Foreign Minister to OSCE: Gali Residents Deprived of Fundamental Rights
Georgian Foreign Minister, Giorgi Kvirikashvili, delivered a speech at the 22nd OSCE Ministerial Council held in Belgrade on 3rd and 4th of December.
Delivering his speech in the plenary session of the Council, Kvirikashvili spoke about the challenges facing the OSCE area and the grave human rights and security situation in Georgia’s occupied regions. He emphasized the importance of international monitoring mechanisms in these territories.
According to the MFA, Giorgi Kvirikashvili focused on the Russian Federation’s disregard of the basic norms and principles international law as evidenced by the violation of Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. He said that, by signing so-called “treaties” with the Sokhumi and Tskhinvali regimes, in breach of its international obligations, “the Russian Federation intends to fully integrate these regions into its military, social and financial institutions.”
“The population residing in the conflict zones are deprived of their civil, social and economic rights, including the right to freedom of movement, right to property, as well as recent violations of the right to study in one’s mother tongue in the Gali district of the Abkhazia region when, in eleven elementary schools, Georgian as a language of instruction was replaced with Russian,” the minister stated to the audience.
Kvirikashvili also spoke about the recent political and democratic reforms designed to transform Georgia into a genuinely European democratic state. He emphasized that the Government’s readiness to ensure the conduct of democratic and fair parliamentary elections in 2016 and urged the OSCE organizations as well as the international community as a whole for greater involvement in the process of elections.
“Georgia’s democratic path remains unshaken. We are determined to advance our European and Euro-Atlantic integration agenda, which represents a choice of Georgian people,” the Minister commented.
Photo: www.mfa.gov.ge