To obtain access to occupied regions’
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, May 20
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CoE) Thorbjorn Jagland says the CoE continues to prepare reports on the frozen conflict in Georgia and to obtain access to Georgia’s occupied territories.
The CoE official said this on May 18, at the 126th meeting of the Committee of Foreign Ministers of CoE that was held in Bulgaria on 17-18 May.
Georgia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikheil Janelidze attended the gathering.
Jagland said the decision taken by the Committee of Foreign Ministers in early May about the human rights situation in Georgia’s de-facto regions and the report prepared by him included “all the important issues on the agenda of the CoE”.
The CoE Secretary General stressed he would continue working on the conflict issues affecting Georgia.
The Committee of Foreign Ministers took a decision in regard of the 13th Consolidated Report on the Conflict in Georgia, prepared by the Secretary General of the CoE.
The decision referred to the human rights protection in Georgia’s occupied territories and was focused on Russia's responsibility to ensure the protection of fundamental human rights in Georgia’s two de-facto regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).
The decision “Council of Europe and the Conflict in Georgia” was adopted on 4 May 2016 at the 1255th meeting of the Committee of Ministers' Deputies of the CoE.
In his speech at the session, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria and Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of CoE Daniel Mitov highlighted the CoE’s activity in terms of Georgia.
Daniel Mitov put particular emphasis on the importance of the 4 May 2016 decision taken by the Committee of Foreign Ministers to ensure the protection of human rights in Georgia’s occupied territories.
In his speech, Mitov also discussed the Georgia-CoE 2016-2019 Action Plan and expressed the hope that Georgia would successfully implement it happened regarding the previous Action Plan.
The new Action Plan included the projects due to be carried out in Georgia by the CoE in 2016-2019 aiming at co-operation with the Georgian authorities in the spheres of human rights protection, democracy and the rule of law.
