The US Department of State has issued a human rights report for 2013.  GHN is offering executive summary from Country Reports section related to Human Rights Practices in Georgia for 2013.

The 2012 parliamentary election, which marked the first democratic transfer of power since the country’s independence, resulted in unprecedented 12-month cohabitation between the new prime minister and sitting president, who belonged to different political parties. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) concluded the October 27 presidential election “was efficiently administered, transparent and took place in an amicable and constructive environment. Fundamental freedoms of expression, movement, and assembly were respected and candidates were able to campaign without restriction. The campaign environment was without major irregularities.” While the election results reflected the will of the people, observers raised several concerns, including allegations of political pressure at the local level, inconsistent application of the election code, and limited oversight of campaign finance violations. Security forces reported to civilian authorities. There were reports that security forces committed human rights abuses.

The most important human rights problems reported during the year were:

The resignation and dismissal of government employees from local government institutions allegedly for their association with the former ruling party, United National Movement (UNM), and the government’s insufficient response;

Increased societal violence against members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community and the government’s failure to hold perpetrators responsible;

Local government interference with religious minorities’ rights to assemble and freely worship, and the government’s generally insufficient response;

Other problems reported during the year included police abuse of detainees and substandard, although improving, prison conditions. There were also allegations of politically motivated harassment. Following the October 2012 elections, UNM members reported arbitrary harassment, job loss, and arrests – including of the UNM’s general secretary, a former minister of internal affairs, defense minister, and prime minister – due to their political affiliation or activities. In addition, violent societal protests at some UNM presidential campaign events impeded the political opposition’s freedom of assembly. External and internal influence on the judiciary remained a problem, although there were some positive steps.

Evidence emerged that during the Saakashvili administration, officials from the Ministries of Internal Affairs and Defense engaged in illegal video recordings of the private lives of citizens and opposition public officials. Although the media environment improved, there were reports of government pressure on the media, especially Georgia’s Public Broadcaster. Many internally displaced persons (IDPs) continued to live in substandard or squalid conditions. Domestic violence and trafficking in persons remained problems. The government adopted a new labor code, but there was no labor inspectorate to enforce applicable laws properly. Problems persisted with workers’ fundamental freedom of association, interference with collection of dues, and the failure to honor previously agreed collective bargaining agreements.

The government took steps to promote accountability. As of December the government had charged 50 former senior Saakashvili administration officials –including the UNM’s general secretary, a former minister of internal affairs, defense minister, and prime minister – with crimes including obstruction of justice, misappropriation of government funds and money laundering, blackmail, privacy intrusion, and abuse of power. Of these officials six were in pretrial detention, 14 were released on bail, authorities did not prosecute 10, four were convicted, four were acquitted, one was released without restrictive measures, seven others were wanted and at large, and two were pending trials. Former President Saakashvili pardoned three officials after conviction and one received amnesty. The government also fired and arrested its first deputy minister of internal affairs, charging him with releasing a secretly obtained videotape of a journalist’s private life made by the previous administration in an attempt to discredit him. After the court released him on bail, he briefly left and then returned to the country.

De facto authorities in the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia remained outside the control of the central government. These authorities continued to be supported by several thousand Russian troops and border guards occupying the areas since the 2008 armed conflict between Russia and Georgia. A cease-fire remained in effect in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, although incidents of violence occurred in both areas. Russian border guards restricted the movement of the local populations. While there was little official information on the human rights and humanitarian situation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia due to limited access to these regions, many allegations of abuse persisted. De facto authorities continued to restrict the rights, primarily of ethnic Georgians, to vote or otherwise participate in the political process, own property, register businesses, and travel. The de facto South Ossetian authorities refused to permit most ethnic Georgians driven out during and after the 2008 war to return to South Ossetia. With the exception of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), de facto authorities did not allow international organizations regular access to South Ossetia to provide humanitarian assistance. Russian “borderization” of the administrative boundary lines of the occupied territories of Georgia intensified during the year, separating Georgian residents from their communities and undermining their livelihoods. This activity was inconsistent with commitments made by the Russian Federation in the August 12, 2008 six-point cease-fire agreement.