Reports on Implementation of Public Defender's Recommendations Presented in Parliament of Georgia
On February 28, 2018, Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons, Refugees and Accommodation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Culture and Sports, Ministry of Environment and Agriculture, Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure, Central Election Commission and Public Broadcaster of Georgia presented reports on the implementation of Public Defender's recommendationsat the Parliament’s Committee on Human Rights and Civil Integration.
The speakers noted that the agencies pay great attention to the Public Defender’s recommendations, many of them have already been implemented and the results are obvious, while some recommendations are being implemented.
After the presentation of the reports, the session continued in a Q&A format. Among other things, the Public Defender showed interest in the issues related to violence, especially the needs and problems of child victims of sexual abuse; the effectiveness of existing services and the measures taken by the state to solve the problem. In addition, she focused on the implementation of a recommendationon teaching the Georgian language for ethnic minorities and the state's obligation to promote the Georgian language, noting that the existing languageprograms cannot meet the challenges in terms of integration of ethnic minorities into the society. At the end of the meeting, Public Defender Nino Lomjaria talked about the new strategy of the form and content of an annual report, pointing out that it would mainly be focused on underlying systemic problems. In addition, the Public Defender considers that the Parliament of Georgia should start discussion of Public Defender's special reports in a similar format in order to pay proper attention to the thematic problems in the field of human rights.
The Public Defender also spoke about the importance of elaborating the methodology for monitoring the implementation of the recommendations. She thanked the agencies which implemented the recommendations and expressed willingness to continue close cooperation and communication with them.
The Public Defender hopes that in the future the Parliament of Georgia will also present information about the implementation of the Public Defender’s recommendations since part of them concerns the Parliament's legislative work.
The Public Defender will publish an assessment of the reports on the implementation of the recommendations included in the Resolution of the Parliament of Georgia in writing.
The Resolution on the 2016 Report of the Public Defender of Georgia on the Situation of Human Rights and Freedoms in Georgia was passed by the Parliament of Georgia on July 14, 2017, and it reflects up to 240 recommendations of the Public Defender. The Parliament instructed the Government, Ministries and other state agencies of Georgia to implement the recommendations. On February 27-28, 14 agencies presented their reports.