It has already become a tradition that the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia celebrates International Human Rights Day with various events throughout the country. This year, the EUMM Field Office Mtskheta – after delivering a well received presentation on human rights issues - invited students from Tbilisi State University to take part in a competition for the best essay on the topic ‘My Vision of Human Rights in Georgia’. The submitted essays touched on topics such as the situation of ethnic and national minorities, of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) as well as the mistreatment of prisoners. The winners were presented with prizes during an official ceremony on 10 December, International Human Rights Day.
On the same day, local inhabitants from Mtskheta were invited by Field Office Mtskheta to attend a successful concert of Georgian traditional music and dance which took place at the premises of the Mtskheta municipality.
Meanwhile Field Office Zugdidi presented stories on human rights issues in their regular Wednesday radio show on the channel ODISHI.
Field Office Gori celebrated this day with a discussion panel held at Gori University, in cooperation with the university faculty members as well as the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA). Over 80 students – predominantly from the Law Faculty – attended the seminar. They actively engaged in a discussion on the topics of human rights protection and legislation in general and in the context of Georgia as well as the work performed by human rights defenders. They also exchanged their opinions on human rights related issues after the 2008 August war.
Last but not least, the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia contributed to the Tbilisi International Film Festival by presenting the EUMM Human Rights Film Award. The award went to the UK/South Africa film “SKIN” directed by Anthony Fabian. It was a deeply emotional biographical story about a South African woman born to white parents but classified as coloured during the apartheid era. The prize was handed over to Mr Anthony Fabian by the EUMM Head of Mission, Ambassador Haber.
All these different and imaginative events and activities were well received and supported and EUMM will continue to organise similar events in the future. All this is on top of the hard work in the area of human rights that is regularly performed mainly by our Humanitarian Issues and Human Rights Teams at all three Field Offices.