On 22 June at 10.00 a conference will be held in the ballroom of the Courtyard Marriott Hotel to ask the question ‘Is Georgia ready for the UN Optional Protocol to the Torture Convention?’ Georgia was the first country of the former Soviet Union to ratify the torture prevention instrument which has come to be known as OPCAT.

One year ago it acquired an obligation to consult widely in order to have in place a National Torture Prevention Mechanism by 22 June 2007.

Mary Murphy, Director of the South Caucasus Office of Penal Reform International said, “On this day, Georgia should really be celebrating adoption by its Parliament of a new mechanism for protection of the rights of detainees that would address problematic legislation, regulations, structures and practices which currently leave its citizens vulnerable to ill treatment. However, no such mechanism has been presented by the Government for the consultation required under OPCAT, nor are we aware, despite numerous attempts to find out, that a Government sponsored draft mechanism exists.”

To bridge this gap, an alliance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the Public Defender have prepared their own draft mechanism. As they have done on many occasions over the last twelve months, the alliance will offer the Government the opportunity to respond to the draft model and supporting legislation and statutes, and to present its own vision for a new, credible, independent and transparent mechanism for preventing torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in Georgia’s prisons, police cells, psychiatric institutions and military cells.

Speakers at the conference will include Public Defender Sozar Subari, Matthew Pringle of the Geneva based Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT), Mary Murphy and Nino Makhashvili, respectively directors of the South Caucasus offices of Penal Reform International (PRI), and local Foundation of the Global Initiative for Psychiatry (GIP) Federation, Giorgi Chkheidze, Chairperson of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), Tsira Chanturia Project Coordinator of PRI and member of the prison monitoring commission at Rustavi No. 6 prison, Alexis Loeber of the European Commission, Janet Alberda of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Vladlen Stefanov from the UN OHCHR. The State Minister for European Integration has also been invited to speak.

The role played by the Public Defender’s Office in the new torture prevention mechanism will be explored during the conference. Existing experience of monitoring psychiatric institutions and prisons will be discussed in order to highlight what changes need to take place once an OPCAT compliant mechanism has been adopted. The meeting will close at 13.00 with conclusions and recommendations for further action in ensuring implementation by Georgia of its obligations under OPCAT.
 
The conference, organized by PRI, GIP and APT, takes place in the context of these organisations’ three-year EU funded project ‘Prevention of Torture in Georgia’. The conference is sponsored also by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Warsaw based Organization for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

The EU funded project, reflecting the high priority placed by the EU on protection of human rights and the fight against torture, seeks to assist the Government in implementing its torture prevention commitments under the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The Government has included implementation of OPCAT in its 2007 strategy for implementation of Priority Area 1 in the ENP EU – Georgia Action Plan.

For further information, please contact Tsira Chanturia (877 44 22 04) or Giorgi Tsibadze (877 44 99 04).