned fields of human rights within the PDO. Furthermore, by establishing regional offices the PDO would enlarge its outreach. This would facilitate the promotion and protection of human rights in Georgia.