At Human Rights Council, Lithuania Condemns Human Rights Violations in Separatist Regions of Georgia
On 28 September 2017, Lithuania took the floor in the general debate at the 36th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The Lithuanian representative spoke in response to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) oral update on Georgia.
The Lithuanian statement raised the problem of human rights abuses continuously committed by the Russian Federation border guards on the administrative boundary line between Georgia and its separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Russian border guards seek illegally to turn the administrative boundary into a state border. Russia’s actions violate Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as the human rights of the local residents, in contempt of numerous OHCHR appeals and recommendations. Lithuania urged the separatist de facto authorities to start cooperating with the OHCHR and to grant it unrestricted access to the territory they control.
