President: Georgia must protect human rights

"The 2014 year was very grave for us because of the violence against women,” said Georgia’s President at a special reception marking International Human Rights Day.

President Giorgi Margvelashvili addressed the audience at yesterday’s event, which was organised by the Public Defender of Georgia, and spoke about the importance of this day and the protection of human rights.

The Head of State also spoke about the traditional values which were currently being abused in the country.

"Over the past two years we have taken very serious steps towards the protection of the rights of every individual but the greatest threat to human rights protection is complacency,” he said.

"The 2014 year was very grave for us because of the violence against women which erupted so strangely. We are starting … to combat this problem by destroying the clichés that … exist among us.”

He said instead of making strong statements that claimed women were respected in Georgia, the community should admit that modern society had "abused this ancient and traditional value” which resulted in tragedies, "which we’ve seen and suffered”.

Margvelashvili noted that Georgia would experience similar disappointment regarding other traditional values if society remained complacent. He noted typically Georgian society was proud of its tolerance towards religious and ethnic issues and if attitudes did not change, this tolerance could possible dissolve.

"We’ve always been a nation in which other ethnicities found their place and home but even if for a second we are complacent … we’ll definitely abuse them too. That’s why the building of our economy or other type of state development can be compared to other bad or good periods, but when we speak about human rights, only the ideal outcome should be targeted,” the President noted.

"Therefore I think it’s incorrect to compare the current state of human rights protection to what we had in recent periods, for instance, in the period of the previous government. I don’t think that the quality of our tolerance should be compared to that of our ancestors, even though our ancestors really succeeded to make Georgia a multi-religious and multi-ethnic state.

"Today we have to rely on today’s ideals. The supreme value of contemporary Georgia is human rights, freedom – this is the main idea of our state. But not only the state, but the whole community should do their best … to create a free and strong state that’s focused on protection of the rights of every single individual,” he said.

Margvelashvili then pledged support to the Public Defender and stated that the current imbalance and problems relating to human rights protection must be eradicated. He also said society should be united in every case of violence no matter if it involved women or prisoners, or was related to religious or ethnic issues, and problems should be overcome by joint efforts of each structure and institution.

At the end of his speech, President Margvelashvili thanked the Public Defender for its effective work in the human rights sphere in 2014.

Georgia’s Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili, representatives of the Georgian Government and Diplomatic Corps congratulated the audience on International Human Rights Day. The event was also attended by Governmental authorities, representatives of non-governmental organisations and invited guests.

International Human Rights Day has been marked on December 10 annually since 1948. This year, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights celebrated the day with the message "Human Rights 365”, meaning human rights should be protected 365 days a year.