Today, on February 3, at the Biltmore Hotel, Razhden Kuprashvili, Director of the Legal Aid Service, made a report on the movement "Make the Law Accessible to All" and presented a new project, called "Paralegals".
Starting from the year of 2022, at the initiative of the Legal Aid Service, the institute of "paralegals" will be launched throughout Georgia.
A paralegal is a person who does not have a higher legal education – he/she is not a lawyer by profession, however, has undergone special training in legal issues, has the necessary knowledge and skills for providing primary legal advice to the population.
A paralegal can be a person of any profession or occupation, or a person without a profession, or employed in the public or private sector, or a person who is not employed, if he / she has the desire to acquire relevant knowledge and pass this knowledge on to the general public - these may be local government employees, regional and central media journalists, teachers, the so-called village “Seniors” or "activists", villagers, representatives of arts, various medical professionals, students, pupils – or just interested people from the age of 15.
Most importantly, those who want to be paralegals, will be trained free of charge and will also serve the population free of charge.
The project was presented to the partner agencies: Human Rights and Legal Affairs Parliamentary Committees, Court, Prosecutor's Office, Office of the Prime Minister for Human Rights, Office of the State Minister for Reconciliation and Civil Integration, Department for Regional Affairs of Government Administration , Public Defender, Bar Association, Mediators Association, also to the donor organizations of the Service: USAID, UNICEF, COE, OHCHR, UNHCR, UNICEF, UN WOMAN;
The campaign to raise the legal awareness of the population - the movement " Make the Law Accessible to All" -began in June, 2021 and continues to this day. Within the framework of the project, despite the pandemic, a number of meetings were held, including mock trials, in different cities of Georgia: Tsageri, Akhaltsikhe, Kutaisi, Gori, Telavi, Keda, Batumi and Mestia.
The new project of the movement "Paralegals" will help raise the legal awareness of the general public throughout Georgia, will prevent gender or discriminatory crime, will make the access to justice more effective, will create a fair, lawful and peaceful environment.