The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) and the Georgian Young Lawyers" Association (GYLA) have submitted two reports to the UN Human Rights Council for the 3rd cycle of the Universal Periodic Review.

The Universal Periodic Review, a mechanism established by the United Nations, aims to monitor and further improve the human rights situation in the UN Member States. In the framework of the third cycle, the Government of Georgia shall submit a report to the UN Human Rights Council in 2021. Given that under the Universal Periodic Review, when elaborating recommendations for the next four years, countries rely not only on the report submitted by the government of the respective state, but also on the assessments and opinions of the civil society, the above-mentioned reports intend to show the objective, full picture of the human rights situation in Georgia.

The reports address institutional problems in the judicial and law enforcement systems and the challenges in the field of criminal justice, such as clan based governance in the Georgian judiciary; the institutional arrangement and the problematic authorities of the High Council of Justice, the Prosecutorial Council, the Prosecutor’s Office, the State Security Service and the State Inspector"s Office; the issue of separation of the investigative system from the Prosecutor"s Office; incompatibility of the Code of Administrative Offenses with human rights standards; criminal charges for drug use, etc.

Both reports include relevant recommendations aimed at tackling the above-mentioned problems.