Reports of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, State Minister’s Office for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, Ministry of Refugees and Ministry of Education and Science on Implementation of Public Defender’s Recommendations
The Parliament’s Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee has started consideration of the implementation of the recommendations issued by the Parliament’s resolution of June 24, 2016, concerning the Public Defender’sReport on the Situation of Human Rights and Freedoms in Georgia in 2015.
On February 21, 2017, Deputy Foreign Minister Khatuna Totladze spoke about the implementation of the PublicDefender's recommendations by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Public Defender considers that only one out of three recommendations - the use of all available means to more actively engage international human rights organizations and the United Nations treaty bodies in the study of human rights situation in the occupied territories - can be considered fulfilled, even though the steps taken by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have not yielded any concrete outcome.
The international human rights organizations and the United Nations treaty bodies express concern that their representatives are not able to enter the occupied territories, which can be considered a result of the efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The report notes that the “necessity for the creation of an international security mechanism in the occupied regions, as well as a mechanism for monitoring the human rights situation, had been regularly raised at the Geneva talks".
Unfortunately, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been trying to launch procedures required for the ratification of the European Council Convention of 18 June 2009 on Access to Official Documents for five years now, though it has failed to achieve results.
Although procedures for the ratification of Article 3 of the European Social Charter (The right to safe and healthy working conditions) have been launched, the term for the implementation of the recommendation is unknown.
On February 21, the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee listened to the report on the implementation of the Public Defender’s recommendations by the State Minister’s Office for Reconciliation and Civic Equality as well. The report was presented by Deputy Minister Petre Kiknava.
The Public Defender’s recommendation referred to the elaboration of a strategy and an action plan for socio-economic development of conflict-affected regions in the short term and their submission to the Government for approval.
It should be noted that the State Minister’s Office developed a strategy and an action plan for socio-economic development of the conflict-affected regions in 2014 and for 2 years since then they have been reviewed periodically at the sessions of the Temporary State Commission Addressing the Needs of Population Living in Villages Adjacent to Dividing Line. However, certain topics reflected in the draft strategy have lost relevance and therefore, the document needs to be updated. The Public Defender considers that the strategy and the action plan are not recommended to be approved until they are updated.
At the Committee session the Public Defender showed interest in the situation of Georgian detainees in the Tskhinvali and Sokhumi prisons and a plan for their release. According to the Deputy Minister, the issue has been raised at the Geneva talks, and hopefully, some measures will be planned.
In addition, complex efforts are underway and the State Minister’s Office tries to find resources to compensate the conflict-affected people living along the dividing line, while the Temporary State Commission Addressing the Needs of Population Living in Villages Adjacent to Dividing Line is actively working to solve the social problems of the affected population.
The State Minister’s Office, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is trying to raise the issue of access of international organizations to Abkhazia and South Ossetia at all levels.
The position of the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees was presented by First Deputy Minister Grigol Giorgadze.
Although the criteria for granting one-time financial assistance has been defined following the Public Defender’s recommendation, it would be better each criterion to envisage the needs of a family and one of the foundations of granting the assistance to be the promotion of funding of higher education.
The recommendation on the indication of factual and legal basis of decisions on refusing accommodation of IDPs in the protocols of the IDPs’ commission sessions has been partially implemented, since, as a rule, factual circumstances indicated in the protocols cause ambiguity among IDPs and create problems during appealing against the decisions.
The recommendation on the regulation of procedures for ascertaining the factual residence of IDPs at their legal addresses and definition of appropriate criteria was partially implemented. The Public Defender considers that the form of census has been really developed, but the procedure is not clear; it is not indicated how the form should be filled in, how many times the monitoring service should arrive at the specific address, how the actual residence should be ascertained, etc.
First Deputy Minister of Education and Science Lia Gigauri spoke about the implementation of the recommendations by the Ministry of Education and Science.
The recommendation on the identification and prevention of violence, including bullying, by teachers, resource officers and principals of educational institutions, as well as early marriage, and systemic training in child protection referral procedures has been partially implemented, since the number of retrained teachers is quite low, while according to the inspections conducted at public schools, it is necessary to regularly and systematically train teachers of public schools and raise their awareness of the management of complex behavior and prevention of violence. It is welcome that the Ministry is going to launch video lectures, appeals and recommendations at public schools.
It should also be noted that educational institutions often violate the referral procedures. During 2016, the Public Defender examined two cases of suspended education due to early marriage. In both cases, the schools violated the requirements of the referral procedures.
The recommendation on continuation and strengthening of state language teaching programs in minority-populated regions has been partially implemented. The Ministry carries out a variety of programs for teachers of non-Georgian schools and other groups, which should be praised, but the measures cannot fully ensure training-retraining of teachers. It is desirable that the professional training and retraining seminars and teaching programs be conducted more frequently.
The recommendation on strengthening the efforts aimed at raising the qualifications of special teachers (especially in regions) has been partially fulfilled. The course for professional development of special teachers of the LEPL National Center for Teacher Professional Development involved 235 specialists across the country in 2016, which is a very low number. In addition, the Public Defender considers that the course cannot replace university programs and cannot be used to grant a status of a special teacher.
Reports of Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Implementation of Public Defender’s Recommendations
Reports of Ministry of Education and Science on Implementation of Public Defender’s Recommendations
