Open Society Georgia Foundation and the International Centre for Prison Studies have published survey results. The main objectives of the research were to study the prevalence and causes of torture and inhuman treatment in Georgia’s prisons in the years of 2006-2012 and to make appropriate recommendations.
The presentation will be held on November 4th, Tuesday, at 09:30, at Holiday Inn Tbilisi.
Since 2013, Local and international human rights defenders have been studying the causes, extent and results of turtore in Georgia’s prisons. The report includes the results of empirical research conducted with former inmates and current prisoners by the Open Society Georgia Foundation and its partner organizations. 1200 prisoners have been interviewed, out of which 600 respondents were former inmates.
As a result of this survey some key questions have been answered: How systematically and frequently were prisoners subjected to an inhuman and degrading treatment? What were the major causes of turtore? What was the purpose of video-recording of torture? What were the most frequently used methods of physical and psychological torture? Was the torture taking place only in certain prisons, or in prisons throughout the country? Was torture used by a particular group of prison administration, or it was an official policy.
The report includes specific recommendations on elimination of such practices in the future and in general, on the prison management issues.
The Working Group brings together local and international NGOs working in the field of human rights, as well as international experts, such as Baroness Vivien Stern, the founder of Penal Reform International and member of the British House of Lords and Professor Andrew Coyle, Director of the International Centre for Prison Studies and Adviser on prison matters to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.