OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session includes clause condemning situation in Georgia's Russian-occupied regions in security resolution

An ongoing session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Monday included a clause condemning the situation in Georgia's Russian-occupied regions in its security resolution at the request of Maka Botchorishvili, the Chair of the European Integration Committee of the Georgian Parliament.

The clause says that the resolution, titled “The role of the OSCE in the current security architecture: a parliamentary perspective”, “condemns the deterioration of the humanitarian and human rights situation in the regions of Georgia occupied by the Russian Federation, Abkhazia and Tskhinvali/South Ossetia, the violation of the basic freedoms and human rights of the population living there, and various forms of discrimination against ethnic Georgians”.  

The document also condemns erasure and changing of Georgian characteristics from monuments of Georgian cultural heritage in both occupied regions, which it says “is a direct result of the permanent occupation and ‘Russification’ policy of the Russian Federation”.

Botchorishvili stressed it was “urgent and important not to leave Georgia aside” and not to adopt the resolution without reflecting the situation in the occupied regions.