COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS EXAMINES SECOND PERIODIC REPORT OF GEORGIA

CESCR
29th session
15 November 2002
Morning



The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights completed this morning a two-day review of a second periodic report of Georgia, hearing a Government delegation describe national efforts to deal with internal displacement, an earthquake in the capital city of Tbilisi, and unemployment that had sent millions of Georgians to foreign countries in search of jobs.
The Committee's formal conclusions and recommendations on the Georgian report will be released at the end of the panel's three-week session on 29 November.
Introducing the report, Rusudan Beridze, Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia on Human Rights Issues, said the Georgian population had decreased by 20 per cent because citizens were fleeing persistent poverty.
She said that the unemployment rate in 2001 had risen to 11.1 per cent of the total economically active population, with the number of unemployed males exceeding that of unemployed females. The Georgian Parliament had adopted a law intended to spur employment, she said.
Responding to questions raised by Committee Experts, members of the Georgian delegation said there had been no improvement in the situation of 280,000 persons who had been internally displaced by the conflict in Abkhazia.
Other members of the Georgian delegation were Armiran Kavadze, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Georgia to the United Nations Office at Geneva; Manon Khachidze, Deputy Minister of Labour, Health Care and Social Protection; Alexander Kavsadze, Minister of tje Permanent Mission of Georgia to the United Nations Office at Geneva; and Alexander Nalbandov, Deputy Head of the Office of the Protection of Human Rights of the National Security Council of Georgia.
Georgia is among the 145 States parties to the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and must submit periodic reports to the Committee summarizing efforts to implement the provisions of the treaty.
The Committee's next public session will be at 10 a.m. Monday, 18 November, when it will take up an initial report of the Solomon Islands.

Report of Georgia
The second periodic report of Georgia (E/1999/6/Add.31) relates the various administrative, judicial and legislative reforms undertaken by Georgia to advance economic, social and cultural rights. It states that Georgia has stepped up judicial reforms to make the courts genuinely independent, just and impartial. Parliament has adopted new codes of criminal and civil procedure which establish the courts as the chief avenue for addressing violations of human rights and freedoms. In addition, important legislative instruments such as civil, criminal and general administrative codes have been adopted.
One of the key problems facing the Georgian State is the need to overcome poverty, the report notes. In January 2000, the Government adopted a document titled "Blueprint for Social Development", which lays the foundations for a new, long-term programme for the transformation of Georgian society.
The report says that in recent years the problem of unemployment in the country has become acute. Social, economic and political processes over the last 10 years have led to a significant decline in the country's basic economic indicators. In 1999, the gross domestic product dropped to 37.1 per cent of the 1990 level. This has seriously undermined prospects for employment. According to the estimates, between 500,000 and 1 million people have left Georgia in search of work. The dramatic decline in the birth rate in the 1990s, further compounded by negative migratory trends, has led to a significant reduction in the country's productive force.

Introduction of Report
RUSUDAN BERIDZE, Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia on Human Rights Issues, said the Georgian population now stood at 4.4 million -- a decrease of 20 per cent compared to the 1989 census. The demographic decrease was attributed to labour migration motivated by poverty.
Ms. Beridze said tax revenues were the main source of the national budget dedicated to ensuring adequate protection of economic and social rights. In the first half of the current year, tax revenues had made up 14.2 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Ms. Beridze said the unemployment rate in 2001 rose to 11.1 per cent of the total economically active population, with the number of unemployed males being higher than that of females.
Ms. Beridze said that the capital city of Georgia, Tbilisi, had suffered significantly from the earthquake of 25 April 2002. Hundreds of houses had been completely or partly destroyed and many people remained homeless; several persons died. The State and local authorities had made every effort to render aid to the persons who had suffered from the earthquake.
Inequalities in property acquisition and income among various population groups were alarming, Ms. Beridze said, and the level of corruption remained high, despite the measures undertaken to fight it.

Discussion
Committee members put a number of questions.
In response, members of the Georgian delegation said, among other things, that there had been no improvement in the situation of internal displacement, which concerned some 280,000 people. The effective enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights was only possible for displaced persons once they could return to their homes in Abkhazia. Security Council resolution 1393 of January 2002 on the situation in Abkhazia had affirmed the territorial integrity of Georgia. The root cause of the conflict was the right to self-determination claimed by separatist leaders.
The law on the establishment of the country's Ombudsman, adopted in 1997, gave that authority broad powers to identify and investigate violations of human rights by State bodies, the delegation said. Any person residing in Georgia might have recourse to the Ombudsman. However, the Ombudsman had no direct power; the Ombudsman's recommendations to the authorities were not binding. The Ombudsman submitted bi-annual reports to Parliament on the situation of human rights and freedoms in the country, which were then published as official documents.
According to the Georgian Constitution, all international treaties were considered part of the domestic legal system, the delegation said. However, there had no cases lodged before the judicial authorities invoking the provisions of the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Retired people now received their pensions on time, the delegation said. The problems that had been encountered by authorities in paying salaries and pensions had been resolved.
Georgia had difficulties in coping and caring for refugees such as the Chechens, the delegation said. However, it had been obliged to admit 7,000 Chechen women, children and wounded to the Pankisi Gorges, Georgia. They lived in homes and received all necessary assistance. At least 2,500 Chechens had voluntarily returned to the Russian Federation after residing as refugees in Georgia.
Reacting to a question on equality between men and women, the delegation said that in 1998, a State commission for the elaboration of a policy on the advancement of women had been set up with responsibility to prepare a national plan for the advancement of women and to monitor its implementation. A National Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women had been developed to uphold the economic and social rights of women. Although women participated in public affairs by holding high State posts, Georgian society was still dominated by men and more efforts were being made to change that situation.
The right to establish a trade union or a non-governmental organization was guaranteed by relevant legislative provisions, the delegation said. However, some problems had surfaced in the implementation of these provisions. Particularly, following an attack against the NGO "Liberty Institute", a presidential decree had strengthened the right of non-governmental organizations to carry out their duties.
The right to strike had been upheld, and there were 10 to 20 strikes per year by trade union members, the delegation said. No one was penalized for his or her participation in any strike.
A presidential decree had been adopted in June 1998 to combat violence against women, the delegation said. Other measures had been taken to gather information on domestic violence and to organize a public debate on the problem. Since the measures had been implemented, some 4,000 cases of domestic violence had been reported to authorities.
Measures taken to improve the conditions of street children had not produce concrete results, the delegation said. Begging and prostitution by children continued to be reported by non-governmental organizations.
Drug addiction was an alarming problem in Georgia, the delegation said. Three months ago, the National Security Council had published a report highlighting the extent of the problem which affected mainly young people. There were no reliable statistics on the spread of prostitution among minors. In general, prostitution was not a criminal offence in Georgia.
HIV/AIDS was a hidden problem that many people ignored and failed to take preventive measures against, the delegation said. Recently, the Government begun to carry out HIV/AIDS tests on prisoners.
Abortion was discouraged by Georgian authorities and instead contraceptive means were recommended, the delegation said. Women were advised to refrain from having abortions, which might jeopardize their health.
The country's first round of economic privatization had taken place without taking into consideration the social rights of the population, the delegation said, the result was that in many private enterprises, workers had been dismissed for structural reasons.
Rates of tuberculosis and hepatitis had been high in 1996, the delegation said. Starting in 1997, the problem had been resolved and since then rates had returned to normal. Malaria had been one of the region's major problems in the nineteenth century, but only 29 cases had been reported in 2000.
Economic difficulties and a lack of parental supervision had prompted many students to abandon school for gainful employment, the delegation said. About 13,665 children had dropped out of school in 2001.



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