Today, October 6, at the plenary session of the Parliament, Public Defender Levan Ioseliani will present an annual report on the state of human rights and freedoms protection.

The mentioned document was prepared by the former Public Defender Nino Lomjaria and was presented to the Parliament on March 31 of this year.

In the reporting period - 2022, 5,277 applications were submitted to the Office of the Public Defender, on which appropriate legal responses were made. 12 104 calls were made to the hotline to eliminate the identified rights violations. The Public Defender addressed 74 recommendations to the state agencies.

During the reporting period, the Public Defender prepared: 24 special reports and 3 alternative reports, which were submitted to international bodies; 21 constitutional claims; 20 "friend of the court" opinions; 1 "friend of the court" opinion for the European Court of Human Rights; 5 communication were sent to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

According to the report, the process of deinstitutionalization of large closed facilities remains an unsolved problem. Access to somatic and psychiatric health services for prisoners is problematic. The issue related to the mechanism of early release of prisoners on parole is unresolved. Challenges regarding gender-motivated killings of women continue to exist. The vicious practice of long-term detention of prisoners in de-escalation rooms and solitary confinement in closed facilities remains a serious challenge. Long-term hospitalization of patients placed in psychiatric institutions is a problematic issue.

As Levan Ioseliani noted during the committee review of the report, the severe socio-economic situation in the country has a negative impact on the legal status of people. Poverty remains one of the main challenges of the country. One of the main problems in the country is child poverty.

Regarding the protection of freedom of expression, the report noted that the practice of administrative detention of assembly participants was problematic.