General Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia signs a memorandum regarding crimes committed on the grounds of intolerance
By Khatia Bzhalava
Thursday, September 24
With the support of the Council of Europe, the General Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia has signed a memorandum on the production of statistics on crimes committed on the grounds of intolerance and discrimination and the publication of a joint report. The document was signed by the Prosecutor General of Georgia, Irakli Shotadze, the Chairperson of the Supreme Court, Nino Kadagidze, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Vakhtang Gomelauri, and the Executive Director of the National Statistics Office, Gogita Todradze. The meeting held at the Prosecutor’s office of Georgia was also attended by the Head of the Georgian Office of the Council of Europe, Natalia Vutova. The information is published by the Prosecution Service of Georgia.
According to the official information, the sides talked about the importance of producing statistics and publishing a joint report in the fight against crimes committed on the grounds of intolerance. As Prosecutor General, Irakli Shotadze noted at the meeting, production of joint statistics has always been a challenge for each agency. He remarked that after signing the memorandum, a modern, comprehensive system of statistics on the crime committed on the grounds of intolerance will be created, which will comply with the international standards and will be ‘accurate, credible and public.’
According to Shotadze, fighting against crimes committed on the grounds of intolerance is a priority for the Prosecutor's office of Georgia.
“Since 2016, we have been actively pursuing a policy based on international standards, which has manifested itself in the development of recommendations for prosecutors with expert assistance from the Council of Europe, training and professional development of prosecutors and prosecutors' investigators, production of statistical data and specialization of prosecutors,” said Shotadze
As the Minister of Internal Affairs Vakhtang Gomelauri said, in the recent years, this category of crimes( crime committed on the grounds of intolerance) has become a priority for the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the policy level, which, as he noted, is affirmed by numerous activities carried out by the ministry in this direction.
“Since 2018, the Human Rights Protection and Investigation Quality Monitoring Department of the Ministry has been carrying out daily monitoring of the mentioned crimes and is a guarantee that crimes committed on the grounds of intolerance will not stay unnoticed," Gomelauri Said.
As the Executive Director of the National Statistics Office Gogita Todradze noted, based on the memorandum, Geostat(National Statistics Office of Georgia) will receive data of crimes committed on the grounds of intolerance, will prepare a joint report, and will assure the dissemination of the data on an annual basis.
“This cooperation and the agreement of our agencies emphasize the readiness of the Government of Georgia and Geostat to put greater efforts in achieving mutual goals, which implies increasing access to legal statistics and facilitating the development of a national statistics system, ” Todradze said.
As the Prosecution Service of Georgia informs, after signing the memorandum of cooperation, the agencies will publish a statistical report for the period from October 1st to December 31st, 2020, and all interested individuals will be able to learn about the single, segregated data on crimes committed on the grounds of intolerance.
