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On 10 November, over 70 States questioned Georgia’s human rights record at the UPR review. Progress in certain areas was acknowledged by most, whilst worries in some key areas, such as gender equality and violence against women and torture in detention facilities, were raised by many, echoing the submissions made by civil society in view of this review.

Human Rights House Tbilisi and its member organizations condemn physical assault of Giorgi Mdinaradze, lawyer at the Tbilisi State Legal Aid Service.

Human Rights House Tbilisi and its member organizations condemn physical assault of Giorgi Mdinaradze, lawyer at the Tbilisi State Legal Aid Service.

The Human Rights House Network marks November 2nd, the International Day to End Impunity, by demanding justice for all journalists who have been killed because of their work, and calling for the removal of impunity to create safer environments for journalists to operate in.

Baku Court on Grave Crimes finished discussion of the case against Khadija Ismaylova, Azerbaijani journalist, on September 1, 2015. Judge Ramen Alakhvediev sentenced the journalist to imprisonment for 7.5 years. Ismaylova and her lawyers state the charges brought against her were fabricated and they would appeal the verdict at the Appeal Court. Appeal trial into the case scheduled on October 29, 2015 was postponed; on the one hand it was lawful but also vague decision.

On October 7, Board Chair of Human Rights House Tbilisi Nino Elbakidze presented the report on the state of human rights in Georgia at the presentation of the Universal Periodic Report (UPR) in the UN Human Rights Council. Two of HRHT member organizations – Article 42 of the Constitution and Georgian Center for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT) prepared the report for the UPR with the support of the Geneva Office of the Human Rights House Foundation.

On August 13, 2015 Baku Court on Grave Crimes passed verdict on famous Azerbaijan human rights defender Leyla Yunus and sentenced her to 8 years and 5 months imprisonment; her husband Arif Yunus was sent to prison for 7 years, if nothing will be changed. According to the verdict, their bank accounts were frozen; their property in Azerbaijan, Turkey and Czech Republic will be confiscated. Two years after completion of imprisonment term they will be banned to occupy high positions.

Inhabitants of the barracks in Mirtskhulava Street # 9/11, Tbilisi were evicted by compulsory measures. Enforcement police officers and their transportation service employees were mobilized on the site. Furniture and belongings of the inhabitants were transported by the vehicles of the National Bureau of Enforcement. Old people bounded to beds were taken out of the building by hand-borrows. Court judgment on compulsory eviction was executed without violence.

Civil society has less and less space to breathe or even exist in many countries, let alone participate in public life. Authorities are using restrictions as a pretext to prosecute and imprison human rights defenders, criminalising the right to be a human rights defender, and the right to assemble and associate.