Eastern Partnership countries discuss human rights issues in Tbilisi

Members of parliaments from four Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries are gathering in Tbilisi this week to discuss the role of national parliaments in implementing standards of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Today and tomorrow parliamentarians from Georgia, Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine, as well as from other Council of Europe member states, were due to discuss with independent experts about the compatibility of each country’s draft laws with the European Convention on Human Rights and the role of parliaments in the effective execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.

The event was organised by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly within the framework of the Council of Europe and the European Union’s (EU) Programmatic Cooperation Framework for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus.

Earlier today in his opening speech Georgia’s Parliament Speaker David Usupashvili stressed that many developed European countries and their legislative bodies faced problems regarding protection of human rights.

Georgia has passed, and I can say, a worthy way to implement laws in everyday life in order to protect human rights. 

Even very developed countries face problems in this regard now. Of course we are facing more problems than developed European states and we need our foreign allies’ support to refine our legislative field and Parliament to successfully monitor the law enforcement process,” Usupashvili said. 

The Georgian official voiced his regret over the absence of Azerbaijani representation, hoping that the current problems between Azerbaijan and European structures would be settled shortly. 

On September 10 this year the European Parliament made a resolution concerning Azerbaijan that demanded the immediate release of journalists and human rights defenders from prisons.  

The solution was condemned by the Azeri side as "hasty” and "biased”. 

In response the parliament of Azerbaijan decided to stop all activities of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly.