Categories
Journalistic Survey
Articles
Reportage
Analitic
Photo Reportage
Exclusive
Interview
Foreign Media about Georgia
Editorial
Position
Reader's opinion
Blog
Themes
Children's Rights
Women's Rights
Justice
Refugees/IDPs
Minorities
Media
Army
Health
Corruption
Elections
Education
Penitentiary
Religion
Others

Council of Europe’s Anti-Racism Commission publishes new report on Georgia

June 16, 2010
 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.

Since the publication of ECRI's second report on Georgia on 13 February 2007, progress has been made in a number of fields covered by that report.

The National Concept for Tolerance and Civil Integration and its Action Plan were enacted by Decree W348 of the Prime Minister of Georgia on 8 May 2009. Their goals are: to create an environment of tolerance and respect in Georgia; to promote equal opportunities for all citizens; to ensure the effective participation of ethnic minorities in all fields of life; and to create the necessary conditions for the preservation and development of ethnic minorities' culture and identity.

The Georgian Ombudsman (hereinafter: the Public Defender) continues to play a significant role in defending the rights of minority groups in Georgia, especially ethnic and religious minorities, and in combating discrimination, including through the activities of its Tolerance Centre as well as of the Council of Ethnic Minorities and the Council of Religions under his auspices.

The Georgian authorities have made efforts to combat manifestations of religious intolerance and to pursue their dialogue with religious minorities.

Being conscious of the obstacles facing ethnic minorities in the field of education mainly due to the lack of knowledge of Georgian among pupils, the Georgian authorities are making commendable efforts to take the relevant measures to overcome these obstacles. The Georgian authorities have also taken steps in favour of teaching the Georgian language to adults who are members of ethnic minorities and in favour of integration of ethnic minorities in general.

State projects have been developed in the field of teaching tolerance and respect for other ethnic and religious groups among pupils. In particular, the curriculum and textbooks concerning the teaching of religious issues were revised in 2006 in order to reflect religious and cultural diversity more accurately.

Refugees have been granted residence permits and travel documents which allow them to travel outside Georgia. Over recent years, the relations of refugees from Chechnya living in Pankisi with local law enforcement officials and the local population have improved together with the level of security.

The Georgian authorities have taken a number of significant measures aimed at improving the situation of all internally displaced persons (hereinafter: lOPs), including the 2007 State Strategy for lOPs and the Action Plan on 28 May 2009, targeting both lOPs from the 1990s and the "new" lOPs from the August 2008 armed conflict.

Steps have been taken to encourage the recruitment of persons belonging to ethnic minorities into the police force, particularly in regions where these minorities live in substantial numbers, in order to increase ethnic diversity in the police.

ECRI welcomes these positive developments in Georgia. However, despite the progress achieved, some issues continue to give rise to concern.

Despite a number of allegations of discrimination for instance against ethnic minorities in the field of employment and administration of justice, there seems to have been no cases in which persons have obtained compensation before a judicial authority for the infringement of their right not to suffer racial discrimination.

 There is still no specialised body to combat racial discrimination that could, for instance, hear and consider complaints concerning cases of racial discrimination between private parties. The Action Plan to implement the Concept for Tolerance and Civil Integration does not include any projects aimed at reaching the objectives set in the Concept related to combating discrimination.

The Georgian authorities are still faced with the challenge of doing their utmost to enhance knowledge of the State language among minority pupils to facilitate their integration into Georgian society while giving them the possibility of receiving education in their own mother tongue. Despite all measures taken by the authorities in this respect, much more needs to be done to ensure that children belonging to ethnic minorities do not suffer from disadvantages preventing them from accessing higher education and employment on an equal footing with Georgian-speaking children.

As the reform of the educational curriculum on religious issues aimed at reflecting religious and cultural diversity more accurately is recent, it is still necessary to monitor the manner in which it is being implemented in all Georgian schools to ensure that the new approach is duly followed by all educational staff without exception.

There are persisting allegations that children who do not belong to the majority religion are sometimes subjected to pressure and harassment by teachers or other pupils on account of that.

Recent reports continue to mention the existence of stereotypes, prejudice and misconceptions towards ethnic and religious minorities being expressed in Georgia, in particular by politicians, in the media and in school textbooks. Other groups, such as Chechens, are also said to be sometimes victims of stereotyping in the media mainly by being associated with crime and terrorism. The majority population remains insufficiently sensitive to the problem and, to a large extent, is unaware of the culture or situation of ethnic and religious minorities.

There are reports according to which the situation concerning racism in public discourse has deteriorated in some aspects due to the August 2008 armed conflict in Georgia, although it is difficult to assess the current situation and the way it may develop in the absence of comprehensive studies or surveys on this subject. The public in general seems to be able to distinguish betvveen political leadership and individual persons living in Georgia, but this situation could easily change. Problems such as excessive nationalism and anti-Russia rhetoric, and propaganda targeting Russians, Abkhazians and Ossetians, describing them as ~enemies" have been reported to ECRI. The climate of opinion towards members of religious minorities and in particular "non¬traditional" minorities seemed to have worsened in recent times and this is said to lead to cases of manifestations of religious intolerance against these groups.

Cases of harassment and verbal and physical abuse against persons belonging to religious minorities have continued to be reported in recent years. There are also instances of interierence with places of worship or private property belonging to members of religious minorities. While the reaction of the prosecution services to Cases of harassment and verbal and physical abuse against persons belonging to religious minorities have continued to be reported in recent years. There are also instances of interierence with places of worship or private property belonging to members of religious minorities. While the reaction of the prosecution services to manifestations of religious intolerance has continued to progress over recent years, the response by the police to instances of religious intolerance still leaves something to be desired in some cases.

Roma seem to suffer from widespread prejudice and a certain form of marginalisation which partly explains the extreme poverty in which some of them live and the low school attendance noted among Roma children.

Meskhetian Turks who were deported from Georgia in the 1940s by the former USSR still suffer from a certain level of hostility among some segments of the Georgian population, especially among some members of the Armenian population living in the region from which the deported persons originated.

The lack of knowledge of Georgian remains the main obstacle to ethnic minorities' integration. Armenians, Azerbaijanis and other ethnic minorities in the south and south¬east still suffer from isolation not only because of the language barrier but also due to a lack of appropriate infrastructures, notably in the fields of transport and communication.

Further efforts are needed in order to ensure a satisfactory level of participation of ethnic minorities in the public and politicalJife of the country, notably through improving the teaching at the Zurab Zhvania School of Administration where working in regions densely populated by ethnic minorities is part of the training received by future public servants including from ethnic minorities.

The law on asylum still needs to be revised in order to bring it into accordance with international law and standards in this field. The living conditions of refugees from Chechnya in Pankisi remain dire because there are few income-generating opportunities in the region.

Despite measures taken by the authorities, many lOPs from the 1990s conflicts and the August 2008 armed conflict still face serious difficulties in several fields of life. In general, they experience dire living conditions due to poverty, and lOPs also face obstacles in the integration process as there is a serious lack of jobs and other income¬generating opportunities where they live.
In this report, ECRI requests that the Georgian authorities take further action in a number of areas; in this context, it makes a series of recommendations, including the following.

ECRI strongly urges the Georgian authorities to continue and reinforce their efforts in reforming the teaching of Georgian to pupils belonging to ethnic minorities. To this purpose, ECRI recommends in particular that the teachers who are trained in teaching Georgian as a second language know the language of the ethnic minority pupils whom they will teach and that the textbooks on Georgian as a second language be distributed free of charge to all pupils concerned. ECRI recommends that the Georgian authorities organise school partnerships and exchanges between Georgian speaking schools and non-Georgian speaking schools, in particular schools based in the Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli regions, with a view to promoting contacts between pupils of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.'

ECRI recommends that the Georgian authorities monitor the situation as concerns manifestations of stereotypes, prejudice and misconceptions of minority groups and in particular ethnic and religious minorities, in political discourse and in the media. ECRI recommends that the Georgian authorities take all necessary measures, such as awareness raising campaigns, in order to advance reconciliation, build mutual trust between different ethnic groups, and foster mutual understanding between the majority population and minority groups so as to promote tolerance and peaceful co-existence in the country.

ECRI urges the Georgian authorities to pursue and reinforce their efforts to combat violent manifestations of religious intolerance involving physical assault and/or attacks on property effectively.

ECRI recommends that the Georgian authorities launch an awareness-raising campaign among the Georgian population in general, and in particular the Armenian population living in the region from which the Meskhetian Turks originate, in order to explain the historical reasons for these persons' return and to avoid any forms of intolerant reaction against them from members of the majority population as well as from the local population living in the areas where Meskhetian Turks will be returning. ECRI also recommends that the Georgian authorities reinforce their efforts towards measures in favour of the integration of Meskhetian Turks, notably by devising a comprehensive strategy in this respect, which would address issues such as language learning, access to education and employment.'

ECRI strongly recommends that the Georgian authorities make further efforts to improve the quality of the curriculum of the Zurab Zhvania Public Administration School, in particular in so far as teaching Georgian to ethnic minorities is concerned. It also strongly recommends that the authorities develop a mechanism for assisting this school's graduates, in particular those belonging to ethnic minorities, in finding a job in public administration in accordance with their level of education.

News