UN praises Georgia’s progress in human rights protection
By Messenger Staff
Thursday, November 12
Georgia’s progress in protecting human rights was in focus on November 10 in the framework of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Georgian delegation, chaired by Deputy Foreign Minister Khatuna Totladze, informed the 71 participant countries of the discussion over the reforms in Georgia ensuring improvements in the field of human rights protection.
The UPR is a new mechanism developed by the UN Human Rights Council to improve the human rights situation in UN Member States and takes place once every 4-5 years.
It should also be mentioned that Georgia had an opportunity to reveal its achievements in terms of human rights protection two weeks after it was elected as a member of the Human Rights Council for the 2016-2018 term.
In the scope of the event, Georgia’s Foreign Ministry announced that all the participant countries praised Georgia’s achievements in terms of:
• Judicial Independence;
• Penitentiary reforms;
• Measures for the elimination of torture and inhuman treatment;
• Adoption of anti-discrimination law;
• Providing media-friendly environment and media freedom;
• Juvenile justice reform and elaboration of the 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;
• Adoption of the General Administrative Code and improvement of access to public information.
“The UN Member States recommended that the Georgian Government continue to carry out further reforms in the aforesaid areas.
“The delegations gave particularly high praise to the Human Rights Strategy adopted by the Georgian Government and the establishment of the Human Rights Council under the Georgian Prime Minister,” Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said, adding that the country’s progress in the implementation of recommendations under the previous Review was also positively assessed.
With regards to further efforts needed, the recommendations included the need of introducing international monitoring mechanisms in the occupied territories to ensure human rights protection.
“Recommendations were also made regarding ways to address the challenges still facing Georgia. Special attention was paid to the 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; the creation of effective mechanisms for investigating alleged offences by representatives of the law enforcement agencies; accession to Human Rights Conventions to which Georgia is not yet a party,” Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said.
The UPR working group’s report, which will incorporate all recommendations for Georgia, is due to be approved on November 12.
