Marine Kapanadze
Marine is a Director of the Civil and Political Rights Program at Georgian Democracy Initiative. She has been actively engaged in the human rights field for more than nine years. She protects the interests of various groups (journalists, activists, religious minorities, LGBTQI individuals, etc.) on the national and international level, including by representing them before the courts. Apart from Civil and Political Rights, Marine also manages the teams working on strategic litigation and the protection of the principle of equality.
Beyond her primary work, Marine is actively engaged in the educational sphere. She is a national consultant of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights and the Council of Europe and a trainer at the Georgian Bar Association. Marine also is Visiting Lecturer at the Free University of Tbilisi and the University of Georgia, where she instructs human rights-related courses. Moreover, Marine is engaged in different youth initiatives and non-formal projects (Franklin Academy, “Idebate”, etc.) that are focused on developing critical and analytical thinking among young people.
Marine holds a Bachelor’s degree in law from the Free University of Tbilisi (2011-2015) and a Master’s degree in law from the University of Cologne (2016-2017). She is a participant of the Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP) run by Columbia University, and the Alumnus of the Professional Fellows Program (PFP) supported by the US State Department. Marine is also the recipient of scholarships from the German Academic Exchange Program (DAAD) and the Swedish Institute (SI).