UN’s 43rd session of the Human Rights Council
By Khatia Bzhalava
Tuesday, June 23
Within the frame of the UN’s 43rd session of the Human Rights Council, general debates were held, where the representatives of the EU, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, France, Great Britain, and Greece made statements supporting Georgia.
As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia reports, the delegations welcomed Georgia’s tight partnership with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the progress achieved in terms of Human Rights defence in the country.
According to the Ministry’s statement, delegations expressed their concerns about the harsh human rights and humanitarian conditions in Georgia’s regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali in Covid-19 terms. In particular, the delegations condemned imposing further restrictions on freedom of movement and proceeding with an illegal process of raising artificial barriers by the Russian occupation forces. They expressed disturbance on the facts of several types of discriminations, imprisonment, deprivation of life, illegal arrests, violation of healthcare and ownership rights, deprivation and restriction of mother tongue education for ethnical Georgians in the regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali, which, according to the delegations, hinders achieving further tangible progress in the international discussions of Geneva.
As the statement notes, special attention was paid to the facts of restricting the freedom of movement including the cases of refusing emergency medical evacuation from Tskhinvali/South Ossetia, which especially in the context of COVID-19, further aggravates the existence of the population impacted by the conflicts and negatively affects their rights and health condition. In addition, according to the statement, speakers stressed the necessity of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and human rights international mechanisms to enter Georgia’s occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali and a need of carrying out monitoring there. They called on The Russian Federation to respect international Justice norms and provide immediate and unconditional admission of Human rights defence international mechanisms in the occupied regions of Georgia.
The Delegations welcomed Georgia’s initiation of annual resolution ‘cooperation with Georgia,’ in the frame of UN’s 43rd session of the Human Rights Council agenda, and confirmed their support to the resolution.
According to the statement, it is noteworthy that in the frame of the UN’s 43rd session of the Human Rights Council, the mentioned resolution is being voted. In the resolution, the Human Rights Council reaffirms its commitment to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognised borders. It is an annual resolution, which was first adopted in 2017 and obligates the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to introduce verbal and written reports about the issues laid in the resolution.
