Press Release
Council of Europe Office in Georgia
26, Kakabadzeebi Brothers street, 0108 Tbilisi, Georgia
Tel.: +995 32 291 38 70 / 71 / 72 / 73
Fax: +995 32 291 38 74
E-mail: informtbilisi@coe.int
www.coe.ge |
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 Four
years on from the war between Georgia and Russia, a committee of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has warned against
politics poisoning possibilities for progress on humanitarian issues arising
from the war.
In a draft resolution based on a report by Tina Acketoft (Sweden, ALDE),
approved yesterday in Geneva, PACE’s Migration Committee said the humanitarian
consequences of the conflict remained a major concern: “While the emergency
needs of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees have been largely
taken care of, there is a slow but sure freezing of the conflict where persons
and their lives become trumped by politics.”
It said the preoccupation on all sides with status issues, access across the
administrative boundary Line (ADL) and terminology issues was poisoning the
possibility of progress on the humanitarian front. “These issues are political
in nature and should be secondary and not primary in any humanitarian
discussion,” the committee said. Recent political changes in Georgia following
the 1 October elections could “provide an opportunity for a change of dialogue
on all sides”, it added.
Providing durable housing and livelihoods for IDPs remained “the greatest
humanitarian challenge” facing the Georgian Government – though the committee
also congratulated the government for many of its efforts in this area.
The report is due to be debated by PACE at its winter plenary session in January
2013.
Adopted
resolution and
recommendation
(provisional
versions)
For more information see: www.coe.int / www.coe.ge |
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A
political organisation set up in 1949, the Council of Europe works to promote
democracy and human rights continent-wide. It also develops common responses to
social, cultural and legal challenges in its 47 member states.