The Report traditionally is formulated according to high standards and hence, we may declare that the Report is clear enough not to leave a space for manipulations and misinterpretations. Thus, I call on you to abstain from fabricating facts or distorting the details of the Report, the Chair of the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee, Mikheil Sarjveladze stated at the briefing concerning the Annual Report of the US Department of State.

The Document overviews and appreciates the progress Georgia has achieved in 2021 in the improvement of the human rights protection standards.

“The Report delivers information about the facts characterized with high public and/or political interests and which were criticized by our political opponents. We may clearly state that if not in all but in the greatest majority of cases, despite the expectations and wills of our opponents to see Georgia accused of violation of human rights, these expectations are disillusioned. The Report mostly provides the instructions not on the facts of violation but on the assertions of the violation by the opposition parties or the Ombudsman. It means that the Report provides that the opposition parties or a Public Defender state about the fact of violation without substantial grounds.

The Report provides nothing of the fact that Saakashvili is considered as a political prisoner by the opposition parties (by the way, Mr. Melia and Mr. Rurua are mentioned in the same context). It is no doubt that this fact would be by no means indicated in the Report. The form of the indication is also important – would it be a question about a different motivation of the imprisonment of Saakashvili or the Department of State would only indicate to the position of the opposition parties.

We, upon the very publication of the Report, witnessed an attempt of certain parties on TV shows to mislead the society and sell the information in the Report as a position of the US Department of State that the National Movement considers Saakashvili as a political prisoner. Society, as always, could not be deceived by this bail of the radical opposition and parties put via the media in the form of feeble insinuations and primitive tricks. It is evidenced by the response of the users on the social network.

The Report provides nothing that the society is not fully informed about and that is not widely discussed, estimated and put in the political and legal conclusions. It concerns the parts reflecting the positive tendencies equally as critical remarks. For instance, the Report reiterates the position concerning the expediency of the adoption of the State Inspector Institution reform in an expedited manner, which the society has acknowledged in a proper way.

Including the fact, which shall be appreciated that the Report underlines the gross human rights violations on the occupied territories of Georgia. To sum up, the Report in total reflects the progress achieved in 2021 in human rights protection. The document provides a quite accurate vision of the spheres and challenges we need to focus for the proper planning of our activity and putting due accents”, - said Mikheil Sarjveladze.