The civilized world celebrates Human Rights Day on December 10. By the decision of the UN Human Rights High Commissioner's Office, the main message of this year is: “Stand up for Someone's Rights Today”.

On December 10, 2016, the Public Defender presented a report on the situation of human rights and freedoms in Georgia in 2016 to the representatives of the diplomatic corps, international organizations and civil society.

The report reflects the significant achievements and problems in the field of human rights; implementation of the basic principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be impossible if these problems are not solved.

In 2016, several positive changes have taken place in the penitentiary system, including: treatment of hepatitis C with Sofosbuvir medication became available for foreign nationals and stateless persons following the Public Defender’s recommendation; pursuant to the changes made to the rules of the penitentiary facilities, the term of placing prisoners in the de-escalation room was reduced to 72 hours; the Public Defender and the Special Preventive Group were granted the right to take photos in the penitentiary facilities.

This year the Public Defender has addressed the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia with two proposals concerning alleged ill-treatment of prisoners; both cases were categorized under article 1443 , which should be regarded as a positive trend.

However, a number of problems still remain in terms of the prevention of ill-treatment in prison, including criminal subculture in the facilities, alleged cases of ill-treatment, poor living conditions and flaws in the identification and documentation of cases by medical personnel.

Ill-treatment of the detained persons by police officers is still an acute problem. Despite this, the Prosecutor's Office has not arrested any police officer in relation to the investigations mainly launched on the basis of the applications submitted by the Public Defender or applicants themselves.

Among the positive trends it is worth emphasizing that the frequency of the use of detention as a pre-trial measure has been reduced over the years.

There have been cases of violation of the right to fair trial. One of the main recommendations of the Public Defender concerning electronic distribution of cases in courts has not been implemented so far.

Violation of the right to private and family life was still alarming. The Prosecutor's Office of Georgia has not yet found the individuals which released the videos showing others’ private life.

There are a number of systemic problems in terms of freedom of religion, tolerance and equality, while the state has not taken effective steps to overcome them. Among the problems are: barriers in issuance of permits for the construction of religious buildings for religious minorities, ownership of the disputed religious buildings and effective investigations of alleged religious-based crimes.

Participation and involvement of national minorities in the decision-making process is low. Teaching of mother languages within the school educational course and the level of provision of information to the population of minority-populated regions about the country’s developments remain problematic.

The report also includes information about the court dispute about the Rustavi 2 TV Company.

The state has not taken effective steps to improve the human rights situation of LGBT persons or to prevent the cases of violence committed on grounds of hatred; homophobic manifestations also remain problematic.

No essential violations, which could have affected the final outcome of the elections, were revealed during the monitoring of the parliamentary elections, and the significant part of the violations was caused by the lack of qualifications of election commission members.

The initial registration process of real estate ownership rights has not been completed yet.

The right to the protection of cultural heritage is not adequately realized in the country. Disputes with large private economic interests are not settled in favor of cultural heritage. Destruction of the archaeological sites during the construction of Ruisi-Rikoti roadway, as well as the ancient gold mine of Sakdrissi-Kachagiani, has not been yet investigated.

No mechanism for supervising labour safety and working conditions, which would minimize the number of casualties in the workplace and eliminate similar accidents, has been created.

Amendments are needed to be made to the current system of environmental impact assessment, which does not apply to the substantial part of the activities. Healthy environment is deterred by noise pollution and lack of effective mechanisms against it.

Protection of children from poverty and poor living conditions, as well as protection of children living and working on the street from violence, is still a problem. It was revealed that the responses of the responsible authorities are not effective and rapid in some cases. High rate of infant mortality remains a challenge.

The Council of Europe Convention of 2011 on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence has not been ratified yet; no system has been developed for the assessment of the danger of recurrence of violence; no individual action plan has been devised for the protection of victims. Gender equality remains a problem in the country. In particular, women's political and economic activity is low, while the scale of violence against women and domestic violence is alarming; femicide represents a particular problem. In addition, high rate of early marriages is noteworthy.

It is welcome that marriage registration rules were changed following the Public Defender's legislative proposal, as a result of which, only the court is authorized to issue a marriage license for persons aged 17-18.

The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has not yet been ratified. Physical environment, infrastructure, transport and information are still unavailable for persons with disabilities.

Majority of older persons live in poor socio-economic conditions; their registration in the database of vulnerable families, after which they would receive allowances, is complicated;

The legal framework doe not provide proper definition of a homeless person; there is no statistical data of homeless people and therefore, the scale of homelessness is vague; infrastructure and financial resources are poor.

Standards of granting social allowances and provision of information about these standards need to be improved.

The main problems of the people living in border villages are severe social conditions and lack of the source of income. They still face serious challenges with regard to the right to education, access to health care, freedom of expression, property rights, child's rights and violence against women.

The needs of eco-migrants and their socio-economic conditions have not been addressed. Political importance of the repatriation of the persons displaced from South Georgia and their Georgian citizenship are still a subject of discussion.

The rights situation of recruits and recruiting conditions also remain problematic.

The Public Defender has been summarizing the situation of human rights and freedoms in Georgia on 10 December each year since 2013.

See the electronic version of the report