UN praises Georgia’s efforts to improve human rights protection

The United Nations (UN) has positively assessed Georgia’s reforms that aim to improve the human rights situation in the country.

A Georgian delegation to the UN presented a report on the reforms and measures the Georgian Government has carried out since 2011 to improve the protection of human rights in Georgia. The event took place in the framework of the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva yesterday.

Seventy-one UN member states took part in the review of Georgia’s Report and afterwards they praised the progress achieved by the country in the following areas:

• Judicial Independence;
• Penitentiary reforms;
• Measures for the elimination of torture and inhumane treatment;
• Adoption of Anti-discrimination Law;
• Providing a media-friendly environment and media freedom;
• Juvenile Justice reform and creation of the Juvenile Justice Code;
• Strengthening the free legal advice service;
• National policy against domestic violence and violence against women;
• Promoting the integration of minorities into society and ensuring ethnic and cultural diversity in the country; and
• Adoption of the General Administrative Code and improvement of access to public information.

The UN member states recommended the Georgian Government continue to carry out further reforms in these areas, Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said.

The Ministry also said foreign delegations gave a particularly high assessment to the Human Rights Strategy, adopted by the Georgian Government in 2014 and the establishment of the Human Rights Council under the Georgian Prime Minister.

Special emphasis was placed on the necessity of introducing international monitoring mechanisms in the Russian-occupied territories of Georgia to ensure human rights protection there too.

Meanwhile recommendations were offered to address the challenges still facing Georgia. Special attention was paid to the following:

• Protection of the rights of women, children and people with disabilities;
• Allocation of adequate resources for the Public Defender to ensure the effective implementation of anti-discriminatory legislation;
• Creation of effective mechanisms for investigating alleged offences by representatives of law enforcement agencies; and
• Accession to Human Rights Conventions to which Georgia is not yet a party.

The UPR working group’s report, which will incorporate all recommendations for Georgia is due to be approved tomorrow.

The UPR is a new mechanism developed by the UN Human Rights Council to improve the human rights situation in the UN member states. This mechanism involved a review of the human rights records of all UN member states once every 4-5 years. Two weeks ago, Georgia was elected a member of the Human Rights Council for the 2016-2018 term.