Public Defender Levan Ioseliani Meets Council of Europe’s Secretary General
Georgia’s Public Defender, Levan Ioseliani, met with the Council of Europe’s Secretary General Alain Berset on March 27 in Strasbourg to discuss the country’s human rights situation and recent legislative developments.
During the meeting, Ioseliani briefed Berset on Georgia’s current human rights situation, with a focus on freedom of media, expression, and the right to assembly, “as well as recent legislative developments and the Public Defender’s opinions on the aforementioned changes,” the press release said.
Accompanying Ioseliani was the First Deputy Public Defender, Tamar Gvaramadze. The delegation also met with the Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe, Gianluca Esposito, and the Executive Secretary of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), Hugh Chetwynd.
Berset visited Georgia and held meetings with the Georgian Dream authorities and opposition coalitions in December last year, amid the backdrop of the GD government’s decision to halt the country’s EU accession process, which sparked widespread protests and led to multiple recorded instances of police violence, abuse, and repression.
At the conclusion of his visit on December 20, Berset announced that the GD government agreed to form a working group to amend the controversial Foreign Agents’ law, a move criticized by President Salome Zurabishvili, opposition leaders and civil society organizations who argued the issue was the GD’s Russian-style rule, rather than the law’s nuances. They also said the decision had not been discussed with them.
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