Study visits of religious communities to Brussels and Washington, D.C.

CDD has been actively cooperating with religious communities since 2014. In 2016-2017 CDD organized two study visits of the high-ranking delegation to Brussels and to Washington, D.C. The aim of the visits was to increase the involvement of the traditional religions’ representatives in the process of Georgia's Euro-Atlantic integration.

The visits were acclaimed as historically important by the media for their unprecedented importance.

The delegation in Brussels consisted of representatives of the high hierarchy of the Orthodox Church. During the visit, high-level bilateral meetings were held in the European and Euro-Atlantic structures, at NATO HQ, EU institutions, in the European Parliament.

The visit to Washington was the first time for a delegation to consist of religious leaders from the Georgian Orthodox Church, Muslim Community, Latin Catholic Church of South Caucasus and the Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Georgia.

Within the scope of the visit, in addition to bilateral meetings, an international inter-religious conference was held to promote dialogue and discussion between religious leaders, civil society and academia. Furthermore, to discuss the role of religion in democracy and western values.

The study visits were carried out within the framework of the project "Georgia Member of the European Family" funded by the British Embassy in Georgia and Good Governance Fund (GGF). Other supporters of the project were: National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Embassy of Georgia to the US, Information Center on NATO and the EU.