On June 27, 2024, the Parliament of Georgia adopted a resolution relating to the Public Defender’s 2023 Report on the Situation of Human Rights and Freedoms in Georgia. With the resolution, the Parliament of Georgia instructed state agencies to implement the recommendations issued in the Public Defender's 2023 parliamentary report.

In the 2023 parliamentary report, the Public Defender made 301 recommendations to the state agencies, autonomous republic and municipal bodies, as well as officials. The Parliament of Georgia reflected approximately 74.42% of the mentioned recommendations in its resolution (about 12% of them were partially reflected). The rest of the recommendations were not reflected in the resolution or are not considered to be reflected on the grounds that substantial changes were made in them.[1]

In the resolution, the Parliament of Georgia issued 270 tasks to ensure the implementation of the Public Defender's recommendations. It should be noted that part of the tasks issued by the Parliament miss the spirit of the recommendations of the Public Defender, due to the essential changes made in their wording, and thus the Public Defender’s Office considers that they do not represent tasks based on the recommendation of the Public Defender. In addition, some tasks were repeated and presented twice in the resolution (duplicated tasks), etc. Detailed analysis and data on the rate of reflecting the Public Defender's recommendations will be reflected in a special report - on the implementation of the mentioned resolution of the Parliament, which will be prepared by the Office after the expiration of the deadline given to the agencies to fulfill the tasks, namely, after March 2025.

Unfortunately, compared to previous years, the number of recommendations that the Parliament did not reflect in the resolution has increased. In particular, in the resolution of 2023, the Parliament did not reflect 23 recommendations included in the Public Defender’s annual report, this indicator was 23 recommendations in 2022 as well, while in the resolution of 2024, the Parliament did not reflect 44 recommendations of the 2023 parliamentary report of the Public Defender. The list of the mentioned recommendations is attached to this statement in the form of an appendix.

It should be noted that until this stage, the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee has not held a meeting in the Parliament, where the fulfillment of the tasks issued in the 2023 resolution of the Parliament was to be discussed and the relevant conclusion was to be developed.[2]

The Public Defender calls on the Parliament of Georgia to strengthen the parliamentary oversight mechanisms in the process of monitoring the implementation of mandatory tasks issued by him, and in turn expresses readiness to cooperate with state agencies in all formats for the proper fulfilment of the tasks issued by the Parliament.

[1] The rate of reflecting the recommendations can be slightly clarified by the Public Defender’s Office as a result of the communication with the state agencies and the analysis of the information received from them. The clarified data will be reflected in the special report of the Public Defender on the implementation of the resolution N4332-XIVms-Xmp of the Parliament of June 27, 2024

[2] The said obligation has been determined by the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee under the second paragraph of Article 163 of the Parliament's Rules of Procedures and Article 6, Paragraph 4 of its provisions. The latest conclusion of the Committee on the implementation of the resolutions adopted by the Parliament is available on the website of the Parliament. Only information regarding the resolution of 2019 can be found. See < https://info.parliament.ge/#law-drafting/20671 > [12.09.2024]