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Council of Europe Requests the Government of Georgia to Resolve Problems of National Minorities in Georgia

October 15, 2009

Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities published the preliminary resolution on Georgia. 54-page document provides detailed descriptions of the problems that are urgent in Georgia in the field. According to the resolution, language barrier is the main problem for national minorities in Georgia and it hinders political and social-economical integration of national minorities in the society. The CoE recommends to the government of Georgia to take more fruitful measures to eradicate the problem. The Human Rights Center publishes the main part of the resolution. You can read the full document and comments of the Government of Georgia on the document on our website.

Strasbourg, 12.10.2009 – The Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) today published its first Opinion on Georgia, together with the Government´s comments. The committee adopted this Opinion (which does not cover
Abkhazia and South Ossetia) following a country visit in December 2008.

The main conclusions are:

• The Advisory Committee welcomes the fact that the ratification of the Framework Convention by Georgia has triggered a debate on the introduction of a more comprehensive legal framework for protecting national minorities.

• The Committee encourages the Georgian authorities and all the parties concerned to find a peaceful solution to the conflict over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which is adversely affecting the implementation of the convention in the entire Georgian territory.

• Protecting the linguistic rights of persons belonging to national minorities is a major challenge. Many of them have limited skills in Georgian – which is the official language - and the efforts of the authorities to offer them the possibility to learn it are far from
adequate.

• The authorities should ensure that the policy of promoting the Georgian language is not detrimental to the right to use minority languages. This requires more resolute measures both in law and practice.

• Additional measures are needed to promote equal access to education for persons belonging to national minorities, including higher education. The lack of resources invested in tuition provided in minority languages means that the pupils belonging to national minorities are not on an equal footing with other pupils.

• Participation of persons belonging to national minorities in the country's political, cultural, social and economic life remains limited. The authorities should take vigorous measures to remove legislative and practical obstacles they encounter so that they can participate in elected
bodies and in the executive, and work in the public service. They should also further promote their participation in the socio-economic life of the country.

• The Committee is concerned about increased religious tensions, which are particularly affecting persons belonging to national minorities.

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