Crimes against life added to functions of Human Rights Department of Interior Ministry
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, February 19
Monitoring of the investigation of crimes against life and health will be added to the obligations of the newly created Human Rights Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia from the year, the ministry says.
The reason for the extension of the mandate “is the successful fulfillment of its duties” by the department created in the last year through the initiative of current Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia.
Apart from the monitoring of investigation of crimes against life and health, the department will continue its previous obligations, which cover the monitoring of investigations of domestic violence by the ministry and its various agencies; investigations of violence against women, investigative cases dealing with crime motivated by discrimination and hate and the cases involving the crime of trafficking.
The ministry says that the criminal police reform and the improvement of the quality of investigation is one of the top priorities.
The Ministry vowed that it will provide further efforts this year for the effective investigation of crimes against minors and those motivated by discrimination.
The ministry has already presented a draft which provides civil restrictions and tougher punishment for those convicted of sexual crimes against minors.
Convicts of sexual crimes against minors will be deprived of the right to work at educational institutions.
The ministry says that a special database will be created of all people convicted for sexual crimes against minors and the individuals will be under permanent surveillance.
The opposition says that the current state leadership “has failed” to combat crimes effectively.
They have already demanded the arrival of Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze to parliament in March to speak about the reasons for the increased crime rate and the government intentions in this regard.
A total of 58,412 crimes were reported in 2018 in Georgia, out of which, 20,233 were solved.
Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Natia Mezvrishvili stated that the figures show that the number of registered crimes increased in Georgia in 2018 compared to 2017.
“The analysis of the crime shows that the severe crimes rate is either unchanged or decreased, and the increase comes mainly from those offenses accounting of which have been significantly improved”, Mezvrishvili said.
