The Public Defender's Parliamentary Report 2015 provides an overview of the human rights situation in the occupied territories. The report notes that violation of fundamental rights, such as the right to life, health, education and movement, continues in Abkhazia and so-called South Ossetia. Ethnic discrimination, illegal confinement and other offences are of regular nature.

Access to education and the right to get it in the native language are particularly problematic in the Gali region. Since the 2015-2016 academic year, students have been taught in Russian in 1-4 grades of the remaining 11 schools where classes are conducted in Georgian, and in other grades the hours allocated for the Georgian language were reduced. Because of this change, some families had to move their children to the territory under the Georgian control in order to enable them to study in Georgian. Shift to the Russian language also significantly deteriorated the quality of education.

The Public Defender addresses the participants of the Geneva talks and the Parliament of Georgia with a recommendation not to spare political, legal and diplomatic efforts to protect the education rights of the Gali residents. In particular, the issue should be properly raised during negotiations, the international community should be properly informed and international legal instruments should be used.

Domestic violence is one of the difficult and, at the same time, tabooed problems in the occupied territories. There are no reliable statistics, but according to information provided to the Public Defender, 129 cases of domestic violence were reported only in the Gali region last year, 5 out of which ended in murders, while one victim disappeared.

In December 2015, the de facto parliament of Abkhazia adopted a law which absolutely prohibits abortion on the territory of Abkhazia, even if the fetus threatens the mother's health. International practice shows that the ban of abortion causes increase in the number of illegal abortions and, therefore, in women's mortality rates. According to the international law, the absolute prohibition of abortion represents a violation of a woman's right to health and private life.

During the reporting period, the Public Defender learnt about a number of violations, however, victims refrain from appealing to the de facto government, or the court, or apply international legal mechanisms, as they fear that more damage will be inflicted to them and their families. According to them, application of international legal mechanisms means that they will have to leave the occupied territories. As the given facts show, the Gali residents do not have access to an effective remedy, which is a violation of their rights.

These problems are aggravated by the fact that international human rights organizations have no access to the conflict regions. The Public Defender considers that the international community must intensify its efforts, including by way of persuading Russia, in order to ensure their representations in conflict regions; while the Georgian authorities should demonstrate maximum flexibility for creation of human rights monitoring and protection mechanisms in the conflict regions.