To celebrate equality and diversity, the Equality Week in Georgia is back this year with creative and interesting activities. The annual tradition marks around the International Day for Tolerance (16 November) with its activities planned on 15-24 November. The aim of the Equality Week is to raise awareness about the importance of diversity and equality in Georgia as well as to provide information on redress mechanisms for the victims of discrimination. It is organised by the Council of Europe Office in Georgia together with partner institutions, organisations and allies supporting equality in Georgia.  

If you are interested in creative ways to support equality, make sure to check the Equality Hackathon products, such as interactive game on equality, wheel map and a map on gender equality. The presentation of these products will take place on 15 November at 15:00 PM at Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency (GITA). The event will take place in hybrid format due to participants limitations in line with COVID-19 safety regulations. The interactive game on equality, wheel map and a map on gender equality will be published on I Choose Equality Facebook page during the Equality Week period.

Information sessions, trainings and seminars will be organised in Tbilisi and the regions of Georgia for various target groups on the redress mechanisms, discrimination, tolerance, equality and diversity together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Prosecutor’s Office, Office of Resource Officers of Education institutions, Training Center of Justice, Public Defender's Office, Equality Ambassadors and civic activists

The Retail Association representing different retail outlets will join Equality Week this year by displaying visibility items supporting equality as well as information materials on redress mechanisms against discrimination in certain retail stores. The visibility items and information materials will be available free of charge in Batumi and Tbilisi.

During the Equality Week, various competitions and exhibitions will take place. Intellectual game “What? Where? When?” on equality and diversity will be organised online by Equality Ambassador on 24 November at 16:00 PM. An essay competition on equality and diversity will be run by Academy of Ministry of Internal Affairs. An exhibition of posters on equality and diversity is also planned during the week.

Moreover, on 16 November and on 17 November the Coalition for Equality will  held online lectures and discussions on "Equality and the Law on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination" and “The Equality Policy in the General Education System”

Some of so many other events include:

• Training for the Organization of Film Screenings in Schools: “Using documentary films as tools for nonformal education” is by the Caucasian House and the Noosfera Foundation in cooperation with the Council of Europe Office in Georgia and Equality Ambassador Gülgün Mamedkhanova, within the project CinéDOCSchool, of the international documentary film festival CinéDOC-Tbilisi
• Presentation of the report ‘’Mapping National Responses to Hate Speech in Georgia”.

You can learn more about many of the activities happening during Equality Week on the I Choose Equality campaign’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/IChooseEquality/

Equality Week is implemented in the framework of the I Choose Equality Campaign which is part of  the co-operation project “Fight against Discrimination, Hate Crimes and Hate Speech in Georgia”. The project is implemented under the Council of Europe’s Action Plan for Georgia 2020-2023 with the support of the Danish Neighbourhood Programme in Georgia (DANEP).