UN General Assembly Adopts Resolution about Georgian IDPs’

On June 2, the 72nd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations was held in New York. The resolution on the „Status of Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees from Abkhazia, Georgia and the Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia, Georgia” was once again adopted.

There are more than 250,000 Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs) who were driven from their homes during the series of Russian-backed separatist wars in Georgia’s breakaway regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The General Assembly Resolution reaffirms the fundamental rights of internally displaced persons (IDP), right of safe and dignified return to their homes. The Resolution on „Status of Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees from Abkhazia, Georgia and the Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia, Georgia” is humanitarian and is based on the UN general Principles on Internal Displacement. It underlines the right of IDPs and refugees, to a safe and dignified return to their places of origin and focuses on their property rights. The Resolution reiterates the importance of unimpeded humanitarian access in the regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region.

“The resolution has a practical importance as well, since it calls on the UN Secretary General to draft annual report on the state of the internally displaced persons in Georgia and on the implementation of the resolution. This gains even greater importance in the light of the deploring human right situation in the occupied territories in the absence of international human rights monitoring mechanisms, which constitutes one of the impediments to a safe and dignified return of internally displaced persons,”- the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reads.

According to the Resolution the participants of the Geneva International Discussions should restore their efforts to ensure security and human rights protection in the occupied regions, which in turn will simplify the return of IDPs and refugees to their homes.

Adoption of this resolution by the General Assembly underlines that the situation in Georgia still remains on the agenda of the largest international forum and gains attention of the International community. Such documents reflect the international political situation. The resolution on „Status of Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees from Abkhazia, Georgia and the Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia, Georgia” was supported by 81 states, and 16 states, including Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Burundi, Cuba, North Korea, Laos, Myanmar, Nauru, Nicaragua, Philippines, South Sudan, Sudan, Venezuela, Vietnam and Zimbabwe voted against the resolution this year. The list of the states supporting the resolution and voting against it clearly demonstrates the controversy between the pro-Western and pro-Russian forces in the world. Russia often uses its own political and economic leverage to influence other states' foreign activities, example of which was demonstrated a few weeks ago when Syria recognized the independence of Abkhazia.