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On January 28 UN to Discuss Human Rights Situation in Georgia

January 27, 2011
Salome Achba

On January 28, the UN Human Rights Council will discuss the human rights situation in Georgia in 2006-2010. The government of Georgia will present its report to the Council after what they will hear recommendations and remarks from the UN member states. Besides the government of Georgia, the civil society and NGO sector presented joint alternative report on the human rights situation in Georgia to the UN Human Rights Council.

“Universal Periodic Review” – this is mechanism which was created in 2006 and which granted a mandate to the UN Human Rights Council to periodically discuss the human rights situations in the UN member states. On January 28, 2011 the Georgia has to present its report and the UN will discuss the situation in our country this time.

Besides the report provided by the authority, the UN relies on the information provided by the NGO sector and civil society during the Universal Periodic Review. It prepares the recommendations based on the information and reports of the civil society.

Last year, four Georgian non-governmental organizations prepared alternative joint report for the UN: Georgian Young Lawyers Association, Human Rights Center, Article 42 of Constitution and Georgian Free Trade Union of Teachers and Scientist. The report was prepared with the support of the Human Rights House Foundation and was sent to the UN in July of 2010. The report covered the human rights situation in 2006-2010.

Constitutional amendments, November 7 of 2007, the fraud elections in 2008, Unfair Court, excessive use of force by law enforcement officers and murder of citizens, hard conditions in detention settings, restricted right to expression and assembly – this is the short list of human rights violations observed during the last four years in Georgia which were observed in the joint report of the Georgian NGO sector.

“The Constitution provides for an independent judiciary. However, the court system continues to lack public trust. The level of independence of judges raises serious concerns in cases where state/ruling party has any kind of political interest. Judicial authorities continued to act as a rubber stamp for prosecutors' decisions”, the alternative report of the NGOs states.

The report also highlights the increased cases of Illegal deprivation of life as a result of excessive use of force by law enforcement officers. “Law enforcement officials used excessive force mostly in a hot pursuit special operative activity to arrest an alleged criminal and/or prevent a crime. Until now, no one has been held responsible for dozens of murders on the spot committed by police officers”, the report states.

The alternative report criticizes “zero tolerance’’ policy of Georgian government that is named to be the main reason for 300% growth of prisoners since the year 2003.

In the form of recommendation representatives of NGO sector remind government that the law-enforcement officials should resort to detainment and imprisonment as an ultimate measure.

The report presented to UN by the NGO sector covers the concrete cases of human rights violations – the disperse of peaceful demonstrators on November 7th, 2007, the use of plastic bullets against the demonstrators on May 6th of 2009 without preliminary warning which injured tens of people and deprived eyesight of two, the beating of protestors in front of MIA on June 15th of 2009 by the policemen dressed in civil clothes.

Ana Natsvlishvili was a representative of Human Rights Center in the coalition of NGOs and is a coauthor of the report presented to UN. According to her, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs introduced the initial version of the report to NGO sector and requested the preparation of recommendations and remarks.

“We discussed the report prepared by the state. The main concern was that it talked more about the theoretical issues such as legislative amendments and what legislative base or mechanism was created by the State. The concrete human rights violations occurred in Georgia for previous years were not discussed. I would like to emphasize that the human rights violations of systematic nature occurring in Georgia were not mentioned. We asked for more concretization, asked concrete questions the answers of which we wanted to hear in the state report. Besides, we were asking state vision or plan to be reflected in the report, how the human rights situation was planned to be improved in Georgia; how the protection of human rights was planned to be more effective. Also we offered that if they wished we could have an official meeting to discuss our recommendations and opinions. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond on this. We do not know whether our remarks were envisaged and amendments made in the ultimate version of report,” – states Ana Natsvlishvili.

What kind of report will be presented to UN by Georgian government, whether or not it envisaged the remarks of NGO sector and what recommendations and response it will receive by UN will be clarified on January 28th at the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva.

alternative joint report: http://humanrights.ge/admin/editor/uploads/pdf/27%20gaero%20-%20UPR-_final__1_%5B1%5D.pdf

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