Georgian Public Defender Visits Strasbourg

Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria is visiting Strasbourg on January 25-27 to meet the heads of various Council of Europe bodies and human rights defenders, discussing the rights situation in Georgia concerning the judiciary, media environment and equality.

She has already met with Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović, President of Venice Commission Claire Bazy Malaurie, and Executive Secretary of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) Régis Brillat. 

In the meeting with Commissioner Mijatović on January 25, the Public Defender stressed the importance of the CoE officials’ support for human rights defenders and journalists in Georgia. The Public Defender’s Office stated that these groups of people “have been particularly pressured and attacked in recent years.”

Lomjaria also discussed the dissolution of the State Inspector’s Service by the Georgian Dream-led Parliament and the Public Defender’s appeal to the Constitutional Court to declare the decision unconstitutional.

According to the same report, she also touched upon the need for human rights monitoring in Russian-occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia.       

On January 26, Ombudsperson Lomjaria and newly elected Venice Commission President Claire Bazy Malaurie discussed challenges faced by the Public Defender’s Office and other independent rights institutions in Georgia.

Also on January 26, the Public Defender briefed the Executive Secretary of the CPT on the issues in Georgia’s closed institutions, as well as about the activities of the medical council set up by her to monitor jailed ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili’s health.

The Public Defender also touched upon the situation of the detainees in Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia and asked for Committee to put monitoring the closed institutions in the occupied regions on its agenda.

The Public Defender is also set to meet with Secretary General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejčinović Burić and President of the European Court of Human Rights Róbert Spanó.

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