UN Official for Human Rights Visited Georgia

Manfred Nowak, UN Human Rights Commissioner?s Special Rapporteur on Torture, who paid a fact-finding visit to Georgia, said at a news briefing on February 25 that the cases of torture by the law-enforcement agencies still take place, ?however, the authorities have pledged to eradicate such facts.?

He also expressed concern that in Georgia a pretrial detention has become ?a norm and not an exception.?

?That contradicts the international standards … it also creates a problem of overcrowded prisons,? Manfred Nowak said.

He praised the joint initiative of the Georgian Ombudsman?s Office and the law-enforcement agencies over conducting public monitoring at the pretrial detention cells and prisons, ?that has already yielded positive results?.

In April Manfred Nowak will submit preliminary assessments to the UN Human Rights Commissioner and the Georgian authorities, which will include the following recommendations: to ratify an additional protocol of the UN Convention on Torture, on a basis of which an independent monitoring commission will be set up; to enforce the Ombudsman?s Office; to eradicate the impunity of those suspected of torture; to make changes to the system of pretrial detention and establish close cooperation between the UNHRC and the Georgian government.

During the visit the UN Human Rights Commissioner?s Special Rapporteur visited prisons and pretrial detention cells in Tbilisi, as well as in Tskhinvali and Sokhumi ? the capitals of Georgia?s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia respectively.