On February 26, 2015, representatives of the Public Defender’s Office held a working meeting with members of civil society on rights of conflict-affected population.

At the meeting, a bulletin reviewing Public Defender’s activities on human rights of conflict affected population in 2014 was presented. The bulletin encompasses information on Ossetian Forum, a consultative council at the Public Defender’s Office, which was established in January 2014; also, recommendations of the Public Defender regarding the protection of social, cultural and educational rights of conflict-affected population.

In 2014, the Public Defender and his representative conducted around 100 monitoring in conflict-affected villages of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and Shida Kartli regions, provided consultations to over 300 citizens and studied 30 individual cases that mainly concerned the access to education and healthcare for residents of the conflict-affected regions, as well as freedom of movement, social issues and rights of prisoners.

At the meeting, civil society representatives also provided their accounts on human rights situation in conflict affected regions and suggested some recommendations to be elaborated in Public Defender’s Parliamentary Report. The participants also talked about the Public Defender’s special report on Zardiaantkari; discussed a special report on freedom of movement and rights if prisoners; and outlined problems related to citizenship issues of ethnic Ossetian population living in Georgia who were affected by the armed conflict.

At the end of the meeting, the participants agreed on another working-format meeting where they will once again discuss existing problems and find ways to resolve them.