Web Portal on Human Rights in Georgia

Facts listed below were revealed during the work of the Human Rights Center on the project “Legal Aid for the mentally disabled persons in Georgia.” This project, financed by Abilis Foundation, Finland lasted for 8 months and at the moment is on its final stage. In the frame of the project, the Human Rights Center provided people with mental health problems and their relatives with free legal aid. Over 90 consultations were provided; a number of cases were discussed at court. The Human Rights Center worked in close collaboration with mental health service users and organizations which involve service users. During the project a monitoring of the closed psychiatric institutions was conducted as well as visits to the Day Rehabilitation Centers.

Attorney of Vakhtang Maisaia – military expert accused in espionage – Natia Korkotadze reported to the journalists at the press-conference on June 18 that her client has still been under physical and moral oppression. On June 6, Vakhtang Maisaia was beaten by his cell-mate Paladi Birkaia after what the military expert was blamed in the incident and he was placed in the punishment cell for ten days. Prison administration put Paladi Birkaia in the punishment cell only for three days.

In Gurjaani, the family house of the Andronikashvilis, built in the 19th century, was destroyed. The district administration sold the building at the auction for 13 700 GEL. The district governor Shota Utiashvili reported to the Kakheti News Center that they plan to build a training ground for the policemen in the area.

“It was calm, but rigged elections, which was not less falsified than the previous ones,” the opposition parties evaluated the municipal elections of 2010 negatively; as a result of the elections the ruling party came into the local authority again.

Russian soldiers on the background of green and yellow carriage at the Akhalgori district administrative border look nice. If we recall the days of the armed conflict of August of 2008, we will remember Tbilisi being afraid of Russian tanks to enter in the capital; after that you will expect cruel faces of Russian soldiers to stand at the checkpoint of the village of Mosabruni in Akhalgori district… But it is not so. Russian recruits of 18-20 stand there with the face as if they are holding toy-guns instead of real automatic weapons. They register the passengers traveling to Akhalgori and surrounding villages with smiling faces. They seem to have received a similar order.

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published its third report on Georgia. The ECRI focuses on the progress achieved since the previous report on Georgia however, describes those issues which shall be improved. We publish the summery of the report.

On June 12, repeated municipal elections were held in the polling station # 47 in the village of Zemo Lambalo in Sagarejo district. According to the directives of the Central Election Commission (CEC) the Sagarejo District Election Commission (DEC) annulled the election results based on the video-recording of the Human Rights Center. On May 30, the observers of the Center video-recorded a person who tried to drop ballot papers in the ballot box; after that chairperson of the precinct commission tore off the ballot papers.

The Rural Program was launched in Baghdati, Vani and Samtredia districts in Imereti region in February of 2010. All projects were finished before the municipal elections. In comparison to the previous year, the funds of the project were doubled. The speed of the activities also increased. Local officials spent three months on the launch and completion of all projects. Last year, the number of projects and the funds were less and the activities continued till the end of the year.

More and more appeals are sent to the European Court of Human Rights from Georgia year by year. Particularly a large number of appeals were sent in 2008-2009. The Human Rights Center assists people to protect their rights at the European Court of Human Rights for free.

Protest demonstration of the workers of Kutaisi Metallurgic Factory ended with the detention of 7 people last week. The strikers protested against the poor conditions in the enterprise and against salary arrears; they refused to enter the factory and to continue working.

Former single mandate candidate of the Alliance for Georgia Nato Katamadze appeals to the Kutaisi prosecutor’s office and requests criminal investigation on the violations. Katamadze requests to investigate the violation incidents observed during the municipal elections of 2010 and to punish the offenders – so-called thieves of votes. 

Does President Saakashvili really deserve international plaudits for his party’s decisive victory in Georgia’s elections on 30 May 2010? What Jakub Parusinski saw himself, and heard from fellow election monitors, suggests that procedural violations and deliberate fraud were more widespread and organised than first appeared

Attempts to vote without IDs, lack of election booths, spoilt marking apparatus – this is short list of the violations which were observed by the observers of the Human Rights Center in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region on May 30 during the municipal elections.

I observed the municipal elections at the polling station # 29 in Kobuleti election district # 81. I selected the polling station for several reasons – it was located in the building of the village administration; as for the election HQ of the National Movement, it was opened in the house of the former village governor Davit Inaishvili. Besides that, chairman of the Kobuleti municipal board Sulkhan Takidze is registered as a voter at the precinct. The polling station was situated in the suburb of the election district and the observing organizations paid less attention to it.

The USA considers that situation in Georgia and poor democracy in Russia is failure of the US foreign policy.

Tbilisi Appeal Court decided on the arguments about the results of the polling station in Variani village, Gori district in favor of the election administration. More precisely, they did not change the judgment of the judge of the Gori district court and former district prosecutor Nikoloz Marsagishvili. The court was discussing the suit of the observer of the Human Rights Center. In fact, within the limited 4 days, the court demanded the observer to preserve all procedures which are necessary for huge cases prolonged for many years. Instead, they did not envisage the violations which were observed during the counting of votes at the PS.

Humanrights.ge published an article about the strike of the workers at the GeoSteel Ltd in Rustavi two weeks ago. The workers claimed they would not stop strike until the factory administration satisfies their requirements. A worker of the GeoSteel told us: “Our main problem is low salaries, and lack of toilets and drinking water in the factory. We work two days and nights per week and our salary is 300 GEL. It is slavery. They know that our country is poor, people have hard lives and they take advantage of our situation.”

He has been urging Nicola Sarkozy meeting for six months already. The Élysée Palace finally agreed to satisfy the request of the president of Georgia. Leader of Georgia will remain in Paris until Wednesday and prime-minister of Russia, Vladimer Putin, will replace him in France.