PM: Success in any Direction Pointless if Human Rights Not Maintained
“We have always said that the Georgian approach in the fight against the pandemic was predominantly focused on the health and life of humans and only after that on the quickest recovery of the national economy, so that no risk would be cast on the health of humans. Success in any direction loses sense if in parallel we do not maintain the due standard of human rights,” stated Giorgi Gakharia, Prime Minister of Georgia at a meeting of the Inter-Agency Human Rights Council.
Human Rights during the Pandemic was the topic of the Council meeting, which engaged the Government Administration, legislative and executive authorities, international and local organizations, Office of the Public Defender (Ombudsman) and other stakeholders.
The meeting, held in the format of a video conference was launched with welcoming remarks from the Prime Minister of Georgia, who noted that such representative meetings facilitate further advancement of human rights, identification of challenges and improvement of processes involved.
The PM expressed his gratitude to Dunja Mijatović, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights for her cooperation with Georgia, which resulted in the consistent improvement of human rights protection in the country. He also thanked Carl Hartzell, EU Ambassador to Georgia; Louisa Vinton, Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Georgia, and Vladimir Shkolnikov, Head of Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The Prime Minister of Georgia spoke about steps made towards human rights protection in the conditions of COVID-19 and noted that the Government did its best to make every step most balanced in legal and human rights dimensions.
“The State of Emergency placed certain components of human rights under certain risks and of course we did our best for such vulnerable groups as children, large families, persons with disabilities, the elderly and ethnic minorities, along with others. You may well be aware that every step in the fight with the pandemic was most balanced and thoroughly determined in legal and human right dimensions. We were trying to strike a balance between the health of humans, economic revival and maintenance of the human rights standard. Efforts ranged from the provision of information to ethnic minorities in their native languages all the way to adherence to high standards of civil society and public awareness. Within these formats, which entailed the Inter-Agency Council and Task Force, we communicated maximum information to the general public on a daily basis on the epidemic situation as well as on restrictions, which existed under the State of Emergency. We stand ready to accept criticism wherever necessary to make sure that we plan for future” he noted.
He focused on the comprehensive study, launched by the Government Administration. It is aimed at the scrutiny of Georgian Practice in the Management of Pandemic to identify problems on the way and ensure preparedness for more effective management of the possible second wave of the infection.
“It will be the widest-scale study in terms of crisis management, global pandemic and response to the epidemic. It will cover various areas and will range from economic affairs, epidemiologic stance, human rights context, protection of personal data, interests of vulnerable groups. All of this will be reflected in a thorough study, which has been initiated by the Government Administration. It will be launched in the nearest future. Your engagement in it will be most important, of course” added the Prime Minister of Georgia.
The PM thanked the meeting participants and the Human Rights Secretariat for upright cooperation with the civil society of Georgia. He also stressed the high degree of active exchange of information and engagement in this process.
Apart from the Prime Minister of Georgia, Dunja Mijatović, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights and Carl Hartzell, EU Ambassador to Georgia addressed the meeting participants.
“The pandemic will have both short- and long-term consequences, including the economic crisis and its social factors, which should be addressed to correct the already negative impact of the current crisis on human rights,” Hartzell said, going on to highlight the achievements made so far, which resulted in deserved praise of Georgia.
“Achievements made so far have earned Georgia rightful praise, but health challenges will remain and even more so will be the economic and social challenges. Among those challenges, this will be a policy course to respect Georgia’s human rights commitments and responsibilities to its citizens. Hence, this body is uniquely placed to handle this. My sincere appreciation goes out to the dedicated and dynamic Government Administration team and to the Human Rights Secretariat for your efforts” noted the EU Ambassador.
Hartzell also underlined the actions and decisions taken by the Human Rights Council towards assisting various vulnerable groups and gender equality. EU Ambassador focused on the significant achievements made by the Government and the Parliament of Georgia in the area of human rights.
“I would like to congratulate the Ministry of Justice for adopting the eagerly awaited Draft Law on Persons with Disabilities. We hope for its successful adoption in Parliament and stand ready to support its implementation. We are also seeing promising progress towards a fully-functional Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in line with the obligations assumed under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Following a successful adoption of the Child Rights Code, we welcome the work done at all levels for its implementation. We welcome the inter-agency working group created under the Council’s Committee on Child Rights and we welcome the setup of a special department on juvenile justice in the Ministry of Interior. Finally, adoption of the Quality Chapter of the Human Rights Action Plan we consider a landmark,” added the EU Ambassador.
The meeting engaged Natia Mezvrishvili, Head of the Government Administration; Lela Akiashvili, Adviser to the Prime Minister of Georgia on Human Rights and Gender Equality; Ana Buchukuri, Head of Human Rights Secretariat from the Georgian side. International organizations were represented by Sabine Machl, UN Resident Coordinator in Georgia; Cristian Urse, Head of CoE Office in Georgia and Peter Wiebler, USAID Mission Director in Georgia.