Georgia’s President meets UN Secretary General

United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says the organisation will use all available means to improve the poor human rights situation in Georgia’s Russian-occupied regions.

Ban Ki-moon met Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili in Turkmenistan within the framework of Margvelashvili’s visit to Ashgabat to attend the Global Sustainable Transport Conference there.

The Ashgabat meeting focused on the UN’s importance in securing world security and stability, as well as for promoting human rights and sustainable development. 

In this context, President Margvelashvili spoke to Ban Ki-moon about the ongoing violations of basic human rights in two of Georgia's regions which are currently occupied by Russia, meaning Tbilisi cannot control the territories or support the people who lived there. 

The two regions are Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).

Margvelashvili stressed that many fundamental human rights of ethnic Georgians were violated on a daily basis in these two regions. Some of the violations included:

• The right to an education in the native language; and
• The right to free movement.

The UN Secretary General noted that the organisation will pay special attention to this topic and use all available means to improve the situation,” the Administration of the President of Georgia said in a statement following the meeting.

Margvelashvili also mentioned to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Russia was planning to hold a referendum about Tskhinvali region joining the Russian Federation next year. The President said if that happened, it would be "yet another step by Russia towards annexation of Georgian territories”.

Georgia's President believed the international community had a great role in standing up against Russia’s illegal actions in Georgia.