A/HRC/42/34 holding a Tbilisi pride week, including a public march, later in 2019, while expressing concern about the safety of participants. 23. In its previous reports on cooperation with Georgia, OHCHR highlighted the situation of Muslims in Batumi, who were forced to pray in the open air due to the small size of the mosque. It also provided updates on the appeal proceedings launched on behalf of the New Mosque Building Foundation in Batumi, which had been denied authorization to construct a new mosque.17 By the end of May 2019, three court sessions had taken place in the case and the final decision was pending. 24. On 3 July 2018, the Constitutional Court upheld claims filed by two nongovernmental organizations that certain provisions of the Tax Code and the Law on State Property, providing exclusive tax exemptions to the Georgian Orthodox Church and enabling it to receive State property free of charge, were unconstitutional because they were discriminatory vis-à-vis other religious organizations. The Court ruled that the discrimination should be eliminated, either by abolishing preferences or by extending the privileges to other religious organizations. Although the Court required that its decision be executed by 31 December 2018, the parliament has yet to initiate the necessary legislative amendments. Discussions on the subject continued into 2019, including in the parliamentary Committee for Human Rights and Civic Integration. OHCHR and other international actors and non-governmental and religious organizations participated in the discussions. 25. In her annual report to the parliament for 2018, 18 the Public Defender noted that numerous challenges remained to the equal and effective realization of the rights of persons with disabilities, and that no significant steps had been taken towards the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She also noted that no State entity had been designated to coordinate the implementation of the Convention. On 15 April 2019, at an event co-organized by the Office of the Public Defender and OHCHR to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the ratification of the Convention by Georgia, the OHCHR Senior Human Rights Adviser presented a briefing paper outlining the challenges to implementing this Convention in Georgia. In addition to the lack of a coordinating mechanism and sufficient resources, challenges included the absence of comprehensive legislation compliant with the Convention, a lack of reliable and duly disaggregated statistics, the persistence of a medical approach towards persons with disabilities and prevailing negative stereotypes and stigmatization of persons with disabilities. E. Promoting gender equality and combating domestic violence 26. OHCHR continued to contribute to efforts by the United Nations country team to promote gender equality and combat domestic violence. 27. During the reporting period, the number of women in ministerial posts increased to 4 out of 11, but there was no progress in women’s representation in local self-governance. As of May 2019, there was only one female mayor in Georgia. 19 28. On 30 November 2018, the parliament adopted amendments to the Criminal Code submitted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a result of extensive consultations with development partners and the Office of the Public Defender. The Criminal Code now includes gender as an aggravating circumstance for the crimes of murder, incitement to suicide and intentional infliction of bodily injury, and provides for more severe sanctions in such cases. These amendments followed the recommendations of the Public Defender, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and other development actors to introduce specific regulations on femicide. 17 18 19 A/HRC/36/65, para. 22; and A/HRC/39/44, para. 25. More information in English and a copy of the report in Georgian are available from http://agenda.ge/en/news/2019/906. See also A/HRC/39/44, para. 29. 7