On December 10, the civilized world celebrates the International Human Rights Day. Under the decision of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, this year the main message of December 10 is - “Our Rights. Our Freedoms. Always”. The message revolves around the universal idea of rights and freedoms and emphasizes the importance of those activities the implementation of which still continues in order to protect and uphold these rights.

As a landmark achievement of this year, the Public Defender of Georgia highlights the election of Georgia as the member of the Human Rights Council at the Plenary Session of the UN General Assembly. Herewith, according to the Public Defender, it is crucial that Georgia not only fulfills its obligations to the UN, but also achieve maximum of approximation to the international standards and applies the UN system to address the human rights violations and improve the human rights situation. The membership of the Council is a new challenge for the country and therefore, the priority should be granted to human rights issues in its internal and foreign policies.

The given report represents the continuation of the initiative launched by the Public Defender of Georgia in 2013 in order to summarize the situation of human rights and freedoms in Georgia on December 10 of each year. Obviously, in contrast to the annual parliamentary report of the Public Defender, the present document does not claim to be all-inclusive. Its main goal is to inform the society about the main achievements and problems of the year in the field of human rights; without overcoming of these problems, it will be impossible to realize the main principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Georgia.