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On 4th-6th of October 2009 the meeting of the preparatory group of the Georgian-Russian Civil Dialogue was carried out with the assistance of OSCE/ODIHR and Embassy of Switzerland to Georgia. This meeting hosted representatives of the Public Movement “Multinational Georgia”, “Union “21st Century”, Moscow Helsinki Group, International Youth Human Rights Movement, Foundation for Public Diplomacy, Helsinki Citizens Assembly International. The group was working on the principles of the newly created Community of organizations and individuals, its agenda for 2010-2011 and establishment of the Supervising Committee which will be coordinating the activities of the Community members.

Declaration of the Community has been adopted during the meeting. It defines the following guidelines.
Primary area of cooperation encompasses common actions aimed at minimizing the humanitarian problems of the civil population, which suffered in the result of different armed conflicts, including protecting the rights of these people and conducing to the defusing of conflict situations, civil population may fall the victim of.

Among other directions:

1. Dialogue “Remembrance and Future-building”
2. Dialogue about standards of Human Rights, supremacy of Law and democracy in our countries and in the region in general (involving combating xenophobia and discrimination and support of long-term peacemaking initiatives)
3. “Public dialogue” in the spheres of educations, culture, art, literature and journalistic, direct contacts among the youth, teachers, students, etc.
4. Cross-border dialogue – the support of initiatives of all levels in this respect.

Supervising Committee of the Community has been established in the following composition:

Georgia
Agit Mirzoev – Public Movement “Multinational Georgia”
Paata Gachechiladze – “Union “21st Century”
Nina Tsikhistavi – “Caucasus Women’s Network”

Russia
Ludmila Alekseeva – Moscow Helsinki Group
Yuriy Jibladze – Civil Network of Russia
Konstantin Baranov – Young Europe

Partner Countries
Elena Tonkacheva – Foundation for Legal Technologies Development (Belarus)
Daniil Mescheryakov – Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine)
Andrey Yurov – International Youth Human Rights Movement (internationally)

Outcomes of the meeting were publicly announced during the side event included into the program of the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting. Representatives of the OSCE/ODIHR, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, “Freedom House-Europe” and a number of Polish organizations expressed their interest in supporting the Community at information and advocacy levels.

However the meeting was connected to the deplorable fact of preventing of Ms. Anastasia Denisova (member of the Coordinating Committee of the International Youth Human Rights Movement and preparatory group of the Georgian-Russian Civil Dialogue) from attending HDIM in Warsaw by the Service of Aircraft Security in Krasnodar International airport. Facts of pressure on Ms. Denisova and attempts to limit her freedom of movement repeatedly took place during last three months. Representatives of the Georgian-Russian Civil Dialogue expressed deep concern about the given facts and called upon active reaction on behalf of international human rights organizations.