Resolution on Georgia

Whereas:

the Georgian people continue to show strong support for the country’s Western aspirations and its European and Euro-Atlantic integration, and the Government of Georgia has taken alarming steps to remove Georgia from this path, while backsliding on multiple democratic reform issues, including on the independence of courts and freedom of media;

the Russian Federation continues to occupy Georgia’s Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) regions, in violation of Georgia’s territorial integrity and the EU-brokered 2008 ceasefire agreement, hampering the fundamental rights of the people living in this occupied territories and areas adjacent to the occupation line, installing additional barbed wire fences in Georgia-controlled areas (“borderization”) and kidnapping Georgian citizens;

taking into consideration the March 8th Agreement between the opposition and the government facilitated by the Embassies of the United States, the European Union, Germany, and the Council of Europe, aimed at breaking the political deadlock precipitated by the government’s unwillingness to implement constitutional reforms and free political prisoners in the run-up to decisive parliamentary elections in October 2020; and,

recalling the report and recommendations of the OSCE/ODIHR-led International Election Observation Mission for the 2018 presidential elections highlighting the misuse of administrative resources, undue pressure and intimidation of voters, vote buying (in particular, the announcement of a massive debt relief by a private financial institution linked to the chair of the ruling party), violation of vote secrecy, undue tracking of voters and impunity of violence against opposition;