Legal Consultation Centres

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, High Commissioner on National Minorities (OSCE HCNM) has recently financed the project “Legal Public Information and Advice Project”. The non-governmental organization Union of Democrat Meskhs will implement the project. The implementation of the project will start on 1 February 2004. The aim of the project is to set up Legal Consultation Centres in three districts of Samtskhe-Javakheti.

Legal Consultation Centres will be set up in Akhaltsilkhe, Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda. Qualified lawyers and consultants will give consultations to the population of Samtskhe-Javakheti. The centre will also engage in dissemination of public information activities by ways of publication, round tables, and public discussions.

Briefly about Performance of Legal Consultation Center

From February 2004 through October 2004, Akhaltsikhe, Ninotsminda and Akhalkalaki Office of the Legal Consultation Center (LCC) had provided the legal consultation to grate number of citizens. Particularly, Akhaltsikhe Office of LCC had consulted 308 persons, Akhalkalaki Office - 242 persons, and Ninotsminda Office – 232 persons; during this period all three offices of LCC totally provided 782 legal consultations. Besides, we organized 10 meetings between population and authorities of various state bodies.

From 1^st of November 2004, female lawyers have been employed by Akhaltsikhe, Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda Offices of LCC. Their objective is to provide legal consultations for women in relation to issues, which they prefer to consider with female lawyers. These problems mostly relate to family relations. Despite small lapse of time, female lawyers have consulted already 30 women that indicate the necessity of provided services. Legal consultations are available in Georgian, Armenian and Russian languages