Georgia Backtracking on Reform

Amendments Undermine Access to Justice

As a result of the findings contained in this report, Human Rights Watch is calling on the Georgian government to take a number of steps to amend the applicable laws and improve practices so as to safeguard against torture, and to meet United Nations and other international standards regarding fair trials and the treatment of persons held in pre-trial detention. This report reiterates the U.N. Human Rights Committee's April 1997 call for the government of Georgia to investigate and prosecute complaints of torture, as well as to conduct a systematic and impartial review of all past convictions that were based on confessions allegedly made under torture. Human Rights Watch also calls on the international community to press the Georgian government vigorously to adopt legislation that meets international standards in order to safeguard detainees, to combat widespread corruption involving law enforcement, and to foster accountability for law enforcement and security force's actions in light of the substantial bilateral and multilateral security assistance Georgia currently receives.