A presentation of the Special Report of the National Preventive Mechanism

On December 13, the Public Defender of Georgia published the Special Report of the National Preventive Mechanism which reflects the results of the monitoring carried out in the first half of 2011 by the Special Preventive Group of the Public Defender’s Department of Prevention and Monitoring in penal establishments and temporary detention isolators with the status of the National Preventive Mechanism.

The presentation of the Special Report was attended by representatives of diplomatic missions and international and local NGOs, as well as by the Minister and Deputy Ministers of Corrections, Probation and Legal Assistance.

The Special Report of the National Preventive Mechanism pays particular attention to facts of ill-treatment and the exercise of the right to health care. The report analyzes the causes and tendencies of mortality of prisoners. It thoroughly describes the condition in penal establishments and temporary detention isolators under the Main Division of Human Rights Protection and Monitoring of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia in the first half of 2011.

In the reporting period, the National Preventive Mechanism carried out 36 planned and 241 unplanned visits to Georgia’s penal establishments and 42 planned and 80 unplanned visits to the temporary detention isolators of the Main Division of Human Rights Protection and Monitoring of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia.

The Public Defender addresses the Georgian government, the Ministry of Corrections, Probation and Legal Assistance, the Department of Prisons, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the chief Prosecutor’s Office with relevant recommendations in relation to each concrete issue. He also addresses the Georgian Parliament with a proposal.

The Public Defender considers that implementation of the aforementioned recommendations will contribute to the eradication of the problems and shortcomings that exist today in the places of restriction and deprivation of freedom.