Amnesty International Report 2007

GEORGIA

Head of state: Mikheil Saakashvili
Head of government: Zurab Noghaideli
Death penalty: abolitionist for all crimes
International Criminal Court: ratified

Pre-trial and convicted prisoners were reportedly ill-treated on
several occasions, and excessive force was reportedly used in prison
disturbances in which at least eight detainees died and many more were
wounded, including special forces officers. Police officers continued
to enjoy impunity in dozens of cases in which torture, ill-treatment
and excessive use of force have been alleged. The authorities failed
to protect women from domestic violence or bring its perpetrators to
justice. A new law on domestic violence was a positive step, although
it postponed the setting up of urgently needed temporary shelters for
women and children. The internationally unrecognized breakaway areas
of Abkhazia and South Ossetia retained the death penalty. Civil
society activists in South Ossetia risked harassment because of
contacts with Georgian activists.

Torture, ill-treatment and excessive force The government’s two-year
Plan of Action against Torture, which expired in December 2005, was
not extended although many recommendations by a range of international
human rights bodies remained unimplemented. These included
recommendations made by the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other
cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, the UN Committee
against Torture, and the European Committee for the Prevention of
Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

In a positive move in April, parliament removed any time limit on the
period in which charges could be brought for the crimes of torture,
threat of torture, and inhuman and degrading treatment.

Investigations were opened into allegations of police torture or
ill-treatment in dozens of cases. Five officers were sentenced to
prison terms of between three and seven years. Investigations were
allegedly not thorough or impartial in at least some cases.

¢ In January officers of the Interior Ministry severely beat and
otherwise ill-treated Sandro Girgvliani and his friend Levan Bukhaidze
on the outskirts of Tbilisi. Levan Bukhaidze was abandoned and managed
to get back to the city. Sandro Girgvliani died as a result of
injuries he sustained and was found near a local cemetery the next
day. In July, four officers were sentenced to prison terms for causing
his death. However, no impartial investigation was opened into
allegations that those who killed Sandro Girgvliani had acted on the
orders of senior officials of the Interior Ministry, it was reported.

In May the UN Committee against Torture called on the authorities to
introduce regular monitoring by an independent oversight body of human
rights violations by police and prison personnel; to strengthen
investigative capacity to ensure allegations of torture or other
ill-treatment were investigated promptly and thoroughly; and to
promptly inform all detainees of their rights to counsel and to be
examined by a medical doctor of their own choice. The Committee also
recommended legislation on reparation for victims of abuse and in the
meantime practical measures to provide redress, fair and adequate
compensation, and rehabilitation.

Investigation-isolation facilities and prisons

In several instances, ill-treatment and excessive force were allegedly
used against inmates of investigation-isolation facilities and
prisons. However, only in the case of disturbances in Tbilisi in March
was there an official investigation, which did not start until June
and had not made its results public by the end of 2006.

¢ On 27 March special police and prison forces entered the
Investigation-Isolation Prison No. 5 in Tbilisi to suppress an
allegedly orchestrated armed riot and attempted break-out. The
operation left at least seven inmates dead and many others wounded,
including special forces officers. The same day President Mikheil
Saakashvili and senior officials denied allegations that excessive
force had been used. Unofficial reports suggested that the special
forces had been sent in to suppress a spontaneous protest over abuses
of prison hospital inmates by a senior prison official and special
forces during the night of 26 to 27 March. It was also alleged that
they did not attempt non-violent means to establish control, but
immediately fired automatic weapons and rubber bullets and beat
detainees with truncheons. Many of the injured reportedly did not
receive adequate medical treatment. In some cases, doctors only
obtained access to detainees following interventions by the Ombudsman.

Violence against women in the family
Violence against women by their partners and former partners included
verbal and psychological abuse, physical and sexual violence, and
killings. Most frequently, women were beaten, hit and kicked, but they
were also burned with cigarettes, had their heads bashed against
walls, or were raped.

The authorities did not gather comprehensive statistics on domestic
violence. A study by the non-governmental Caucasus Women’s Research
and Consulting Network reported that 5.2 per cent of women had
experienced frequent physical abuse by their partner, adding to the
data produced by UN Population Fund studies in Georgia in 1999 and
2005 which found that 5 per cent of women reported physical abuse.

Among obstacles to eradicating domestic violence were the widespread
impunity enjoyed by its perpetrators, and insufficient measures and
services to protect victims such as temporary shelters and adequate,
safe housing. The authorities also failed to ensure a functioning
cross-referral system between health workers, crisis centres, legal
aid centres, and law enforcement authorities, or to provide mandatory
government training programmes for police, procurators, judges and
medical staff.

The adoption by parliament in May of a new law on domestic violence
was an important step in meeting the government’s obligations to
prevent abuses and protect survivors. The law introduced a definition
of domestic violence in domestic legislation, and a legal basis for
issuing protection and restraint orders. However, implementation of
the provision for temporary shelters for victims of domestic violence
was postponed until 2008. Also, a plan outlining measures and
activities necessary to implement the law, which should have been
approved within four months of the law’s publication, had not been
approved by the end of 2006.

In August the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women was concerned that the provision of the new domestic
violence law to set up shelters for women and children had been
postponed, that there was a lack of official data on domestic
violence, and that domestic violence may still be considered a private
matter. The Committee urged that a national action plan to combat
domestic violence be completed and implemented, and recommended that a
properly resourced mechanism be given the necessary powers to promote
gender equality and monitor its practical realization. It also
recommended strengthening the protection of victims; data collection,
research and evaluation of measures taken; training; and public
awareness raising.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia
Freedom of expression at risk

In June the mother of civil society activist Alan Dzhusoity was
dismissed from her job as head mistress of a school in
Tskhinval/Tskhinvali, South Ossetia, in an apparent attempt by the
authorities of South Ossetia to put pressure on her son to end his
contacts with Georgian civil society organizations. Several days
later, Alan Dzhusoity and fellow activists Alan Parastaev and Timur
Tskhovrebov, in a television discussion in Tbilisi, called for an
independent South Ossetia, peace and dialogue between South Ossetians
and Georgians, and acknowledgement by Georgia that the South Ossetian
population had a right to self-determination. Eduard Kokoity, the de
facto President of South Ossetia, subsequently summoned civil society
activists and warned them against contact with Georgians.

Death penalty

South Ossetia continued a moratorium on death sentences and
executions. Abkhazia had a moratorium on executions only. Two
prisoners were on death row in Abkhazia. Reportedly, at least 16
people had been sentenced to death in Abkhazia since the early 1990s.

In June the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), in
recommendations on the death penalty in Council of Europe member and
observer states, stated that the death penalty should be abolished in
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and that all death sentences in Abkhazia
should be immediately commuted to bring an end to the state of
uncertainty suffered by prisoners on death row for years.

AI country reports/visits
Reports
¢ Europe and Central Asia: Summary of Amnesty International’s
concerns in the region, January-June 2006 (AI Index: EUR 01/017/2006)

¢ Commonwealth of Independent States: Positive trend on the
abolition of the death penalty but more needs to be done (AI Index:
EUR 04/003/2006)

¢ Georgia: Briefing to the Committee against Torture (AI Index: EUR
56/005/2006)

¢ Georgia: Thousands suffering in silence – Violence against women
in the family (AI Index: EUR 56/009/2006)

Visits
In January AI delegates met senior government officials and key policy
makers in Georgia to discuss torture and other ill-treatment. In April
an AI delegate conducted a research visit.

Violence – Violence against women in the family (AI Index: EUR
56/009/2006)