Tbilisi. On May 13, 2016, the Public Defender of Georgia addressed the Government of Georgia to draft amendments to the law on higher education in order to bring the law in compliance with the principle of equality and to provide every student with the right to participate in the management of a higher educational institution regardless of their association membership.

''The Public Defender considers that the students’ right to be elected to the representative body of the department and participate in the management of the university is unjustifiably linked with the fact whether they are members of a certain association or not, as far as this represents a barrier for students to enjoy their rights and does not have any practical purpose. Such kind of approach without reasonable justification puts non-member students of the self-government in unequal conditions, which constitutes direct discrimination on grounds of association membership,'' noted in the statement.

Source: www.ombudsman.ge