The Public Defender has assessed the fulfillment of recommendations offered in the Parliamentary Report on Situation of Rights and Freedoms in Georgia in 2013, a year after the Parliament adopted a decree on 1 August 2014.

The Parliament has partly shared the Public Defender’s recommendations and commissioned the Committee on Human Rights and Civil Integration to monitor fulfillment of the recommendations. Following a request from the committee, relevant state agencies presented reports about fulfillment of the Public Defender’s recommendations. The Public Defender positively assesses performance of the Committee on Human Rights and Civil Integration and hopes for continuation of cooperation, especially given that the existing format promotes improvement of quality of Government’s accountability to the Parliament.

It should be noted that the Parliament’s procedure of adopting a decree will lose any sense if important recommendations of the Public Defender are not taken into account. Unfortunately, part of recommendations included in the parliamentary report and parliament’s decree remains beyond the Government’s attention. Among them are recommendations, immediate fulfillment of which is necessary for establishing high standards of human rights in the country.

The Government has not fulfilled the following recommendations included in the parliament’s decree of 1 August 2014:

• To create an institutionally independent investigative agency for effective functioning of investigative system.
• Investigation of the cases of the individuals killed in the Lopota Gorge special operation on 28 August 2012 to be carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia with full observation of principles of independent, unbiased, quick and effectiveinvestigation.
• To conduct thorough, effectiveand timely investigation into the facts of deprivation of life, torture, inhuman and degradingtreatment, which contain signs of alleged crimes committed by law enforcers.
• To carry out quick and effectiveinvestigation of the alleged crimes committed during and after the military activities of August 2008, including the cases of the missing persons.
• To create a state institution for monitoring safe labour environment.
• To launch ratification of Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Protection of All Personsfrom EnforcedDisappearance and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Parliament’s 1 August (2014) decree does not include some of the recommendations offered in the Public Defender’s Parliamentary Report on Situation of Human Rights and Freedoms in Georgia in 2013, implementation of which is still important for good governance, strengthening of democratic values and institutions in Georgia. These recommendations are the following:

• To categorize facts of ill-treatment under articles of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment instead of the article pertaining to abuse of power, by taking into view the circumstances of the case.
• To elaborate guidelines on the use of disciplinary sanctions so that the practice of application of such sanctions is consistent in all penitentiary institutions.
• To provide infrastructure for video visits in all penitentiary establishments and for long-term visits in the penitentiary institutions nos. 5, 7, 8 and 12.
• To approve new rules of medical referral and forms of administering medical statistical information.
• To provide definition of an eco-migrant and obligations of the state with regard to eco-migrants at the legislative level.

The fact that some state agencies continue working on thorough and final fulfillment of the Public Defender’s recommendations can be positively assessed. The Public Defender hopes that, as a result of joint constructive and coordinated efforts, it will be possible to achieve international standards of human rights in the country.