On October 11, 2023, Public Defender of Georgia Levan Ioseliani participated in the session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva (Switzerland). A presentation of the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights relating to the Human Rights Council Resolution (52/40) on Cooperation with Georgia was held within the framework of the session.

Speaking at the event, Levan Ioseliani reviewed the state of human rights in the occupied territories of Georgia and noted that the right to life remained a serious challenge in those territories. According to him, the cases of alleged torture and killing of Georgians in occupied Abkhazia and Akhalgori have not been properly investigated and no one has been punished, the feeling of impunity further deepens the fragile security situation, which is especially felt by the ethnic Georgians living in these areas.

The Public Defender talked about the illegal detentions and imprisonment, the frequent practice of arbitrary restriction of freedom of movement by the de facto regimes, which hinders the access of local people to health care. He also spoke about the negative consequences of the prohibition of education in the native language in the occupied Gali district and emphasized the need to restore the access of international non-governmental and donor organizations to the occupied regions.

"The Russian Federation is responsible for human rights violations in occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as it still maintains effective political, economic and military control over these territories.

Once again, I express deep concern about the situation created in the occupied regions and call on the international community to use all possible formats to force the Russian Federation to allow the full and unrestricted access of international observers to the occupied territories of Georgia," the Public Defender said at the end of his speech.

Members of the UN Human Rights Council also expressed their opinions regarding the Resolution (52/40) on Cooperation with Georgia, the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the situation in the occupied territories of Georgia.