Amnesty Notes Authorities Ready to Tackle Continuing Torture

Amnesty International announced on February 2 that it welcomes the openness of “many Georgian authorities” to tackle one of the country’s long-standing problems – eradicating torture and other ill-treatment.

On January 30-February 1 representatives of Amnesty International visited Georgia and met with General Procurator Zurab Adeishvili, Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, Public Defender Sozar Subari, Chairperson of the parliamentary Human Rights Committee Elene Tevdoradze and Deputy Chairman of the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee Giga Bokeria, as well as with the head of the office of the OSCE in Georgia Roy Reeve and representatives of Georgian non-governmental organizations.

“Amid continuing reports of abuses, however, it is now more important than ever for all relevant authorities to ensure that the promises of reform move firmly and irrevocably from paper to practice,” said Nicola Duckworth, Director of Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Programme.

“There must be clear political will from the highest level to ensure that Georgia has a comprehensive, coherent action plan against torture,” he added.

However, while all officials were committed to continuing the national action plan against torture, which expired at the end of 2005, “none was able to give concrete information on which body would be responsible for coordinating the development of such a plan for 2006 and beyond,” according to Amnesty International.

Amnesty International’s representatives brought the concerns and recommendations detailed in its recently published report Georgia Torture and ill-treatment – still a concern after the Rose Revolution to the Georgian authorities attention.