The Georgian Public Defender’s Office on Tuesday said it had studied 153 alleged cases of discrimination last year, with the highest number related to alleged discrimination on the basis of opinion.
In its eighth annual report on the state of equality - which studies issues related to women, persons with disabilities, ethnic and religious minorities, members of the LGBT+ community and other groups - the Office said the alleged discrimination of opinion had been shown in 20 percent of the cases.
It also added 13 percent of the applications involved alleged gender-based discrimination, while 11 percent pointed to alleged sexual discrimination.
In the report, 10 percent of applicants complained about discrimination based on ethnic grounds and two percent had applied to the Office for alleged religious discrimination, while another two percent claimed they had faced discrimination for membership in a trade union.
The body has issued 10 recommendations, three general proposals and prepared two ‘friend of the court’ opinions on equality issues in response to the cases outlined in the report.
Levan Ioseliani, the newly appointed Public Defender, said on Tuesday the report had highlighted “a number of important issues”, including alleged harassment against women.
He said all cases provided in the report were “equally important”, and pledged his commitment to react to them “strictly”.