The Strengthening Monitoring and Advocacy Capacities for Rights in Georgia project aims to strengthen the capacity of Georgian civil society organizations (CSOs) to promote and protect human rights.

The project is part of the broader EU Support to Human Rights, Democracy, and Integrated Territorial Development in Georgia, which aims to consolidate and further the progress made in the last decade in terms of human rights, rule of law, and democratic practices. This is also in line with Georgia's commitments under the Association Agreement (AA) signed with the EU in 2014, which includes strengthening the rule of law, respect for fundamental freedoms, and human rights.

The project's overall goal is to enhance the capacities of Georgian human rights CSOs to promote, oversee, and assess the effective implementation of the national human rights strategies, and to increase human rights awareness of rights holders and duty bearers. This will be achieved through a strategy that takes into account the different knowledge needs and institutional capacities of CSOs, and builds on the understanding that effective human rights advocacy requires a combination of specialized knowledge and professional skills.

The project will provide training and capacity-building workshops to enhance local CSOs' and grassroot movements’ human rights investigation, monitoring, reporting, and communication and advocacy capacities, as well as their knowledge of international human rights law. It will also support larger CSOs with national operations to build and scale up their in-house capacities in a sustainable manner through a training-of-trainers program.

In addition to capacity building, the project will provide financial support to CSOs through third-party funding schemes, targeting larger human rights organizations working on a national scale, as well as smaller grassroots initiatives and organizations working on a local scale. The selected projects will cover areas such as monitoring and advocacy in relation to Georgia's national human rights strategies, awareness raising on human rights obligations towards decision-makers or the general public, and the promotion of the rights of vulnerable groups.

Lastly, the project includes an awareness-raising element using monitoring reports that will focus on the rights of freedom of assembly and manifestation and the integration of ethnic minorities.

Overall, will play an important role in strengthening the resilience and capacity of Georgian civil society organizations working to protect fundamental rights in Georgia. By doing so, it can contribute to furthering the progress made in the last decade in terms of human rights, rule of law, and democratic practices.

The objective of the project Strengthening Monitoring and Advocacy Capacities for Rights in Georgia is to enhance the capacity of Georgian CSOs working on the protection of human rights at the national and local levels to oversee state authorities’ compliance more effectively and to increase human rights awareness among right holders and duty bearers. The project will enable Georgian actors to continue the progress they have made in the last decade following the adoption of the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights 2014-2020 and related plans of action. In particular, the project will strengthen the capacity of CSOs and grassroot movements to continuously monitor the human rights situation in the country, promote the adoption of government measures, policies and laws to advance human rights, and - through strategic national and international advocacy - resist a possible backsliding in the sphere of human rights and the rule of law.

The project has the following specific objectives:
1. Improved capacity of Georgian CSOs working on the protection of human rights at the national and local level to effectively oversee state authorities’ compliance with national human rights laws and policies, and to increase human rights awareness among right holders and duty bearers.
2. Strengthening institutional capacities of grassroot movements and local human rights CSOs through third-party funding schemes;
3. Increased awareness among national and local state authorities and the general public on the state’s obligations towards the promotion and respect of human rights in the country and on the implementation gaps of the national human rights strategies.

This project aims to improve the capacities of Georgian human rights civil society organizations and grassroot movements. Here are some of the expected results:

1. Representatives of local CSOs and grassroot movements will be trained through a series of workshops on human rights investigation, monitoring, reporting, and communication, advocacy capacities and other skills identified in the needs assessment.
a. 40 representatives from small, local CSOs and grassroots movements were trained through two 10-day workshops in Tbilisi, each with 20 participants (Cohort 1 and Cohort 2). Additionally, 25 local trainers completed a 40-day certification program in Tbilisi, Batumi and Berlin (Germany), equipping them to teach human rights monitoring and advocacy.
2. Up to four (4) human rights CSOs working at the national level and ten (10) small human rights CSO and grassroot movements working at the local level, supported by our two-tier sub-granting programme, implement monitoring and advocacy activities on Georgia's human rights commitments
3. Two mid-term and two final reports on the overall environment for freedom of assembly in Georgia, published and presented providing recommendations to relevant responsible bodies on actions that need to be taken to advance the right to peaceful assembly and manifestation in Georgia. At least 60 appearances in the media to raise awareness on freedom of assembly in Georgia and share findings and recommendations from the reports. at least 7 statements brief monitoring reports on freedom of assembly published and disseminated through the consortium partners networks. Two annual reports on the inclusion of ethnic minorities in Georgian society through monitoring the implementation of the State Strategy for Civic Equality and Integration 2021-2030 and its action plans. Six information brochures to disseminate online among the general public and local and national state authorities the monitoring findings on the inclusion of ethnic minorities in Georgian society.