Georgian human rights defender: In Georgia there is no tangible difference between protection of the rights of the national minorities and the Georgians so far

 So far there is no tangible difference between protection of the rights minorities in Georgia, including the rights of the national minorities and the Georgians, Lia
Mukhashavria, lawyer, Head of the Human Rights Priority NGO, said in an online interview with ArmInfo.  

Commenting on the latest statement by Bidzina Ivanishvili saying that one of the prior tasks of his government is to develop democratic values and protect human rights in Georgia, the human rights defender said that the situation has changed to better.

"There are no longer any tortures at jails, the number of prisoners fell by 60% and the problems with overfilled penitentiaries remained in the past. Procedural agreements are no longer practiced. So people cannot buy their freedom via a procedural contract with a prosecutor. Mass arrests to fulfill the budgets through procedural contracts have been stopped as well," Mukhashavria said.

She thinks that the legislative and the executive branches work hard to improve the situation with human rights in the country. The human rights defender outlined the judicial reform. She hopes the reform will be a success without any serious loses and shocks. "We live in a democratic state already today," she said.

The human rights defender does not share the views of some NGOs in Georgia saying that the campaign organized by the Identity NGO in Tbilisi on May 17 was provocative. She thinks that minorities gathered then just to celebrate the International Anti-Homophobia Day. The situation got out of control of the religious leadership, which did not expect such big number of anti- demonstrators and aggression.

"Such provocations are in favor of the former political force, National Movement, which calls itself opposition now," Mukhashavria said.

Joint online press conference of experts from various countries for Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian mass media on the relevant problems are organized within the project "Expansion of knowledge of Armenians and Azerbaijanis about each other and confidence building through first-hand information". The project of the "Region" Research Center (Armenia) and Peace and Democracy Institute (Azerbaijan) is supported by the British Embassies in Armenia and Azerbaijan.