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The Ministry of Healthcare has been ordered to change the discriminative regulation

2018-05-18 13:51
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GYLA was defending N.T, a citizen of Ukraine, who has a permanent residence permit in Georgia. However, the fact that she is not a citizen of Georgia prevented her from benefiting the component of antenatal surveillance of the Maternal and Child State Program and the caesarean delivery service provided by the State-Funded Universal Healthcare scheme. With GYLA’s assistance, N.T. applied to the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia and as a holder of the permanent resident permit, requested to be given the possibility to use the services of antenatal surveillance component as well as the universal health care program. Our beneficiary was refused to have access to the abovementioned program so that with the assistance of the GYLA's Kutaisi branch N.T applied to the Public Defender of Georgia and requested to establish a fact of discrimination on grounds of nationality.

The Public Defender has established a direct discrimination on the grounds of citizenship and addressed with a recommendation to the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia. In the recommendation, the Public Defender indicated that for the purpose of receiving social / health benefits, citizens of Georgia and other persons having permanent residence permits are essentially in the same situation, as permanent residence permit holders pay taxes determined by the law and contribute to the welfare of the society just like citizens of Georgia, accordingly, the state should not treat them like temporary visitors”. The Public Defender of Georgia addressed to the Ministry with a recommendation "to ensure access to social, economic and health programs existing in Georgia for persons holding residence permits in Georgia on an equal basis with citizens of Georgia and to observe the principles of equality when planning and developing state programs in the future.”