URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY

GEO 001 / 1110 / OBS 087

Acts of violence /

Physical assault

Georgia

October 14, 2016

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and FIDH, requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Georgia.

Description of the situation:

The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the assault of three international election observers  from a joint mission of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC), International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) and the European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE).

According to the information received, on October 8, 2016, just before midnight, a group of unidentified men broke into the polling station 79 in the Village of Jikhashkari, in Zugdidi district (West Georgia). They disrupted the counting procedure, broke the ballot box, damaged election items and physically attacked the observers. They took the phone of two of the observers, while the third observer, a woman, was tripped and hit with

an elbow.

The police was present during the scene and did not intervene. The observers subsequently filed a complaint at the Zugdidi Central Police Station on the same evening. As of issuing that Urgent Appeal, two suspects had been

apprehended.

The joint international election observation mission was established on September 12, 2016, in Georgia, and on the day of the first round of the parliamentary elections, 36 accredited observers were deployed in the country to visit more than 200 polling stations.

The Observatory strongly condemns the assault against the above-mentioned human rights defenders, and would like to remind Georgia's obligation to protect international observers in all circumstances under both the national Election Code and the OSCE Copenhagen Document.

The Observatory nonetheless welcomes the investigation conducted by the Georgian police and the inquiry opened by the General Inspectorate regarding police’s behaviour, and hopes that the investigations will be carried out impartially and transparently, in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before an independent tribunal, and sanction them as provided by the law.

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