Bulletin - Periodic Edition, March, 2014
In March, we completed work on the parliamentary report and presented it to the Parliament of Georgia. The report consists of 633 pages and overviews the situation on the protection of human rights and freedoms in Georgia in 2013. It should be noted that in the report for 2013, we have introduced new chapters. In particular, right to respect for private and family life, legal status of the elderly persons, amnesty and conditional early release of prisoners, failure to execute the legal requests of Public Defender of Georgia, Safety at work, situation of refugees and asylum seekers, Right to live in a healthy environment in Georgia; The purpose of introducing new chapters is to switch the attention from so called traditional fundamental rights to ones which are obscured and often forgotten.
A large part of our activities are reflected included in the parliamentary annual report. But we have many things left to say, study, investigate and find. The number of persons having appealed to the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia (PDO) reached over 11 thousand in 2013, double the number compared to previous years, which reflects increased expectations towards PDO, greater awareness among population on the infringed rights, and free environment in the country.
The most important event for the PDO was my participation in the annual 27th meeting of the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions for 12th -14th March. Our institute was granted with a Status “A” which expresses the total correspondence of the Institute of the Public Defender of Georgia to the principle of Paris of the United Nations. According to this, the Public Defender of Georgia can participate in the work of Human Rights’ National Institution at the international and regional level.
I would like to underline the importance of the memorandum of understanding signed with my Ukrainian colleague in such a hard time of the history of Ukrainian people. We are agreed to exchange the information about the violation of human rights and freedoms on the territories of Georgian and Ukraine, to cooperate in the limits of national preventive mechanism, to organize the joint conferences and seminars in the field of the human rights, to share experiences and the best practices of our offices.
