Parliament Human Rights Committee Char: US State Department report reflects Georgia's progress over past year

The annual Report on Human Rights Practices of the United States Department of State “reflects Georgia's progress” over the past year, Mikheil Sarjveladze, the Chairman of the Committee on Human Rights of the Georgian Parliament, said on Wednesday.

The Georgian official noted the document reviewed and appreciated the achievements of Georgia in “improving human rights standards” over the past year, particularly in the reduction of the number of pretrial detainees and the general number of prisoners, as well as their rehabilitation and resocialization, and in the subject of amnesty.

The report does not say anything about which the public is not fully informed and which is not widely discussed. This applies to both the positive and critical parts of the trend,” Sarjveladze noted.

Overall, the report reflects the country's progress in the field of human rights over the past year. It thoroughly identifies the areas and challenges that we need to focus on in the future to plan our activities and put the right emphasis,” the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee said.

Sarjveladze also said the report was “so unambiguous that it leaves no room for any manipulation and misinterpretation”, and called on the public to refrain from presenting its details “in a distorted way by embellishing the facts or not telling the whole truth.” He also added the report included the areas and challenges that Georgia needed to focus on in the future.

A new report on the human rights practices in Georgia, covering the year 2021, was released by the US Department of State on Tuesday.