People living in the highland villages of Adjara frequently seek advice on legal issues and court disputes related to land registration from student-paralegals and Legal Aid Service (LAS) consultants during awareness-raising meetings.

To address this matter, the USAID Rule of Law Program in partnership with the Legal Aid Service (LAS) organized a training [as part of "Make Justice Accessible for All: Paralegal Initiative”], session on May 10. Twenty-seven student-paralegals from the Adjara region participated, focusing on land registration issues.

Levan Saneblidze, Head of Monitoring Service of the Internal Control Division at the National Agency of Public Registry, led the training. He provided insights into the implemented and ongoing land reforms in Georgia, along with a legal analysis of both systematic and sporadic registration of real estate rights.

Levan Saneblidze also discussed topics such as organizing and systematizing documentation, special conditions for land ownership registration, and the roles of the National Agency of Public Registry and municipalities in this process.

The training covered the registration of ownership rights for legally possessed land plots, the recognition of ownership rights to arbitrarily occupied land, and the necessary documentation to establish such arbitrary occupation. It also examined the Constitutional Court of Georgia's case law concerning restrictions on foreigners' ownership rights to agricultural land and cases involving the registration of foreigners' ownership rights within the reform framework. At the end of the training, students were divided into groups and assigned specific court decisions related to land registration issues to apply their newly acquired knowledge in practice.

By equipping student-paralegals with knowledge and skills, this initiative fosters legal literacy within communities and strengthens access to justice for all. The LAS and the USAID Rule of Law Program are actively planning informational meetings where student-paralegals will share their knowledge with the local population.