Strasbourg: The public defender of Georgia who is on an official visit to France from June 26 to 29 met the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Maria Peičinović Burić. He also meets the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe Michael O’Flaherty and the Vice President of the Venice Commission Veronika Bilkova.
At the same time he meets the Congress leaders of local and regional authorities of the Council of Europe with Secretary-General Matthew Morris, the President of the European Court of Human Rights Siofra O’Leary and the elected judge of Georgia Lado Chanturia.
During his visit the Public Defender reviewed the state of human rights protection in Georgia and introduced the results and challenges achieved in different directions by the government of Georgia.
He also here spoke about the problems of the population in the conflict regions and near the occupation line including violations of the right to life, social issues, the need to strengthen self-governments, the situation of minorities, the working environment of the media and human rights defenders, freedom of assembly and expression, the progress of the pre-election campaign and issues of raising public awareness etc.
It is also worth mentioning that at the meetings the heads of many international organizations emphasized the importance of the work done by the Office of the Public Defender over the years to establish values based on human rights in Georgia and expressed their willingness to deepen cooperation with Georgia.
The Public Defender of Georgia met the Ombudsman of Ukraine Dmytro Lubinets who is also on a working visit to Strasbourg. He got acquainted with the situation of Ukrainian citizens affected by the war and the ongoing processes for their rehabilitation.
The public defender also held working meetings with Program Coordination Director Klaus Neukirch, Head of the Social Rights Department of the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) Jan Malinowski and representatives of the same department Margarita Galstiani and Tanya Montanari.
Moreover he met with the heads of the Department of Enforcement of Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) of the Council of Europe, and the Department for the Implementation of Standards of Human Rights, Justice and Legal Cooperation and other high-ranking officials.
