Tbilisi. Representatives of the Council of Religions functioning with the Public Defender and the CSOs have released a joint statement on the State Agency for Religious Issues. The signatory parties believe that the mandate of a newly created Agency is problematic in several directions. In particular, "the Agency was established and its mandate was defined so that the Government has not consulted about creating such an institute either with the Council of Religions functioning with the Public Defender or the CSOs working on the freedom of religion issues, which, by itself, would have facilitated better apprehension of the Agency's goals and powers."

Source: emc.org.ge