"Most of the recommendations issued by the Parliament have been instigated", - Shalva Kiknavelidze, First Deputy Chairman of the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee, remarked at the Committee Sitting, where MPs were hearing the reports on Statement of the Public Defender On the Situation of Human Rights and Freedoms in Georgia.

During the sitting, several agencies reported to the Committee.

"We are actively cooperating with the representatives of the Public Defender's Office on a daily basis, not only in terms of fulfilling the recommendations, but also on other issues, in order to further increase the quality of human rights protection in the country. We shall implement the recommendations to move to a qualitatively new level, bringing solid guarantees to our citizens that their rights will be protected”, - Beka Dochviri, Parliamentary Secretary of the Government, noted.

The Deputy Minister of Justice, Mikheil Sarjveladze, introduced the report to the deputies on the implementation of the recommendations by the Ministry of Justice.

"We hail the existence of such formats. It is very important to coordinate the various agencies and to be much more effective in making each of the decisions that are important to improve human rights standards in Georgia and to make Georgia a leading country in the world. This is the principle on which the activities of the Ministry of Justice are based, especially in the area related to the penitentiary system and the protection of human rights”, - Mikheil Sarjveladze noted.

Pursuant to the Deputy Minister, implementation of each recommendation required serious steps and most of these recommendations are intended to start and develop the process in such a way that it is effective and fruitful to improve the standard of protection of individual rights.

Deputy Prosecutor General Natia Merebashvili dwelt upon the implementation of the recommendations by the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia.

"We are studying the recommendations in detail and have close communication in this direction. 23 of these recommendations were addressed to the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia, 10 were concerning the information on specific criminal cases, and 13 - on issues such as violence against women, domestic violence, hate crimes, protection of the right to life, inviolability of privacy, combating ill-treatment, and religious intolerance. Most of our recommendations have been fulfilled, we are working on the rest on a permanent basis”, - Natia Merebashvili stated.

The Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Nino Tsatsiashvili introduced the report on the implementation of the recommendations by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

"25 recommendations have been issued to the Ministry, most of which have been implemented, and some of them are in the process of implementation. We have a substantiated position with a number of recommendations, which have not been implemented”, - N. Tsatsiashvili noted.

The First Deputy IDPs Minister Tamar Gabunia introduced the report on the implementation of the recommendations by the Ministry of IDPs.

She stressed on four areas: health, social protection, employment (labor inspection) and the issue of IDPs from the occupied territories, especially in the area of resettlement. According to her, most of the recommendations have been implemented, while the rest are in the process of implementation.

The Deputy Minister of Education, Ekaterine Dgebuadze informed the members of the Committee about the state of implementation of the recommendations by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports. She also spoke about the projects related to the implementation of the recommendations. "We may not have fulfilled 100% of the recommendations, but they are all valuable to us and the full implementation is of course envisaged with the lapse of time", - Ekaterine Dgebuadze noted.

After hearing the report on the implementation of the recommendations, the Public Defender of Georgia, Nino Lomjaria addressed the attendees - "The report was prepared on the basis of official information received from the agencies, publicly available material and the Public Defender's monitoring visits”, - N. Lomjaria noted.

According to her, 310 recommendations were given to state agencies and local self-government bodies during the 2018 Parliamentary report. As the Parliament shared and reflected 78% of the Public Defender's recommendations, it was the highest rate compared to previous years.

"I hope that this trend will continue over the years", - Nino Lomjaria reported. As she added, the Parliament did not share 60 recommendations, the implementation of which is low and only 2 of them were implemented by the agencies. She consistently assessed the tasks performed by agencies.

According to the Majority representative, Merab Kvaraia - "It is good when we talk about screening non-communicable diseases in prisons, as well as increasing the storage time of video surveillance recordings, which will give us maximum prevention in terms of human rights protection".

MP Ada Marshania hailed that 78% of the Public Defender's recommendations were shared by the Parliament.

The Chairman of the Parliamentary Faction "Georgian Dream", Rati Ionatamishvili assessed the importance of this process.

"Very important work has been embarked and I would like to remind the public once again that this format has been introduced by us. Based on the report of the Public Defender, the Parliament adopts the resolution and, in fact, instructs the specific ministries and state agencies to follow the recommendations. We hear the report from the agencies and we are aware of the implementation of these objectives. On the one hand, it is very important to develop parliamentary oversight and control mechanisms, and on the other hand, it is also important for the Public Defender as an institution to be very strong, which should always be one of our tasks, so this process is interesting and unique. I see and today's hearings give me grounds to believe that quite a lot of recommendations have been implemented, and also based on the previous report, we have shared 85% of the recommendations, which is the highest figure so far", - Rati Ionatamishvili noted.

Dimitri Mkheidze positively estimated the work of the Public Defender as well as the work of each agency. He demanded strong reactions from the Public Defender regarding the insulting of Orthodox icons and saints.

After the Public Defender and the relevant agencies answered the questions asked by the deputies, the Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Shalva Kiknavelidze, noted that the meeting of the working group is scheduled in the near future.

"All interested parties, including the Public Defender, will be invited to the meeting. Accordingly, all recommendations issued to the Parliament will be considered and processed. We are open for cooperation”, - Shalva Kiknavelidze remarked.

"Today clearly shows the way the Parliamentary Oversight Mechanism works. It accounts for the number of problems, difficulties and challenges that have been resolved positively", - the first Deputy Chairman of the Committee reported.