“Universal Periodic Review” (UPR) – this is a mechanism which was created in 2006 and which granted a mandate to the UN Human Rights Council to periodically discuss the human rights statuses within the community of UN member states. By helping this mechanism, representatives from the NGO sector can address problems and lobby for adequate recommendation.
On October 8, 2010, a coalition of NGO’s consisting of the Human Rights Centre, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, Article 42 of the Constitution, and the Educators and Scientists Free Trade Union of Georgia submitted their opinion regarding the draft of the government’s report for the UPR with the support of the “Human Rights House Foundation”.
The coalition also prepared a joint alternative report for the UN which highlighted the following issues: the judicial system, an individual’s rights to life, freedom and safety, torture, inhuman treatment, prison conditions, freedom of media and expression, rights to assemble and manifestation, right to labor, etc. According to the coalition members, the state report for the UPR covered very general information and did not contain any estimation towards specific facts of violations and other systematic human rights violation.
Sergi Kapanadze the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs headed the Georgian Delegation who presented a national report on the human rights situation. This took place in Geneva on January 28, 2011. Over the course of three hours, 54 states managed to participate in the interactive dialogue. A few of the state representatives positively assessed the progress made by the Government of Georgia in their quest to ensure human rights protection in the country. However, most of the states spoke about the issues that require improvement and development.
“The fact that the UN made 163 recommendations to Georgia is very important. Among them, quite a lot of our recommendations were taken into account as well. I don’t remember so many recommendations from any other organizations or committees. It shows that in Georgia there is a serious problem within the human rights field and the authority has a big challenge in addressing those problems”, said Ucha Nanuashvili the head of the Human Rights Centre and one of the members of the coalition submitting an alternative report to the UPR.
The Human Rights House Tbilisi watched the session live and provided a brief overview pertaining to the process itself. It’s noteworthy that in the beginning, it was an attempt to make some political statements by the Russian representative regarding the conflict regions in Georgia, but the chairperson requested a refrain from making such statements.
The delegation of Belgium, USA, UN, Turkey, Czech Republic, Estonia as well as other delegations raised questions associated with media transparency.
“Indeed we did recognize that there have been certain challenges with regard to media freedom in Georgia. However, the government of Georgia has undertaken substantial steps to ensure that these challenges are eradicated. One recent development has been the establishment of debate regarding media transparency in Georgia. The new draft law on Media Ownership Transparency has been initiated in the parliament of Georgia,” – said Sergi Kapanadze.
On December 17, 2010, the Parliament of Georgia postponed discussions and voting on the draft law on media ownership transparency initiated by the opposition party – Christian-Democrats. The discussion was postponed for the second hearing in February 2011. This move was justified by stating that there is a need to continue consultations on the subject. However, it’s noteworthy that the laws initiated by the ruling party are often adopted in a hurry-up fashion and with violations of the procedures of public debates and consultations.
A number of questions were raised regarding IDP evictions, which began in August 2010. Evictions reflect an effort to tackle a massive displacement problem which was a result of the conflicts in the early 1990s in the Abkhazian and South Ossetian regions, as well as the brief Georgia-Russia war in 2008. As a result of these evictions, around 5,400 displaced people in Tbilisi were forcibly evicted from their dwellings. According to different NGOs, these evictions breached international standards and, in several instances, the authorities failed to provide people with alternative shelter or compensation. Representatives from Turkey, as well as other delegations raised questions about forcefully displaced persons as well. “We have been undertaking active measures to meet this obligation, in close cooperation with various international interlocutors including the Council of Europe, as well as the High Commissioner on National Minorities. Since 2008, we have had 5,800 applications and now we are in the process of reviewing those applications”- replied Sergi Kapanadze.
On the gender equality issue, First Deputy Minister of the Interior- Ekaterine Zguladze responded that “while challenges remain, Georgia has seen advancement in this direction. There are impressive numbers of women in high positions. For instance, women occupy positions in 65% of the Presidential Administration; 60% of the State Ministry of Reintegration, 57% of the Ministry of Education, 42% in the parliament, and above 35% in the government; and that doesn’t include three female Ministers and four Vice Ministers.“
On corruption, TinaTin Burjaliani commented that, “Georgia has one of the best records in the fight against corruption within Eastern Europe and neighboring countries. According to the Transparency International (TI) index, Georgia is among the top 3 nations for which public perception is very positive; more than 80% of the Georgian population believes that the measures taken by the Georgian government are positive or very positive.”
However, according to TI’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), Georgia ranks 68th out of 178 countries. “Georgia’s score shows that corruption has not been eradicated and continues to be an issue that needs to be addressed. Areas of concern in Georgia remain the urgent need for judicial reform, protection of property rights, a lack of transparency in public spending (including the Reserve Funds for the President, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the Government), grand corruption among top-level officials, opaque media ownership and financing, as well as a general low level of civil society involvement in the planning and execution of public policy”- says Mathias Huter, the acting director of TI Georgia. (http://www.humanrights.ge/index.php?a=main&pid=12462&lang=eng)
It is important to mention that Georgia immediately refused the recommendation by Bolivia on the protection of minority groups against discrimination and the use of stereotypes against them. “Georgian legislation provides that any group can operate as a registered or nonregistered legal entity and the content of the organization is not regulated. New tax code provides tax broke for nonprofit organization, including religious groups, and at present, about 20 religious organizations are registered in Georgia”- said Tamar Kintsurashvilki representative of Interagency Council of Tolerance and Civil Integration. Since religious organizations traditionally exist in organized structures, issues related to their status and legal capacity is of particular importance. Here it’s important to mention the “Religious Freedom Report” by the Human Rights Centre which says that amendments introduced to the Civil Code in 2004 made it possible to register religious organizations as non-profit organizations. However, many religious denominations, especially the traditional ones are not content with the type of registration that Georgian legislation offers today. While the Georgian Orthodox Church has special legal status with certain discriminatory privileges attached to it, all other religious organizations can only have the status of ‘non-profit entity’.
The Czech Republic issued a recommendation that envisaged building an environment of trust towards the judiciary system. They proposed carrying out a reform on the High Council of Justice and amending the law governing the appointment and dismissal of judges. Georgia rejected this recommendation, maintaining that progress on reforms within the justice sector have already been successful.
Along with many other questions, the discussion touched upon the problems related to the grave human rights situation in the occupied territories. Particular attention was paid to the recent developments in the Tskhinvali region in South Ossetia, Georgia and Abkhazia resulting in the violation of property rights of IDPs. The necessity of the creation of conditions for their safe and dignified return were once again emphasized.
“Georgia’s UPR was an important moment in the 10th session of the Working Group on the UPR of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council. The sheer number of recommendations made is illustrative of the international community’s interest in Georgia’s human rights situation. This is a good sign, given the fact that 59% of the recommendations have already been accepted. However, the accepted recommendations are often weak, such as Chile’s recommendation to “consider additional measures of protection”, which only engages Georgia to consider and not to implement any concrete measures. That said, the accepted recommendations mostly provide an already good basis of work for the follow-up to the UPR, since the agreement of Georgia is found on those matters. Some of the accepted recommendations are indeed strong and important, such as the Czech Republic’s regarding the effective investigation, prosecution and the bringing to justice those who are responsible for intimidation and violence against journalists and human rights defenders (rec. 105.57)“- said Florian Irminger, Head of the Human Rights House Foundation, Geneva.
Shorena Latatia
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