The Forms and Prohibition of Discrimination
Gender-equality compliance in Georgia rests on the Law of Georgia on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination. Under Article 2, any kind of discrimination is prohibited in Georgia. Direct discrimination is such treatment or the creation of conditions that places a person, in the enjoyment of the rights established by the legislation, in a less favourable position on the ground of a protected sign — including sex — compared with other persons in analogous conditions. Indirect discrimination is a situation where a provision, criterion or practice that is neutral in form but discriminatory in substance achieves the same result — for an organization this means that a rule formulated neutrally may still prove discriminatory.
The law separately defines harassment — persecution, coercion or unwanted conduct towards a person on any ground, which aims at or causes the violation of the person's dignity and the creation of an intimidating, hostile or degrading environment — and sexual harassment, covering any unwanted verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. Discrimination on multiple grounds is likewise prohibited, as is any action aimed at coercing, instigating or instructing a person to discriminate against a third person. At the same time, discrimination does not include special temporary measures designed to encourage or achieve factual equality — particularly in matters of equality between women and men, pregnancy and maternity — and distinction based on the specific requirements of a particular job.
The Scope of the Law and the Reach of Equal Treatment
Under Article 3, the requirements of the law extend to the actions of public institutions, organizations, natural and legal persons in all spheres — a compliance program therefore concerns organizations of both the public and the private sector. Article 2 extends the principle of equal treatment directly to labor and pre-contractual relations: selection criteria, hiring conditions and access to career advancement at every level of the professional hierarchy, access to professional orientation and the raising of qualifications, and the conditions of employment, work, remuneration and termination of the labor relationship.
Equal treatment also extends to membership in organizations, to the conditions of social protection and health care, to education, and to access to publicly available goods and services, including housing. An organization's internal policy should map precisely onto these spheres: a review of existing rules through the lens of equality often reveals indirect discrimination hiding behind formally neutral wording.
The Obligations of the Organization
Under Article 4, in order to eliminate discrimination any institution is obliged: to review its own activity, legal acts and internal regulations, where they exist, and to bring them into conformity with this law and other anti-discrimination legislation; to react swiftly and effectively to any fact of alleged discrimination; and, where a fact of discrimination is confirmed, to impose responsibility on the violating subordinate person in accordance with the legislation and internal regulations, and to ensure the elimination of the consequences of discrimination without infringing the rights and lawful interests of third persons.
This norm shapes the three main blocks of a compliance program: prevention (an audit of the rules), response (a swift reaction to facts of harassment and discrimination) and redress (the violator's responsibility and the restoration of the victim's position). For an employer this is not a recommendation but a statutory obligation, and its breach is itself a compliance failure.