Human Rights Center to Present the Report – “State of Cultural Heritage of Religious Minorities in Georgia”

On February 24, Human Rights Center presented the report “State of Cultural Heritage of Religious Minorities in Georgia” in the National Library of the Parliament of Georgia.

The Report will present findings from the project “Preservation of Cultural Heritage of Religious Minorities” which was implemented from November 1, 2015 to February 26, 2016 with the financial support of the Government of Canada.

In the frame of the Project, Human Rights Center organized field visits in the regions of Racha, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Imereti and Adjara Autonomous Republic to study the conditions of the places of worship of religious minorities. There they studied the state of synagogues, mosques and former catholic churches, as well as identified various problems on the sites. The monitoring group studied the state of the temples in Tbilisi which are claimed by the Armenian Apostolic Church as their properties. Among them are temples about which the Georgian Orthodox Church has different opinion. 

In total, representatives of Human Rights Center photo and video documented the state of 17 places of worship in the regions of Georgia and in Tbilisi. Photographer Goga Chanadiri also participated in the project, who produced photos for the exhibition. 

Human Rights Center made a documentary film “Cultural Heritage of the Religious Minorities.” Several TV-companies aired social advertisement prepared in the frame of the project with the slogan: “Preserve cultural heritage of Georgia!” Specialist of the cultural heritage participated in the project, who professionally evaluated the state of the places of worship of religious minorities. At the same time, he evaluated historical and architectural value of the monuments, which do not have the status of the cultural heritage yet.

As a result of the Human Rights Center’s advocacy, the National Agency for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage granted status of cultural heritage to the mosques in Plate and Adigeni villages. 

To study and evaluate the identified problems from different dimensions, the monitoring group of Human Rights Center met representatives of religious minorities, the Patriarchate of Georgia, various state institutions and the Center of Tolerance under auspices of the Public Defender of Georgia.