UN Human Rights Committee recommended Georgia to attend to national minorities rights

PanARMENIAN.Net - On October 15-16, 2007 the UN Human Rights Committee (headquarters in Geneva) has considered the third periodic report of Georgia on how that State Party is fulfilling its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.



Among the other questions, relating to the sphere of protection of human rights in Georgia, the Committee discussed the situation in the sphere of protection of ethnic minorities' rights. The Union of Non-governmental Organizations for Repatriation and Settlement Yerkir also took part in hearings. The UN Human Rights Committee gave Yerkir Union the privilege on its own behalf and within the frameworks of session to organize a separate discussion on the current situation in the sphere of ethnic minorities' rights in Georgia.



During the discussions, well-known Canadian expert Dr Fernand de Varennes invited by Yerkir Union, has presented the current situation with violations of Armenian minority's rights in Georgia. He pointed out to non-alternative use of the Georgian language in public life fixed in legislation; gradual reduction of the representation of Armenians in administrative bodies and insufficient participation in the public life as a consequence of a language barrier; consecutive planting of training in Georgian language in the state educational establishments; impossibility of entry to the Georgian universities by the overwhelming majority of the Armenian entrants owing to insufficient knowledge of a state language; necessity of founding of Armenian university in Georgia, etc.



Levon Isakhanyan, the representative of Yerkir-Georgia organization (the branch of Yerkir Union in Tbilisi), among other questions has presented the problems facing to the Georgian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, particularly, the impossibility to obtain a state registration as a public legal entity, unproductive efforts on returning church constructions and church property confiscated from the Armenian Church by Soviet regime.



As a result of hearings the UN Human Rights Committee has adopted a document, where fixed its concluding observations and gave Georgian government the recommendations on improvement of a present situation in sphere of human rights in the country.



The Committee noted that the status of legal public entity was granted exclusively to the Georgian Orthodox Church and expressed its concern by the fact that by the fact that the different status of other religious groups could lead to discrimination. The Committee expressed its regret that problems related to the restitution of places of worship and related properties of religious minorities, confiscated during the Communist era, have not been solved. The Committee obliged the Georgian government to take steps to ensure equal enjoyment of the right of freedom of religion or belief and address the problems related to the confiscation of places of worship and related properties of religious minorities.



The Committee has expressed its concern at the obstacles faced by minorities in the enjoyment of their cultural rights, as well as at the low level of political representation of minorities. The Georgian government was recommended to consider the possibility of allowing minorities to use their own language at the level of local government and administration; to take all appropriate measures to ensure adequate political representation and participation of minorities, Yerkir Union's press office told PanARMENIAN.Net