Georgian rights defenders believe that HRW's report incompletely reflects situation in the country

According to Georgian human rights defenders, the report of the international human rights organization "Human Rights Watch" (HRW) entitled "World report 2012: Georgia" was supposed to reflect the case of murder of Sandro Girgvliani and evaluate the actions of the prosecutor's office and position in the judicial system.

HRW ignores Sandro Girgvliani's case

"The report should have included the Sandro Girgvliani's case, since namely in last April 25, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg made the decision on the case of murder of Sandro Girgvliani, according to which the state was obliged to pay 50,000 euros to Guram Girgvliani, the father of the victim and to conduct re-investigation into that sound murder," Manana Kobakhidze, the lawyer and the human rights defender, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

She recalled that, according to the ECtHR, the very murder was not properly investigated. The decision of the Strasbourg ECtHR stated that it was revealed that all branches of power tried to hinder justice. "The ECtHR was astounded by the concerted actions that emerged in the various branches of power... to hinder the justice for the case of that terrible murder," the ruling stated.

"Authorities ignore Ombudsperson's appeals"

The human rights defenders also point to the fact that within two years, the prosecutor's office failed to conduct investigations into appeals filed by the Ombudsperson of Georgia.

The human rights defenders also emphasize that the HRW's report should have referred to the practice of the prosecutor's office. "The prosecutor's office failed has to bring to court a single case against policemen, who had committed unlawful actions at the rally held on May 26, at the rallies held in April-June 2009, at the dispersal of the rally held on November 7, 2007," Manana Kobakhidze said.

"Report fails to mention political prisoners"

Nana Kakabadze emphasizes the fact that the report did not mention political prisoners, although the human rights defenders believe that Georgia has 1.5 thousand of such prisoners.

"Most of them took part in rallies; they are activists of several political parties. They were convicted for possession of weapon and for possession of drugs," she said.

"While more than 100 persons, treated by local human rights defenders as political prisoners, were released in Armenia, and, according to the human rights defenders, Azerbaijan has not more than 50 political prisoners, here, in Georgia, which is considered to be "a beacon of democracy", no amnesty and no campaign to release those people were conducted. Even if the authorities did not want to recognize them as political prisoners, they should have released those people to avoid accusations of prosecution of people on political grounds," Nana Kakabadze believes.

"Report contains fair criticism"

According to the human rights defenders, the items listed in the report are fair.

"I support the criticism contained in the report. You cannot focus on one thing the annual HRW's report always contains the most basic things that cannot be excluded. However, that is not the reason to avoid solving the problems, which were not mentioned, in place," Manana Kobakhidze said.

According to the human rights defenders, one of the innovations of the present report is the indication to the fact that representatives of the USA and Europe "have deepened their economic and political ties with Georgia; however, they failed to use the available levers to improve the protection of human rights."

The coonflictologist Paata Zakareishvili believes that this is a very important message from the HRW to the international community. "In fact, the international human rights organizations call to affect the authorities. Till present, after the Rose Revolution, no similar initiatives were voiced with regard to Georgia," he said.