Georgian Ombudsman presents his annual report on human rights to Parliament

On March 31, Giorgi Tugushi, Ombudsman in Georgia, passed his report on the situation with human rights in Georgia in 2010 over to David Bakradze, Speaker of the Georgian. The 600-page document presents general trends in the area of defence of human rights and civil liberties, and specific violations at the level of state authorities, local self-governments and law enforcement bodies.

The first part of the report focuses on custody conditions - in prisons and pre-trial detention facilities. Mr Tugushi told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the custody conditions would remain his priority this year.

At the briefing, when introducing his report, the Ombudsman called it critical. "The report gives quite tough estimates of the health system in prisons. It also states the last year's highest registered death rate among prisoners. Besides, the report gives facts of police mistreatment during detention and the problems fixed within the judicial system," said Tugushi.

According to the report, last year Georgia saw 1.5 times more deaths among prisoners than in 2009. Besides, 32 percent of perished prisoners had various injuries, which was confirmed by medical examination.

"Very often the facts, which we study, cannot be equated to torture; however, they are evaluated as facts of "inhuman or humiliating treatment". "We had only 2-3 cases of torture, but there were a lot of facts of inappropriate treatment. These facts relate to improper handling both by the police and within the penal system," Mr Tugushi told the "Caucasian Knot". "We fixed several cases in 2010 and 2009, when prisoners were treated improperly - they were beaten."

Khatuna Kalmakhelidze, Minister for Corrections and Probation (Conditional Relief), in her turn, believes that the Ombudsman's report has some details, with which her Ministry cannot agree. According to her story, they, in particular, do a lot of work to combat such problems like tuberculosis among inmates.

Meanwhile, according to the statistics, in 2010 Georgia lost 142 prisoners, while in 2009 the figure did not exceed 100.

Throughout the year, on all revealed violations admitted by prison authorities, the Ombudsman sent appropriate materials to the prosecutor's office. However, until now there is no evidence that those guilty were punished at least in one case.

Apart from the situation in prisons and detention facilities, the report also raised issues of children's rights, keeping people in closed institutions (mental hospitals, orphanages and nursing homes), observance of political rights and freedoms, rights of religious and ethnic minorities, and ownership issues. A special place in the Ombudsman's report is given to observance of the rights of the refugees, resettled from Tbilisi to the countryside.