UN human rights chief visits Georgia

The Government of Georgia attaches great importance to the rights and freedoms of its citizens, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili says.

The leader of the Georgian Government made this statement at a meeting with the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay yesterday.

Pillay started her official visited to the Georgian capital city, Tbilisi, on May 18. She is scheduled to stay there for two more days and discuss the human rights situation in the country with various officials.

Earlier today the UN High Commissioner visited Khurvaleti village, near the Administrative Boundary Line with de-facto South Ossetia.

There she met locals and inspected their living conditions. Pillay also visited local village along the occupation line.

The United Nations official saw the barbed wire fences installed by Russian soldiers. In the future she planned to visit the settlements where internally displaced people live.

In the meantime, Pillay already met with a number of Georgian Government officials.

The parties discussed the current human rights situation in Georgia and the effectiveness of the current laws. It was noted the situation had improved dramatically since the 2012 Parliamentary elections.

The Prime Minister of Georgia informed the United Nations representative that based on recommendations of a number of international figureheads, including European Union’s special representative Thomas Hammarberg, the UN and local rights advocates, Georgian authorities had developed a national strategy to protect human rights and adopted an action plan, which was approved by Parliament.

Before ending her visit tomorrow, Pillay will meet Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili, Parliament Speaker David Usupashvili, chairman of the Supreme Court Konstantine Kublashvili and Public Defender Ucha Nanuahsvili.

The High Commissioner is set to hold a press conference tomorrow evening to sum up her visit.