Ukraine learns about Georgia’s human rights protection strategy

Georgia will share its learned experience of creating a national strategy for human rights with its neighbour and ally, Ukraine.

A Ukrainian delegation arrived in Georgia to learn how the country tacked the serious issue of ensuring and protecting human rights, ahead of Ukraine’s plan to implement their own human rights protection strategy.

The head of the Georgian Government Administration Maia Tskitishvili, Deputy Head Nino Kobakhidze and Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights Valeria Lutkovska met in Tbilisi yesterday and discussed this issue.

"We are pleased that the Ukrainian delegation arrived in Georgia in order to share our experience of the Human Rights Strategy and Action Plan,” Tskitishvili said.

"As you know, this was a very urgent issue for the Government of Georgia. The Government has done its utmost to solve that problem in the country. Numerous steps have been taken in that point of view, including a strategy for human rights approved by Parliament and an action plan worked out by the Government. We are ready to share our experience with Ukraine as well.”

After the meeting, Kobakhidze commented that the visit of the Ukrainian delegation was "very interesting”.

"They are interested in working out and implementing [various] strategies to protect human rights and what the role of government administration is in this process,” she said.

From the Ukrainian side, Lutkovska said the President’s degree to establish a national strategy for human rights was an issue in Ukraine and it was "essential” for her country to learn from Georgia’s experience following the adoption of its human rights strategy in March this year.

"The President’s decree issued in our country is designated to set up a working group for human rights protection in order to obtain a national strategy on the matter. In April 2014, a document of this type was approved in Georgia,” Lutkovska said.

"In this regard, we had a very interesting exchange of information with the Georgian side. We talked about how the strategy was being developed and what are the mechanisms of civil society to influence the policy-making and implementation process.”