Building Capacity of Georgia’s Civil Society on Advocacy before the UN Human Rights Mechanisms

Over 25 regional civil society organization (CSO) representatives attended an interactive training course held by the South Caucasus Field Presence of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Georgia under the Human Rights for All - Phase II project funded by the European Union (EU). The training (2) covered the East and the West Georgia aiming to empower the civil society representatives in their efforts to strengthen the knowledge on how to advocate before UN Human Rights Mechanisms, prepare and submit individual alternative reports to UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies and Universal Periodic Review (UPR), thus taking part in shaping Georgia’s human rights policies and practices. The special focus was also drawn to the Special Procedures and their mandate.

Senior Human Rights Advisor for the South Caucasus Field Presence of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Vladimir Shkolnikov in his welcoming remarks to the training participants said: “CSOs play a prominent role in monitoring human rights policies, legislation and actions of decision-makers. When needed, they bring attention to shortcomings in certain practices to advocate for the needs of communities they represent. UN OHCHR values the important role played by the civil society in promoting and protecting human rights and continues to work for a strong civil society in Georgia.”

Last visits of Special Rapporteurs in Georgia and their latest recommendations, role of the civil society in this process was also reviewed at the training led by the UN OHCHR and UNDP Georgia representatives: Besarion Bokhashvili, Human Rights Officer at OHCHR, Sophio Benashvili, Program Manager at OHCHR and Nino Jomardidze, Human Rights Policy Coordinator at UNDP Georgia.   

“The organization I represent works with children and youth, including on protecting their rights. In practice, we often encounter cases of human rights violations and we have to turn to various organizations for help. The given training enabled me to competently reflect the facts of human rights violations and purposefully select the addressees, thus this will help us to better protect the rights of our beneficiaries.” – said Natia Mekvabishvili training participant from the Association Umbrella.

Likewise, Nino Maisuradze from the Union Lampari - organization of parents of persons with disabilities - thinks that knowledge of procedures for submitting alternative reports to UN Human Rights mechanisms, review of technical and content requirements will help her to analyze to what extent the state fulfills its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Head of the Center for Civic Involvement and Activism (CEAC) in Marneuli Rashan Ziadaliev said: "There are international mechanisms to ensure that human rights and the democracy are not just on paper. The 3-days training course, involved a number of useful topics; however, I was particularly interested in the Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council aimed to improve the human rights situation in the UN Member States. Involvement of civil society organizations in the mentioned process and submission of their individual or coalition reviews is very important. In future, we are also planning to share an overview of the problems faced by ethnic minorities in the field of human rights.”