The Report reviews the state of human rights in Georgia in 2017. The report evaluates the state of human rights in the main areas, such as penitentiary system, facts of ill-treatment in penitentiary and police facilities, activities of the new department of the prosecutor’s office, cases which raised high public interest (hereinafter referred as high-profile cases), facts of planting drugs on citizens, freedom of media and expression, state of persons with disabilities, rights of LGBT individuals, violence against women, including the facts of domestic violence, municipal elections and more.
Throughout 2017, the facts of ill-treatment of citizens from the side of police officers and investigation of those facts were main challenges, also the rights of vulnerable groups were abused and those facts were not effectively investigated.
According to the evaluation of Human Rights Center, regardless of the significant amendments in the legislation, important challenges still remain in terms of identification and prevention of the violence against women and domestic violence. The law enforcement bodies of Georgia continued to inadequately address the human right violations of religious minorities and LGBTQ individuals in 2017. The different facts of violence committed against these groups are left unpunished that goes contrary to the positive obligation of state of Georgia to ensure adequate protection and security of minorities.
The report was presented in the conference hall of Human Rights House Tbilisi.
The Report was produced in the frame of the project “Legal Aid and Human Rights Monitoring”. The Project is implemented with financial support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).