Georgia

In September 2020, the "Memorandum of Understanding of Cooperation on Collection of Data on Crimes Committed on the Grounds of Intolerance with Discrimination Basis and Publishing a Joint Report", was signed by signed by the Supreme Court of Georgia, the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO), the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the National Statistics Office of Georgia. The memorandum specifies the data points to be recorded by each agency and published in a joint publication including data from the Supreme Court.

Furthermore, the GPO issued guidelines for prosecutors and investigators entitled "Effective Investigation of and Procedural Guidance over the Crimes Committed against Human Rights Defenders", which incorporates international standards for investigating crimes against human rights defenders. The document addresses issues such as the definition of a human rights defender and special terminology, as well as legal classification of an offense committed against a human rights defender and effective investigation. 

Based on the General Prosecutor's order of 1 September 2020, procedural supervision on hate crimes shall be conducted by specialized prosecutors. The selected prosecutors and investigators undertook an intense refresher training course. In 2020, a total of 136 specialized employees, including 77 prosecutors, 4 investigators, 36 managers, and 19 witness and victim coordinators were trained on hate crimes. 

In July 2020, the prosecution charged Sh. G., among others, with the criminal offence of intentional killing committed based on gender [Article 109 §2 subparagraph d (1) of the Criminal Code]. The perpetrator had verbally and physically assaulted S. Sh., who was in an unregistered marriage with the accused, and then he poured petrol over her and set her on fire. The victim survived with the help of people gathered at the scene. Tbilisi City Court fully accepted the evidence presented by the prosecution and found Sh. G. guilty of intentional murder attempt, however charges with respect to gender-based discrimination were dismissed. Sh. G. was sentenced to 17 years in prison. The Prosecutor then lodged an appeal requesting a conviction with gender-based discrimination motivation. At the time of the publication of ODIHR's 2020 Hate Crime Report, the case was pending before Tbilisi appellate court.