From 29 November to 2 December, 2016, Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili, Deputy Public Defender Natia Katsitadze and EU Project Manager Levan Meskhoradze held bilateral meetings with representatives of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights, the European Committee against Racism and Intolerance, the Office of the European Commissioner for Human Rights and other representatives of the Council of Europe during their working visit to the French city of Strasbourg.

The Public Defender briefed representatives of the Council of Europe of the rights situation of Georgia in 2016. He highlighted the shortcomings in the judicial system, the measures taken for the elimination of discrimination and the challenges in the protection of human rights.

The sides reviewed the Public Defender’s communication submitted to the Committee of Ministers on 27 November, 2016, which concerned the execution of a number of decisions taken by the Strasbourg Court against Georgia. It should be noted that the communication was submitted by the Public Defender of Georgia to the Committee of Ministers for the first time.

In particular, the communication concerns the execution of the judgments in the cases of the Gharibashvili group (Gharibashvili v. Georgia; Girgvliani and Enukidze v. Georgia; Mikiashvili v. Georgia; Dvalishvili v. Georgia; Khaindrava and Dzamashvili v. Georgia; Tsintsabadze v. Georgia) and the systemic/structural shortcomings in the Georgian legislation and practice in terms of the investigation of crimes against human life and health. The Public Defender considers that creation of an independent investigation mechanism has no alternative for the execution of Strasbourg Court judgments by the Government of Georgia in an honest way, as it is required by Article 46 of the European Convention.

The Public Defender will continue to cooperation with the Committee of Ministers of the Council Europe with regard to many important human rights issues in the future too.