The main trends of the CoE Information Offices' policy are: informing general public on the activities, goals and achievements of the Council of Europe, providing it with detailed explanations on adopted standards and highlighting the Organisation's cornerstone - the Human Rights and related disciplines. The recent democratic changes throughout Europe and the growing number of member states necessitated the establishment of Information and Documentation Centers (CIDs) in 1991 by the Deputy Ministers' 452nd meeting. Later on, the functions of the CIDs were reinforced and according to the Committee of Ministers' resolution (99) 9 from July 28, 1999, the existing Information and Documentation Centers were replaced by the Council of Europe Information Offices (IOCEs).

At present, the Council of Europe has 19 Offices in Central and Eastern European countries - Bratislava, Bucharest, Budapest, Chisinau, Iekaterinbourg, Kyiv, Ljubljana, Moscow, Prague, Riga, Saratov, Skopje, Sofia, St Petersbourg, Tallinn, Tbilisi, Veliko Turnovo, Vilnius, Warsaw.

The Information Office - Tbilisi was opened on 20 April 2001.

The main tasks of the Information Office of the Council of Europe are to:

• Disseminate information on the activities, goals and achievements of the Council of Europe
• Build greater awareness of Council of Europe rules and standards in different professional fields
• Support and promote Council of Europe activities, programmes and projects
• Liaise with international donors in order to develop joint initiatives
• Participate in organising seminars and conferences in cooperation with local partners
• Assist Georgian organisations and institutions in identifying European partners
• Translate, publish and disseminate Council of Europe texts and documents

The Information Office has a library which contains most important publications of the Council of Europe on the organization's structure and activities of its main bodies: the Committee of Ministers (Recommendations and Resolutions), the Parliamentary Assembly (Debates and Adopted Texts) and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe. The library's collection include complete jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and all conventions adopted by the Council of Europe along with their explanatory reports.

The documents cover the following areas: treaties and conventions, law, human rights, local democracy, media, social issues, education and culture, health, environment.

Facilities:

1. The library materials are for internal use only. (However, visitors can be provided with a limited number of copies or big-size texts can be saved on a floppy disk);
2. Certain documents are available in Georgian (conventions ratified or signed by Georgia, brochures, etc.). The IOCE regularly translates and publishes documents on the CoE activities and achievements;
3. The Office has its own web site (in Georgian, English and French), which contains information on CoE activities, as well as material on Georgia-CoE relations.
4. The IOCE Public Relations unit provides the application form and explanatory notes to those who wish to apply to the European Court of Human Rights (Strasbourg).