UN Human Rights in Georgia

Profile

In Georgia, the Senior Human Rights Adviser for the South Caucasus works with the UN Country Team to integrate human rights into their programmes and activities; promote effective implementation of recommendations by UN Human Rights Mechanisms; provide advice and capacity building to all branches of the government and civil society sector on human rights related issues; and increase engagement of the government and civil society with UN Human Rights Mechanisms.

Achievements

• The Office provided substantive support in developing the National Human Rights Strategy (2014 - 2020) and the Government’s Human Rights Action Plans (2014 - 2015, 2016 - 2017, and 2018 - 2020) as well as the monitoring of the implementation of these plans.
• OHCHR assisted in developing legislative amendments and advocated for increasing the oversight role of the Parliament of Georgia on the implementation of human rights obligations by state authorities. In 2016, relevant amendments were successfully introduced by the Parliament of Georgia.
• OHCHR provided numerous opinions to the Parliament of Georgia on compliance of Georgian legislation and draft laws, developed by the parliament, with universal and regional human rights standards. The majority of comments and suggestions were taken into consideration.
• OHCHR provided capacity building to staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for submitting state reports to the UN Treaty Bodies. OHCHR invited the Chairperson of CESCR to deliver a training to MFA staff and line ministries on approaches to drafting State Reports on implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
• OHCHR contributed to the development, and, in close cooperation with civil society sector, advocated for the adoption of legislation to enable independent investigation of alleged violations by law enforcement representatives. On 21 July 2018, the Parliament of Georgia adopted the Law on State Inspectorate, thus establishing a mechanism to be vested with the power to investigate alleged human rights violations by law enforcement officials.
• OHCHR developed a Human Rights Curriculum for the High School of Justice (Training Institution for Judges) including several modules on various rights. OHCHR provided training to judges and staff of the Supreme, appellate and first instance courts.
• OHCHR developed a human rights curriculum for civil servants and conducted targeted trainings for Members of the Parliament, Human Rights Secretariat of the Government of Georgia, representatives of local self-government bodies. It is noteworthy that materials developed by OHCHR will serve as the core part of the handbook for civil servants.
• OHCHR has established close cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the leadership of the Police Academy. Several training modules were developed and a set of training workshops conducted for MIA representatives and police officers.

Partners and Donors

Partners: UN agencies, Council of Europe, European Union, Human Rights Action Plan Secretariat of the Government of Georgia, Parliament of Georgia, High School of Justice of Georgia, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Georgian Bar Association, civil society organizations.

Donors: European Union, United Kingdom, UNDP.

UN Human Rights Focus Areas

Last reviewed: November 2020