First meeting of the Steering Committee on the implementation of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Georgia 2020-2023
“The Council of Europe Action Plan for Georgia is a valuable instrument to facilitate the full compliance of national legislation, institutions and practices with European standards in the fields of human rights, rule of law and democracy. said Lasha Darsalia, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, at the opening of the first meeting of the Steering Committee on the implementation of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Georgia 2020-2023 on October 21, 2021. The meeting was held in a hybrid format with correspondents from Strasbourg and Tbilisi.
Verena Taylor, Director of the Office of the Directorate General of Programs of the Council of Europe, thanked the Georgian partners involved in the implementation of the Action Plan as well as the Council of Europe colleagues at the Council of Europe Office. Europe in Tbilisi and Strasbourg for their commitment. “In recent years, the global COVID-19 pandemic has restricted direct contact and travel, but we have all been successful in continuing to implement our programs and achieve good results. Nevertheless, we all hope to be able to meet again soon ”.
The meeting gathered more than 70 participants including: Shalva Tsiskarashvili, Director of the Department of International Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, high-ranking representatives of Georgian authorities and professional associations involved in the implementation of the projects of the Plan d action, as well as representatives of the Council of Europe Secretariat and the Council of Europe Office in Tbilisi.
The participants exchanged views on the state of implementation of projects in the areas of the democratization of society, the rule of law, the protection of human rights and the promotion of human rights. ‘equality. They positively assessed the results of the two years of implementation of the Action Plan, such as the increased capacities of judges, prosecutors, investigators and lawyers to fight against ill-treatment; data collection system established on cases of discrimination and hate speech; recommendations on the compatibility of the Georgian Code of Criminal Procedure and related legislative provisions with European standards; enhanced mechanism for the prevention and detection of money laundering / terrorist financing cases; further alignment of educational policies and practices with Council of Europe standards; continued cooperation of archival professionals on both sides of the conflict line.
The Council of Europe Action Plan 2020-2023 for Georgia was adopted and officially launched in Tbilisi in November 2019. The action plan is being implemented through the Council of Europe office in Tbilisi in cooperation with the national actors concerned. The projects of the Action Plan are supported by Norway, the European Union, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Human Rights Trust Fund, Luxembourg, France, Netherlands, Liechtenstein, End Violence Against Children Fund (EVAC), Czech Republic and Latvia. Through the actions implemented in 2020, the Action Plan contributed to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDGs 4, 5 and 16.