UN human rights expert holds “productive” meetings in Georgia

A United Nations (UN) human rights official is ending her visit to Georgia after holding "very productive meetings” with Georgian leaders.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay is in Georgia on her first official visit. Tomorrow, after spending five days in Georgia, Pillay will return home.

Today, the UN official held a press conference and said her time in Georgia was positive.

She said she had had "very productive meetings” with high-ranking Georgian officials, including the chairman of the Supreme Court, members of the Public Defender's Office and representatives of civil society.

Pillay emphasized the Government, led by Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, had embarked on a wide range of reforms in the area of human rights and rule of law.

"One of the most important of these has focused on depoliticizing a dysfunctional judiciary and law enforcement system. This is a major task that will take time to complete, but it is widely recognized that there is already some progress,” Pillay said.

"Until recently, 99.9 percent of defendants were being convicted in the criminal court. The acquittal rate is now starting to get more realistic, as judges grow used to being more independent from the executive and from the prosecutors, for example by showing a greater inclination to demand prosecutors properly justify their requests to place defendants in pre-trial detention.”

Pillay urged the Chief Justice and all judges in Georgia, as well as prosecutors and employees of the law enforcement agencies to fully cooperate with the judicial reform process.

"An extraordinarily high number of criminal cases are still being resolved by plea-bargaining. The plea-bargaining system – coupled with the previous virtual certainty of being convicted if their cases came to court – has at times meant innocent defendants have been left with no option but to pay exorbitant fines demanded by the prosecutors, with minimal involvement of judges – a form of officially sanctioned extortion, that led to people losing their homes and businesses,” she emphasized.

In general terms, Pillay said Georgia had a "very active and vibrant civil society”, which had significant contributed to the reform process.

The UN High Commissioner also paid tribute to Georgia’s efforts ahead of signing the Association Agreement with European Union.

"Legislation has been adopted, drafted or is planned in virtually all major areas where there are clear deficiencies and I do not recall visiting any country during my six years in office where such a wide-ranging and thorough programme of human rights legislative reform has been launched in such a short space of time,” Pillay stated.

"Of course, passing laws is one thing and effectively implementing them is another. Effective implementation will only be achieved if there is careful coordination across all relevant Ministries, and I was therefore encouraged to hear from the Prime Minister that an inter-ministerial Human Rights Committee has been set up under his supervision.”

Pillay started her official visited to the Georgian capital city, Tbilisi, on May 18. During her time here she has met President Giorgi Margvelashvili, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and a number Government officials, including the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Internal Affairs.

She also held meetings with the chairman of the Supreme Court, Parliament chairman, Georgia’s Public Defender, civil society representatives, the UN country team and members of the international community.

Yesterday Pillay visited Khurvaleti village, which is located near the Administrative Boundary Line with de-facto South Ossetia. There she met locals and inspected their living conditions. Pillay also visited other local villages along the occupation line.

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