The Public Defender of Georgia addressed the Government of Georgia with a proposal regarding socio-economic situation of population of Racha-Lechkhumi and Svaneti regions.

Infrastructure is not brought to order in Racha-Lechkhumi and Svaneti regions, unemployment rate is high and population is not supplied with natural gas. On top of causing discomfort to residents, the latter fact also hinders development of small business there;

Population has no access to such important state service as notary service. As a result, confirmation of legal relations and juridical facts is made difficult; houses damaged as a result of the earthquake in 2009 still remain destroyed; social situation of residents is low. Unfortunately, these reasons lead to mass migration of population from mountainous regions.

The Public Defender believes that providing assistance and support to the mountainous regions is supposed to be one of the main functions of the state. The special approach of the state towards the mountainous regions is determined by difficult geographical situation on one hand, and acute demographic issues that are constant and main problem of the mountainous regions in general, on the other.

Given all the above, the Public Defender of Georgia addresses the Government of Georgia with a proposal to develop a relevant strategy and an action plan on a state level for protection of fundamental human rights and resolving socio-economic problems in the mountainous regions of Georgia; in order to provide equal socio-economic development on the entire territory of the country the Government should take measures for development of so-called “the law of the mountain” in the shortest period possible.