Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698055108099.pdf (Georgia)
HUMAN RIGHTS INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTATION CENTER (HRIDC) Working to Make a Difference People without Rights: Roma Rights in Georgia Report Prepared by The Human Rights Information and Documentation Center (HRIDC) Financial support by the World Bank Small Grants Program Researched and written by: George Janiashvili, Nino Gvedashvili, David Chikashua, Irma Mamasakhlisi Project Director: Ucha Nanuashvili Tbilisi, Georgia 2003 1 2 Foreword It has been 12 years since Georgia became independent and the building of democratic and independent society is still in process.
Hardship and contradiction in moving to the market economy and strengthening the democracy is still active.

Georgia has faced a great deal of problems and difficulties along the way as its population has learned to deal with the inherent economic difficulties.

Some progress, however, has been seen in the field of education and reforms of the education system.

Despite this, it would be naive to look at the existing situation indifferently and with satisfaction.
There are many unsolved problems, such as inter-ethnic relations and the defending of the rights of national minorities.

It is worrying that groups of national minorities still exist in Georgia, mainly the Roma people, who do not know how to read and write, let alone have a civil education and the knowledge of the defense of their rights.
The situation is more difficult regarding the defense of Roma right to employment, life and health, mostly because they do not have financial opportunity for medical care.

It is regrettable that nothing has been done to help solve the Roma problems in the period following Georgia’s independence.

Even moreso, a census of Roma population has still not been undertaken.

The following report demonstrates the first steps taken by us in studying Roma situation in Georgia.
It should be mentioned that without the financial support from World Bank, it would be impossible to do all the activities mentioned in this report.

We hope that the co-operation with the above mentioned organisation together with the other donors will continue and we will have the opportunity to continue the research process and solve the problems facing national minorities, namely Roma people.

3 Introduction The Roma people primarily appeared in Georgia after the defeat of Georgia by the Russian empire.
They mostly practiced chandlery, fortune-telling and also sold horses.

Unlike the other parts of Russian empire they never became the objects of chase and oppression.

It was with the coming to power of the Soviet Union in 1921 that the government first paid the first attention to their problems.

Places were allocated for the nomadic Roma people and conditions were created for their residence Roma ensembles began functioning, which helped to develop their national culture.
Despite this, there appeared some noticeable displeasure among the Roma population, , especially among the older people, although interviews taken during this research showed that the most of Roma in Georgia accepted those activities gratefully.

At the same time, the Roma people began to receive an education.

Children and adults could get the same education as the representatives of other nationalities and different social level.
The education, however, was in Russian in order to make for easy communication with the population living in the territory of former Soviet Union.

After Georgia became independent, the Roma appeared in a very difficult situation.

Most of Georgian population was left unemployed and the majority of the Roma were earning their living from fortune-telling.

Another part of the population, however, those working in governmental structures, were dismissed because they did not know the Georgian language.
Because of this, the majority of the Roma people left the country.

According to our research, however, the number of Roma living in Georgia exceeds the data of governmental structures.

From July 2002 we began to collect all the information existing in governmental facilities.

According to the letter of the Georgian State Department, relying on the data of 1989, 1744 Roma were counted in Georgia.
Among them: 53 – in Tbilisi; 412 – in Abkhazia; 126 – in the autonomous republic of Adjara; 251 – in Kutaisi; 32 – in Rustavi.

The reason of the difference between the whole number of Roma people and mentioned regions was not clearly explained in the letter.

It should be mentioned that despite our numerous requests and applications, the Georgian State Department did not provide the data for 2002 regarding the number of Roma population in Georgia.
It is considered that the Roma population exceeds several thousand in Georgia, but it is difficult to state even an approximate number.

Actuality of the Research As the governmental organisations did not have the statistical information which we needed about Roma, it was necessary to conduct research in order to find out the following details: the places of the residence, their numbers and the situation regarding the defense of their rights, among others.
In the process of the formation of the democratic-legislative state, important social-political attention is drawn on the legal defense of a person and his/her rights.

Georgia, being the member of UN, Council of Europe and OSCE, is responsible to respect and defend human rights and fundamental freedoms without any kind of discrimination.

4 Georgia is multinational country.

More than 30 national representatives live in our country and they represent 30 % of the whole Georgian population.
Although along with the formal legislative meaning there is no discrimination of national minorities, they still do not take part in social life.
The Roma people are in a difficult situation, especially, according to our research, is the high level of illiteracy The research had great importance in order to: • Research the situation in the field of Roma rights in Georgia; • Evaluate it objectively; • Take measures to defend the legal rights of the Roma people; • • Find the way for the settlement of the existing problems.
Identify and expose their needs; Meetings with the experts and representatives of NGOs Before starting the research, the experts and the representatives of the NGOs working on the issues of national minorities, were invited at Human Rights Information and Documentation Center in order to receive the information and the data they have possessed: • Emil Adelkhanov – Caucasian Institute for Peace Democracy and Development; • Paata Zakareshvili - Caucasian Institute for Peace Democracy and Development; • Guram Svanidze – the expert in national minorities of Georgian Parliamentary Committee for human rights defense; • Gela Nikoleishvili – NGO “Former Political Prisoners for Human Rights”; • Neli Rodionova – Union “Slavic House”; • Valer Serchuki - Resource-Centre “Multinational Georgia”; • Levan Lortkipanidze – Association “Urtiertoba – LSL Center”; • Lia Melikishvili – the Institute of History and Ethnography of Georgian Academy of Science; Irina Tsintsdze – Public Information Center “Alternative”.
• During the meeting it was found that they had great experience with other national minorities but had never worked on Roma problems.

It was stated that up until now, nothing had been done to ensure the legal security of Roma people and to involve them in social life neither by the government nor by the NGOs.

The “Roma Rights Defense Centre” was created which was staffed by the members of our organisation who are interested in solving the problems of national minorities.
The members of this group managed to carry out those activities which are generated in the following report.

Information Campaign The information about the free legal advice for the Roma people by the “Roma Rights Centre” was published in the press: Dilis Gazeti” (“Morning Paper”), “Akhali Taoba”, “Alia” and “Rezonansi”.
Taking into account that Roma people might not receive the information about the beginning of 5 legal consultations for them because of the difficult socio-economic situation in Georgia, this information was further disseminated on the TV channels “Kavkasia”, “Evrica” and “Rustavi 2”.
Press Review Before obtaining the initial information from the Roma people, the “Roma Rights Centre,” together with the “Human Rights Information and Documentation Centre,” researched all the publications regarding Roma problems in Georgia and the issues relating to them.

The most attention to Roma problems appears in the magazine “Sarke”.

Within are several phrases from the magazine which offers better understanding of the contents and style of the articles in the Georgian publications.
For example, an article by Rusudan Advadzein the 26 June-2 July, 2002 issuetells about the Orthodox baptising of the Roma in which attention is drawn to the social problems and the standard of living of Roma people.

“Roma, living in Kutaisi, left their hometown about six years ago and visited Tbilisi, because they could not earn their living there,” the article reads.

“The Roma people make all the important decisions with the agreement of Baron.
For example, if anybody decides to get married, the permission is given by the Baron.

Otherwise, the family will have problems.

The Baron always gathers the young Roma and gives them advice,” Another excerpt reads “…we carry on trade in the streets and tell fortunes.

If there was a job, none of us would stay unemployed.

We are not lazy.

What shall we do if not trading?

We are not nomad Roma.

We live here and love Georgia.

We were born and brought here.


We have relatives everywhere, but no land can hold Roma on one place, except Georgia,” says Roma Baron Tattas (Ttariel).” Further “…Several god-parents are famous people – the president of women congress Lia Kiknadze, Poet and former newscaster Irma Gurieli, artist Lia Barnabishvili and TV workers.
There was one of the former deputies among the god-parents, which preferred to stay anonymous”; “willow-crosses were given by the nunnery and the icons and the books of New Testament was the present of Georgian Patriarchy.
Will Roma be able to read the New Testament or not is dubious because only the Baron can read Georgian.” Rusudan Advadze’s article reads further: “…In Tbilisi, on the platform of one of the underground stations, a 12 year old boy was injuring a five year old girl holding her hand fiercely.

The girl was crying and entered the wagon like this.

The boy stood in the other corner of a carriage looking after her with a great attention to find our how much money the people were giving to the begging child.
The bruises and the tears on her face made animpression on the passengers and they were giving money to the girl.

The both of them – the boy and the girl, were Roma.

Having looked at Roma children you may scream with fear as they are in danger of an accident and the elders stand calmly thereby and the police standing not far from them look at this picture indifferently.
The city inspection sometimes carries out raids and take tramp Roma children to the “Center of Juvenile Reception, Prophylactic and Orientation”.

Colonel Tsitsino Kikilashvili, head of the Center of Juvenile Reception, Prophylactic and Prientation says: the reception of Roma children is connected with some difficulties.

Elder Roma always make a serious problem to the police.
They can push a child to the tree or even under the car… there was such an accident when a policeman caught a baby thrown by a Roma woman.

After having brought a Roma child in the centre, there comes so-called Tabor.

They can destroy the building, break the windows and lay before the car.

They break gate, if you do not open it, jump over it and extraordinary show begins.

Making contact with the Roma distributed in Varaziskhevi appeared very dangerous even for us.
Having seen the photo camera, the whole group ran after us, but we managed to cross the street where the police were standing.” 6 Conclusion In order to check the information mentioned in Georgian press, as well as to get the information from the initial source (Roma living in Georgia) and to make the contacts with Roma people, the “Roma Rights Centre” began to study the situation of the rights of Roma in Tbilisi and in different regions of Georgia.
We decided to conduct social polling in order to expose the situation in the field of human rights defense and their needs.

The information gained regarding the situation of human rights defense is seen below.

Further, there is the report on our social polling followed by our recommendations.

The polling was done anonymously as the most of Roma did not want to name themselves.

This report is the first attempt to analyse the situation regarding the Roma rights in Georgia.
7 Main Part Research 1.1 Main Concept It is quite difficult in a poly-ethnic society to build such a pattern of inter-ethnic integration in which all ethnic groups would have equal opportunities to realise their rights and remain unseparated from social life.

In inter-ethnic relations, the Roma living in Georgia mostly have barriers of language, education, employment, social security and participation in decision-making process, i.e.
problems in ensuring all the rights that are mentioned in those international acts ratified by the Parliament of Georgia.

Our goal was to find the reasons, conditions and factors causing the moving away of the Roma people from social life in Georgia, to analyse the situation in the field of the defense of Roma rights, to find out about their real situation and needs and to clarify all the important steps for their involvement in social life.

Method of the Research 2.1.


Region for the Research Tbilisi was selected for the research in which one of the districts (Lotkin) is home to the complex settlement (the so-called “Tsiganski pasiolok”) which is the political, cultural and science center of Roma.

Secondly, Kutaisi – the second largest city in Georgia, where Roma are spread in different districts of the city (Avangardi, Avtokarkhana, Nikea, etc.)

was also selected.

2.2.

Selection Respondents were chosen randomly.


The polling was done in Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Rustavi and in different regions of Georgia by the interviewer of “Roma Rights Centre” using standard methods for interviewing.

Results 3.1.

The Entire Picture The research envisaged to state the origin of Roma people living in Georgia.
The most important point was to find out the place of their birth (whether they were born in Georgia or abroad), how long they have lived in Georgia(for those not born in the country), their places of residence in Georgia, if they or their children desire to get an education in order to be involved in social life, if they desire to establish an ensemble or other kind of organisation within the help of donor organisations, do they wish to visit different countries of the world in order to obtain a human 8 rights education and, finally, do they want to meet Roma people living in other countries of the world.
3.2.

Finding the Most Important Problem Our research aimed at finding the problems in the field of Roma rights defense.

Our work showed that they face problems regarding the realisation of the rights of education, employment and their participation in social life.

3.3.
3.3.

The Roma about their Problems When obtaining the information during the polling process the interviewer discovered the following: Right to Life and Health: • Georgia does nothing to defend the right to life and health of Roma people (as well as for the representatives of other population, nations or ethnic groups); • The Roma who appear in Georgia by chance are not protected by the government.

There is not any premises in Georgia where homeless Roma could find shelter.
• Medical service is not available for the majority because of the poor financial situation.

They are to use medical help only in extreme situations and mostly in such cases doctors are unable to do anything for their survival.
Right to Liberty and Security of Person, Equality Before the Law: • Roma men often become the victims of illegal detention; • During the interviewing Roma in Tbilisi and in Kutaisi the interviews of our organisation found out that mostly they stay in pre-detention cells and in pre-trial isolators more than stated 48 hours.

They state that after the detention of a week or two they are released without even knowing the reason for the arrest.
It is mentioned in the letter sent by Kakha Kakhiashvili, the Deputy Chairman of the Penitentiary Department of the Georgian Justice Ministry, that three Roma men are now detained in the penitentiary department #2: Vladimir Aslanov, Roman Aslanov and Nikoloz Aslanov.

According to the above mentioned letter, Roma are also in jail #5, specifically Valentina Tsikalanova, Lionia Marena and Vasil Martinov.
Inhumane and Degrading Treatment or Punishment: • They say that it often happens when the police forget the existence of Roma people in pre-detention cells and are left without food, drinking water and satisfaction of physiological needs for two-three days.

Roma living in Tbilisi gave the information to our interviewers about such facts.

As they are sure that we are unable to change anything, they did not name the police departments where such facts took place.
We have, however, information that such facts are monitored in pre-detention isolators by the national as well as by the international organisations.
9 Right to Legal Entity, Children’s Rights for Registration and Civil Status: • Roma women deliver a child at home without a doctor and nurse; • The registration and civil status are not given to the infants which means that Roma children do not become citizens of Georgia; having reached the legal age they do not became legal entities of Georgian national law.
• Because of the same reasons Roma children as well as the adults often become the victims of trafficking, civil and political violations; • They do not enjoy the right to vote because they do not have the Identification Card; • Because of the same reason they do not participate in social and political life and cannot go abroad.
Respect for Private Family Life: • Although the Baron Institute does not function, for the most part, in Georgia, there still can be found the facts when Barons interfere in Roma private and family life, forcing them to take unwilling steps: to marry undesirable persons, and let unknown Roma live with their family, etc.

Rights to Social Security and Social Insurance: • The Roma are not ensured with pension and social assistance; • No programmes are created for their involvement in social insurance system.
Participation in Cultural life, the Right to Enjoy and Use the Products of Scientific Progress: • Funds are not allocated for Roma to develop their national folklore.
• The tradition of Roma ensembles to sustain and develop public culture does not function any more; • The tradition of handicraft ware and handmade goods are almost lost during the transitional period; • Only a little part of Roma (living in Georgia) can sing and play the musical instruments; • Almost every Roma have the wish to re-establish their culture given the finances and time needed; • The product of scientific progress is not available for the major part of Roma population.
Right to Vote, Participation in Social and Political life: The majority of Roma do not have any document (Identification Card, passport).

As it was discovered during the research, most of them who have documents are registered as Moldavians, mostly those Roma, who live in Svaneti district, Tbilisi.

For those Roma without an Identification Card, those who consider themselves Gipsy, they are unable to enjoy the right to vote.

For this same reason, they are unable to take part in social life.
10 Labour Right: The right of the Roma to work is violated as, for the most part, they are not accepted for a job.

For this reason the majority of them are encouraged to engage in robbery or smuggling.

They are not involved in vocational or technical courses or training programmes and, therefore, no activities are carried out for sustainable economic, social and cultural development and for full and profitable employment.
• Roma people are self-employed and have to work at such places (outside trading, physical work) to earn money to support their large families, a task which is very difficult given the current socio- economic conditions in Georgia.

• The priority is given to the problem of employment.

Almost every respondent expressed the wish to be occupied in any private enterprise or create it themselves.

Right to Education: • The problem of education is very urgent.
Only elder generation and minor part of young Roma, (those who attended classes for two or four years) are literate; • The majority of Roma people has only Grade 2-3 education; • Only one or two from every hundred Roma can read and write; • The difficult life encourages the parents to take children from school and make them work or beg to assist the family financially; • There were such occasions in Kutaisi when Roma children were not admitted at school • because of their age; the absolute majority does not know the state language, Georgian, let alone reading and writing in Georgian; • Only Georgian is taught at school #141, which is in Lotkini(Tbilisi).
Therefore Roma have to take their children to Tsereteli Ave., at Russian school, which is three to four kilometers away from their residence; • Those Roma who take their children to school despite these obstacles are forced to buy books, which as they say are changed every year and are not valuable next year; • Although there is the statement of the Education Minister about the admission of the use of • any manual approved by the ministry, the reality looks different; It should be mentioned that Roma living in Georgia cannot read and write in their language.
No schools are in Georgia teaching Roma in their language; • According to the statement of the parents, they took their children from school because they could not buy the manuals and tools needed at school; • The frequency of such facts is also caused because the children are demanded to pay for school fund for heating and other needs.

Relationship with Law Enforcement Bodies: - The majority of Roma avoid speaking about the relationship between them and law enforcement bodies.
During unofficial talks, however, they offered the following facts: they are forbidden to trade in markets, as they resist paying illegal taxes declared by the police or state officials themselves.

Police officers often use force upon Roma people, force Roma women to have sexual contact with them whilst Roma men are often victims of illegal detention.

Mostly they stay in pre- detention cells and in pre-trial isolators more than stated 48 hours.
They state that after the detention of a week or two they are released without even telling the reason of the arrest; it often happens as well when the police forget the existence of Roma people in pre-detention cells and are left without food, drinking water and satisfaction of physiological needs for two-three days.
11 - Despite the threat towards the law enforcement officials, some Roma mentioned that they were chased by the police and driven from trading places, whereas the representatives of other nationality working next to them, were not told anything.
- One of the Roma women told us about the sexual violence: “The policeman detained me for the “speculation” and took me to the nearest police department with the goods; I was taken into the cabinet of the head of police department and he offered me regular sexual contact with him in order to get permission for trading in the street without paying taxes.
I refused indeed this suggestion but this fact proves that they have different opinion about Roma women.” Our interviewer obtained the above mentioned information during the polling process in Kutaisi.

Relationship with the Government, Provide Assistance: ○ Georgian government has not paid any attention to the Roma families, though the majority of them has large families and lives in very poor conditions (small living area, poor communal conditions, etc.).
They do not enjoy the advantages that the other large families have.

○ The municipality carried out a census of the poor families in December, 2002 to give them food as aid by the New Year.

Some of Roma families were registered in census but they did not get any aid although their neighbors received assistance.
The process of communication and getting the information became more difficult because of the government’s indifferent relation, discrimination, deceit and false promises, which built mistrust and despair.

“If we do not take care about ourselves, nobody will care and provide any assistance” – they think.

The discrimination of Roma is so common that nobody pays any attention to it.
They do not have legal right to earn their living and are to take money from community by using different ways of deceit (fortune-telling, forged goods, etc.).

The research exposed that the information supplied by the State Statistic Department about the number of Roma people in Georgia, is not complete nor is it correct.
The Roma people urge that despite the fact that lots of Roma had left the country for the social-economic hardship, there are left more Roma than it is indicated in 1989 year data of census (see data in foreword).

12 Conclusion: All the above mentioned facts prove the importance of conducting the future research.

As a result, the real situation in the field of the defense of civil and political, economic, social and cultural the rights of Roma will be shown.
Specifically we will be able to clarify the level of their life, their prospects, the ways of problem solving, their socio-psychological situation, evaluating the nature of their inter-ethnic relations, their civil status, the evaluation of state policy by the Roma in the field of inter-ethnic relations, the quantity of the defense of their rights to education, their attitude towards the process of development of ethnic culture, their interest towards the culture of other populations living in Georgia, the government’s attitude towards their cultural requirements, the tool for the satisfaction of their cultural needs, the religious situation and the situation in the field of freedom of conscience, their employment and career, the defense of their civil life and participation in decision-making process, the relations with the representatives of other communities in Georgia and the defense of the rights of Roma women and men.
All the above mentioned gives us ground to analyse Georgian legislation regarding the national minorities, namely in the field of Roma rights defense and its correspondence with the reality.

Recommendations Establish a monitoring group with the governmental representatives and NGOs working on Roma rights defense as well as with the representatives of Roma communities which will control the situation of Roma rights in all the fields mentioned below.
Right to Life and Health: • The Georgian government should work out a special programme aiming at the defense of Roma rights; • Significant attention must be drawn to the development of medical, educational, cultural and other issues; Right to Liberty and Security of Person, Equality Before the Law: • Particular attention should be taken to the vocational training of policemen especially in Human Rights field, psychology, modern methods of investigation and practice.
Besides the professional policemen, the representatives of NGOs and other specialists should be involved in the training; • The appropriate state bodies and high ranking police officers should explain policemen that the use of force on detainees, among them Roma detainees, is punished under the law; • Policemen should be permanently reminded about the fact that the force might be used only in restricted frames, when it is important for a special matter; • Hold training-seminars to raise the civil educational level of Roma people.
Human and Honourable Treatment and Respect: • Detailed instructions should be worked out for law enforcement officials about the use of physical force; 13 • It should be formed clearly in this materials that in case of aggressive manners from the part of Roma, they should try not to use force; • Every event of physical impact must be mentioned and indicated in a special register; • It should be described in this register the date and time of the beginning and end of the act, concrete circumstances, reasons, the name of the respective person giving such order as well as the information about the abuses given to the Roma detainee; Right to Legal Entity, Children’s Right to Registration and Civil Status: • Meetings should be arranged by the governmental representatives and NGOs with Roma to explain them their right to civil status and citizenship; • Establish the mechanism providing medical service for Roma in maternal homes; • Children must be registered in the hospital after the birth and given Georgian citizenship; • Prevent trafficking; • Birth certificate and Identification Card must be given to every Roma – adult or under age.
Respect for Private Family Life: • Establish monitoring groups regulating the situation in the field of Roma rights defense in the places of their location; • Work out the recommendations in order to improve the situation; • Create the position of Roma rights defender or assign this responsibility to any worker in the municipality near Roma location places.
Rights to Social Security and Social Insurance: • After giving the Identification Card to the Roma, they should be involved in the system of social security; • The programmes should be worked out for establishing and functioning the social insurance system with the joint efforts of the government and organisations working on Roma rights; Participation in Cultural life, Enjoying and Using the Products of Scientific Progress: • Establish a Roma cultural center with the efforts of government and international donor organisations where Roma living in Georgia will be able to realise their potential in art; • Establish musical groups for Roma children in Roma cultural center; • Create circles for handicraft ware; • Create Roma ensembles.
Right to Vote, Participation in Social and Political Life: • Give the documents to Roma confirming Georgian citizenship; • Ensure them with the right to vote and participation in social-political life by the raise of civil educational level.

• Encourage Roma people to establish Roma NGOs.

14 Labour Right: • Provide vocational trainings for Roma in technical institutes where they will get the appropriate education.
They should be involved in training-programmes; • Study Roma employment programmes approbated in other countries; • Work out a special programme with the joint efforts of government and NGOs to employ Roma people and to combat poverty.

Right to Education: • Establish an educational-training center for Roma children where special teachers will be trained for Roma and where they will be taught in the suitable language for them according to the same programme as the representative of other nations in Georgia.
Give them the certificates of secondary or higher education.

• Translate manuals, video materials and other tools approbated abroad into Georgian and Russian; • Establish groups for adult Roma to study Georgian language as well as reading and writing in Georgian; • Pay particular attention to their regions; • Overcome illiteracy of the Roma.
Relationship with Law Enforcement Bodies: • • The Georgian government should clearly explain law-enforcement officials that any kind of incorrect takings from Roma will be punished.

This warning must be repeated periodically.

• The Georgian government should give priority to training and retrain police staff.

Particular attention should be drawn to the importance of the defense of the whole policy, practice and routine.

The attention must be paid to the habits of working with Roma.
The main professional duty of a policeman should be to build healthy and constructive environment with the people.

It would make it easier to defend Roma detainees if there would be a standard register in police containing all the information about the detainees.
This register should describe all the aspects of detention and acts relating to it (the date and time of taking into police and the reason of it; the time of the statement on the detention; when was explained his/her rights to the detainee; information about the physical and psychical abuses; contact with the relative, advocate, doctor or council worker and/or their visits; time of getting food, interrogation and the release, etc.
); In order to prevent all kind of ill-treatment of Roma people, NGOs working in the field of Roma rights, after receiving the statement on physical or moral abuse of Roma in the concrete police department, should be given right to make unexpected visit there.

• 15 Human Rights Information and Documentation Center Human Rights Information and Documentation Center was founded on December 10, 1996 as a non-profit NGO in Tbilisi, Georgia.
It was registered by the Vake-Saburtalo Court of Tbilisi on September 11, 2001, Certificate No 5/9-494.
List of the organization’s activities: Monitoring the human rights situation in Georgia; Study of the concrete facts of human rights violations and distribution of information; Provision of assistance for citizens who have applied to the Center for the restoration of their rights; Fight against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment; Fight against racial, religious, national and other discrimination and intolerance; Development of civic education in the country; Monitoring minority rights in Georgia; Monitoring the migration, Trafficking in human beings and violence against Women; Monitoring the rights of the child; Conflict prevention, resolution and management.
HRIDC runs specific projects regarding: Police and Human Rights; Minorities; The Rights of the Child; Social, Economical and Cultural Rights; Migration/Trafficking; Human Rights Education; Conflict Prevention.
Last two years experience of the organization includes following activities: “Human rights education in secondary schools” (financed by the X minus Y Solidarity Fund, Netherlands); “For building civil society” (financed by the UN Volunteers); "Support for human rights and documentation center" (financed by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, UK); "Juvenile prisoners – part of our society" (financed by the British Embassy in Georgia); "Police and human rights" (financed by the Council of Europe); “Protection center for refugees and asylum-seekers” (financed by the Norwegian Human Rights Fund); "Legal advocacy for IDPs" (financed by the Open Society – Georgia Foundation); "Human Rights Online – Georgia" (financed by IREX/IATP – sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the US Department of State); "Training-seminars on the European Convention on Human Rights" (financed by the Council of Europe); "For peace in the South Caucasus" (financed by the United States Institute of Peace); "Continued support for human rights centre" (financed by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, UK); “Training-seminars on the ECHR, its protocols and case-law for regional human rights NGOs and practicing lawyers” (financed by the Council of Europe); "Training courses on documenting human rights violations" (financed by CORDAID, the Netherlands); “Living together – An Information campaign to popularize the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities” (financed by the CORDAID/Minority Rights Group International); 16 “Human Rights and the Police” (financed by the National Endowment for Democracy, USA); “Translation and publication of Minority Rights Group’s report - The South Caucasus: Nationalism, Conflict and Minorities” (financed by the CORDAID/ MRG); “Trafficking in Human Beings in Georgia” (financed by the UN Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery).
“The Rights of the Child in Georgia” (financed by the Norwegian Human Rights Fund).
International Networks HRIDC is a member of the following International networks: • SOS-Torture – OMCT Network (World Organization Against Torture); • Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems, International (HURIDOCS); • International Peace Bureau (IPB); • Child Rights Information Network (CRIN); • Civitas International; • European Network for Civil Peace Services (ENCPS); • NGO Coalition for International Criminal Court; • UNITED for Intercultural Action - European Network Against Nationalism, Racism, Fascism and Support of Migrants and Refugees.
O U R D O N O R S HRIDC/ISHRG has been supported by the following donors: Council of Europe; Westminster Foundation for Democracy, (UK); United States Institute of Peace, (USIP); Open Society – Georgia Foundation, (OSGF); Norwegian Human Rights Fund, (NHRF); British Embassy in Georgia; IREX/IATP - sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the US Department of State; X Minus Y Solidarity Fund, (The Netherlands); UN Volunteers (UNV); CORDAID, (The Netherlands); Royal Netherlands Embassy; National Endowment for Democracy, (USA); Minority Rights Group International; The World Bank; The UN Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery.
17 OUR ADDRESS : Address: Tel/fax: Mobile: E-mail: Web: 89/24 Agmashenebeli Ave., 12th floor, Tbilisi 0102, Georgia.

(+995 32) 95 10 03 (+995 99) 50 80 36 (+995 77) 45 96 26 hridc@internet.ge ucha@altern.org http://www.hridc.org 18