On December 20, ‘Manual about Political Prisoners in Georgia’, a new study, was published.
One of the key aims of the study was to develop criteria for the definition of the status of political prisoners, which has been a significant problem faced by Georgia.
This publication was prepared by Human Rights House Tbilisias part of the project ‘Uniting Georgian Civil Society to Jointly Study the Issue of Political Prisoners’ with the support from the Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF). The working group was made up by non-governmental organizations working on human rights and media representatives.
‘Manual about Political Prisoners in Georgia’ comprises: a review of the history of political prisoners in Georgia and the current situation, the criteria of international organizations (the Council of Europe, Amnesty International), the procedures of the European Court of Human Rights in relation to politically motivated cases, international and local reports about political prisoners in Georgia, an analysis of Georgian legislation concerning political prisoners and criteria developed by the working group itself.
‘In recent years we have witnessed continuous debates on whether we have political prisoners in Georgia or not. It should be noted that this report does not deal with concrete cases. It focuses on the definition of the notion of a political prisoner.This document should really become a manual and guide never to have political prisoners in Georgia again’, says Keti Khutsishvili, the OSGF Director.
