On the 24th of November, the Social Justice Center organized a conference: “Inter-ethnic relationships, Micro-conflicts, and Integration Policy.”

The meeting was opened by Christian Schoenenberger, the Head of the Mission of the Embassy of Switzerland in Georgia who shared the experiences of inclusive politics from Switzerland and discussed some findings for the Georgian context.  

On the first panel discussion, the speakers, Nino Gogoladze - representative of HCNM in Georgia, Keti Shubashvili - The Head of the Equality Department at the Public Defender of Georgia, and Tamta Mikeladze – the Director of Equality Policy Program at the Social Justice Center, discussed and assessed the State Strategy for Civic Equality and Integration (2021-2030). The speakers applauded the critical and self-reflective language of the strategy; however, the speakers mentioned that the strategy does not introduce essentially new approaches to build an equitable social and political environment and inclusive society. The speakers also maintained that it is important to include some tangible steps on the level of the action plans.

On the second panel, the speaker discussed the micro-conflicts that took place in the Village Buknari and the city of Dmanisi and the challenges of the conflict transformation policy by the government. During the panel, Tamar Gurchiani – An associated professor at the Ilia State University, and Kamran Mamedli and Tamta Mikeladze - the team members of Social Justice Center, shared their observations, findings, and recommendations. The speakers underlined that the state institutions in the face of the manifested inter-communal conflicts do not work on the substantial transformation, on trust-building, and on building dignifying environment. Therefore, only police responses to the tensions are not enough and could not be considered as an adequate response. 

On the Third panel, Social Justice Center introduced the findings of the research paper, the Implications of the Second Karabakh War on the Ethnic Azerbaijanis and Armenians of Georgia. The research paper was prepared with the methods of participatory action research by Tigran Tarzyan, Kamran Mamedli, and Kote Chachibaia. On the same panel, former State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, Paata Zakareishvili presented his perspectives on the nearest history of the region, shared his experiences, and discussed the importance of peace and cooperation in the region. 

The conference was made possible through projects supported by the Embassy of Switzerland in Tbilisi and the Open Society Foundation in Georgia.