Programme Director, International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR)

Simon Papuashvili joined IPHR’s Brussels team in 2012. He initially worked as a project coordinator, managing projects implemented in cooperation with partner groups. In 2017, he became Programme Director and is now in charge of programme development, management and oversight together with IPHR’s Director. Mr. Papuashvili has been active in promoting human rights in his native South Caucasus region for over a decade while practicing law since 2001. In 2004 -2006, he worked for the Georgian government coordinating prison reform and representing the government before the European Court of Human Rights. In 2008 he was actively engaged in documenting human rights violations committed during the armed conflict between the Russian Federation and Georgia, and advocating to end impunity in the region with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. In 2014, Papuashvili co-established Truth Hounds, a Ukrainian initiative that has since thoroughly documented grave human rights abuses and international crimes committed in Ukraine’s Donbas region and Crimea. This work is being done in close collaboration with IPHR. Papuashvili also sits in the Board of Tbilisi Shelter City, an initiative working on rehabilitation, professional development and support to human rights defenders from the former Soviet Union region.