First Round of Seminars in the Frame of the Coalition for Trust Held in Tbilisi

Tamta Tvalavadze

First round of seminars in the frame of the project “South Caucasus Coalition for Rebuilding of Trust” was held in Tbilisi. The project is implemented by Norwegian Helsinki Committee in partnership with local nongovernmental organizations in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. Human Rights Center and Public Movement Multinational Georgia are project partners in Georgia. The project recruited three target groups – journalists, civil activists and students.

From June 27 to July 1 Tbilisi hosted seminars for each target group. The topic of the seminar was Human Rights as an Element of Peace Building.

Norwegian Helsinki Committee implements the project with financial support of the European Commission and Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the South Caucasus countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and in non-recognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The purpose of the project is to contribute to the development of democracy, promotion of human rights, intercultural understanding and reconciliation in the region. Educational activities- seminars are planned in the first year of the project. Next year the project will organize public discussions, meetings, web-seminars and TV-debates on peacebuilding issues.

The topics of the two more seminars scheduled this year are: Intercultural Understanding and Peacebuilding; Transitional Justice and Reconciliation.

One of the coordinators of the Project Coalition for Rebuilding of Trust Nino Tlashadze spoke about the significance of the project: “South Caucasus Coalition for Rebuilding of Trust” is a very significant project because it is implemented throughout the South Caucasus region and aims to establish regional peacebuilding coalition whose members will be civil activists of all three countries and non-recognized republics of the South Caucasus. The Coalition aims to set up a network of Azerbaijan, Armenian, Georgian, Abkhazian and Ossetian students, journalists and civil activists who will develop joint peacebuilding strategy in the region. The significance of the project has increased after the first seminar showed the readiness of Georgian society to take part in similar projects and cooperate with Abkhaz and Ossetian colleagues,” Nino Tlashadze said.

Participant of the seminar Natia Amiranashvili said: “I liked the interactivity of the seminar; participants had to do some practical exercises. Talks about peace journalism were very interesting and I received many professional recommendations which will be very useful in my journalistic activities.”

The overall objective of the project is to set up strong regional platform with the participation of local civil activists, journalists and young people, who will actively cooperate with the representatives of non-recognized republics and will jointly try to rebuild trust and peace in the South Caucasus.