Progress and challenges of human rights in Georgia
By Levan Abramishvili
Monday, October 21
To date, The National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights 2014-2020, adopted by the Georgian Parliament in 2014 had the main focus of work on legislative and policy reforms. The expert praises Georgia for significant steps taken in this regard, most notably in significant amendments to the Constitution, and new laws about anti-discrimination, juvenile justice, occupational safety, child rights, and the protection of migrants and asylum seekers.
Nevertheless, the expert states that in the next period, more emphasis must be placed on monitoring the sustained implementation of these laws and policies in practice and assessing their impact on the protection and enjoyment of human rights.
Although noting that the Public Defender's position in this process is crucial, the expert notes that Parliament has a “critically important” monitoring responsibility.
The expert underlines that the culture of human rights “has still to take firm root throughout the country” and recommends that MPs, government officials, and religious leaders should be at the forefront of the discussion on the need for tolerance, equality, and non-discrimination.
“Their voices have a direct influence on society. All leading figures should be persistently vocal on the point that all human rights are for all, and this is a message that should percolate down to all levels of public service, in the city and out in the regions,” reads the report on implementation of the National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights 2014-2020.
Among other findings and recommendations, the report states that the development of a culture of transparent, democratic law-making, involving consultations with stakeholders, should continue and be strengthened.
It also underlines that the independence of judges and prosecutors in practice needs to continue to be addressed vigorously and all efforts should be made to protect media pluralism.
The report notes that numerous highly positive improvements have been made concerning the justice system, penitentiaries and the prevention of torture and ill-treatment.
Establishment of the “long-awaited” independent investigation mechanism to look into alleged cases of misconduct by law enforcement officers, the State Inspector Service is welcomed in the report as an indication of the Government’s resolve to fight impunity. “The State Inspector must be provided with the resources necessary to function effectively from the outset, and the Prosecutor’s Office and the courts to lend their essential support,” notes the report.
Under the areas that require further attention, the report touches upon the highly controversial selection and appointment of Supreme Court judges.
“For public trust in the judiciary to be restored, there must be concrete evidence that judicial appointments will be made fairly, based on objective criteria, and that any interference with the independence of individual judges, from within as well as outside of the system, or in the conduct of the courts, will be dealt with appropriately,” reads the report.
The report identifies hate-motivated crimes as one of the key challenges in Georgia, noting that there remains concern that the State has not done enough to respond to the activities and messages of ultra-right extremist and nationalist groups that target minorities.
“…effecting change in this area begins with leaders speaking out publicly to defend tolerance and non-discrimination, especially as regards LGBTQI representatives. A specific strategy and guidelines, accompanied by sanctions, should be drawn upon the protection of the rights of LGBTQI persons,” recommends the expert.
As far as gender equality is concerned, the report explicitly mentions the need to develop stronger mechanisms to foster greater participation of women in political life at the national and local levels. The expert notes that it’s interesting to follow how the recently-adopted measures by Parliament prohibiting harassment, including sexual harassment, are observed in practice.
The report further analyzes the progress achieved and the challenges remaining in each of the specific areas prioritized for the period 2014-2020 in The National Human Rights Strategy, which envisaged legislative, institutional and practical changes.
The presentation of the expert report was followed by an account of the results of the joint EU-UN “Human Rights for All” program, under which the report was commissioned. It was implemented over nearly four years by four UN agencies: UNDP, OHCHR, UNICEF and the International Labour Organization (ILO).
The Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia H.E. Carl Hartzell noted that “respect for human rights is at the core of EU-Georgia relations.”
“It remains our goal to continue assisting Georgia in building a society where a culture of human rights takes firm root throughout the country and for all citizens. We are looking forward to supporting the development of the next national human rights strategy here in Georgia,” he added.
The UNDP Head Louisa Vinton emphasized that the new report provides Georgia with a valuable and timely guide to make progress on its human rights path.
“Protecting human rights requires deeds as well as words. Although Georgia has made praiseworthy progress in almost all areas covered by the current strategy, much human rights business remains unfinished. Coming just a year before the strategy ends, this new assessment provides a helpful and timely roadmap for Georgia to follow in advancing its human rights journey,” said Ms. Vinton.
The Public Defender of Georgia Nino Lomjaria spoke about the progress made by Georgia in the refinement of the human rights legislative framework, but highlighted shortcomings in the practical implementation of legal norms.
According to her, the Interagency Coordination Council for Human Rights must examine why the commitments under the action plans of previous years have not been fulfilled, as a result of which a part of the government's action plan for 2018-2020 repeats certain parts of the action plans of the previous years.
“I would like the Government's human rights action plans to refer more to the Public Defender’s recommendations and to consider the Public Defender’s evaluations and reports as one of the key indicators of achieving the goals outlined in the plans. It would also be good if future action plans referred to the annual parliamentary resolutions, by which the Parliament endorses several key recommendations of the Public Defender and instructs various executive agencies to implement the recommendations,” said the Ombudsman in her speech.
The program “Human Rights for All” helped implement and track Georgia's National Human Rights Strategy for 2014-2020 and accompanying action plans for 2016-2017 and 2018-2020 in areas prioritized by EU-Georgia agreements. These included minority and vulnerable groups' rights, internal and external law enforcement oversight, labor rights, freedom of expression and information, privacy and personal data protection, as well as children's rights.