On May 5, 2016, the Parliament’s Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee discussed the Public Defender’s report on the situation of human rights and freedoms in 2015.

In his speech Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili talked about the trends in terms of protection of human rights in 2015. He gave a brief review of the 1259-page parliamentary report, where the main issues are: situation in closed institutions; rights situation of recruits, military personnel, military and war veterans; prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment; importance of independent, effective and impartial investigation; right to freedom and safety; right to a fair trial; freedom of expression; right to personal and family privacy; freedom of assembly and freedom of association; freedom of thought, conscience and religion; problems of ethnic minorities. He also presented the main recommendations developed for the branches of the government.

Supreme Court Chairwoman Nino Gvenetadze, Deputy Justice Minister Alexandre Baramidze, Deputy Minister of Education and Science Lia Gigauri and Government’s Parliamentary Secretary Shalva Tadumadze delivered reports about the implementation of Public Defender’s recommendations and expressed their views. They noted that large part of the recommendations was in the process of implementation. However, according to the Public Defender, some of the recommendations have been repeated for several years, since they have not been shared by the addresses in spite of their importance.

The Public Defender hopes that the similar format will facilitate implementations of major recommendations by the different branches of the government and, therefore, will improve the level of accountability in terms of protection of human rights.