A/HRC/42/34 18. On 17 May 2019, the inter-agency coordinating council against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment 13 adopted a new National Action Plan on Combating Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment for 2019–2020. OHCHR participated in the work of the Council and provided comments on the draft Action Plan, most of which were accepted. Among other things, the Action Plan requires video recordings made at the penitentiary establishments to be kept for a longer period of time and for the compilation of statistics on allegations of ill-treatment of certain vulnerable categories of individuals, such as persons with disabilities, to be improved. D. Combating discrimination 19. In her submission to OHCHR, the Public Defender highlighted improvements in the anti-discrimination legislation, namely the inclusion of harassment and sexual harassment as forms of discrimination, in February 2019, and amendments adopted on 3 May 2019 strengthening the anti-discrimination mechanism in the private sector and extending the term for filing complaints with national courts in alleged cases of discrimination. The legislative changes broadened the mandate of the Public Defender and would more generally enhance the effectiveness of the mechanism to fight against discrimination. 14 20. At the same time, the Public Defender stressed that deeply rooted societal stereotypes, negative perceptions and misconceptions persisted, reinforcing discrimination against vulnerable groups. In 2018, her Office had considered 158 newly submitted cases of alleged discrimination, with discrimination or incitement to discrimination established in 22 cases, while 63 cases had been terminated on various legal grounds. The largest share of the complaints concerned alleged discrimination on the grounds of gender, religion, political or different opinion, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity, disability and citizenship. Discrimination was most frequently alleged in the public sector and in the context of pre-contractual and labour relationships. The Public Defender reported that the most vulnerable groups in terms of realization of the right to equality remained women, persons with disabilities and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons. Religious minorities had also frequently had recourse to her Office regarding alleged hate crimes. 21. As previously mentioned, the Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity visited Georgia during the reporting period, from 25 September to 5 October 2018. In his end-of-mission statement, he noted that virtually all conversations held during the visit had led him to presume that physical and psychological violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people were pervasive in Georgia. 15 In its submission to OHCHR, the Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group stated that the number of cases of hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex individuals, as documented by non-governmental organizations, exceeded the official statistics by many times. The Group noted that the Law on the Elimination of Domestic Violence, Protection and Support of Victims of Domestic Violence did not consider an intimate partner to be a family member and thereby failed to regulate violence committed by such partners. 16 It also noted that transgender people could not change the gender marker on their identity documents since the mechanism for legal recognition of gender identity was not regulated by law. 22. In 2019, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community decided to cancel the annual rally it had held in recent years on 17 May, on the occasion of the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, as the Georgian Orthodox Church had declared 17 May to be Sanctity of Family Day. Part of the community expressed interest in 13 14 15 16 6 Established under the Ministry of Justice. The anti-discrimination mechanism has two tracks, with victims having the possibility to address their complaint to the Public Defender’s Office or the Court. See www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23682&LangID=E. According to the information provided by the Government of Georgia, intimate partners might be considered to be family members if they shared a common household with the victim.