Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
I am writing following the Foreign Affairs Committee
Oral Evidence Hearing on vj June, to provide further evidence
on the following:
— Q234: Human Rights in Georgia
I am writing separately to you to provide further
detail on European Council Decisions, of the type agreed for Ireland
at the June European Council and for Denmark in 1992.
PRIME MINISTER'S
ADVISER ON
CLIMATE CHANGE
The Prime Minister's letter to Geoff Hoon invited
him to advise the Prime Minister on "improving co-ordination
amongst EU Member States to meet the economic, environmental and
security challenges of European energy policy". The appointment
of Geoff Hoon in a new advisory capacity on EU energy demonstrates
the importance that the Government attaches to energy security
and tackling climate change.
The details of Geoff Hoon's role as an adviser
on energy matters are still being established and the Secretary
of State for Energy and Climate Change will be holding discussions
with Mr Hoon over the coming weeks to agree the exact nature of
his role. Further details will become available in due course.
Once those discussions have taken place, we will also be clearer
about how his role dovetails with the work of the FCO.
Geoff Hoon is an experienced and talented addition
to the Government's overall energy and climate change effort and
we look forward to working closely with him.
LISBON TREATY
INSTITUTIONAL CHANGES
As I made clear to the Committee, the Lisbon
Treaty will either come into force or not. All Member State Governments
have agreed and support the Treaty as a whole, and 26 Member States
have now completed their Parliamentary stages of ratification.
As I said, if it does not pass in Ireland its provisions will
not enter into force anywhere.
HUMAN RIGHTS
IN GEORGIA
On the whole, Georgian civil society is free
to operate and say what it likes. We have encouraged the government
to engage more with civil society in the reform process, and will
continue to do so. We continue to raise human rights issues with
the Georgians on a regular basis. Baroness Kinnock met representatives
of Georgian civil society during her visit to Tbilisi on 24 June.
A dedicated human rights dialogue between the EU and Georgia also
takes place on a bi-annual basis. The first meeting took place
on 28 April, and the next will be in the autumn, accompanied by
civil society seminars on internally displaced persons (IDP) and
media issues.
We also continue to encourage the Georgian government
to police demonstrations responsibly. We have recognised the responsible
policing of the bulk of opposition demonstrations since they began
on 9 April. However, there have been reports of violence towards
a number of opposition supporters. We continue to encourage the
Georgian government to investigate all allegations thoroughly.
A number of opposition supporters have been arrested following
attacks on MPs and media representatives.
We do have concerns over some human rights issues
in Georgia. Prison and pre-trial detention conditions remain poor
in many places, many ordinary Georgians lack access to defence
lawyers, and public trust in the judiciary is low. There are also
some reports of ethnic discrimination (mainly against ethnic Armenians)
and of religious discrimination against non-Georgian Orthodox
denominations. We continue to urge the government to address these
issues. In some cases, they have responded, for example by increasing
spending on prisons, and exploring alternative measures to incarceration,
to alleviate the pressures of overcrowding.
Regarding the media, it is fair to say that
public trust in the media is low and respect for freedom of speech
and media freedom has deteriorated in the past couple of years.
Harassment of and political pressure on journalists has taken
place. This is partly due to the underdevelopment of the media
sector, with few channels and newspapers being genuinely commercially
viable, and therefore susceptible to political agendas. The Georgian
government has undertaken to introduce a Broadcasting Law and
has begun efforts to reform the Public Broadcaster (with BBC World
Service Trust assistance) but there is still some way to go.
I am copying this letter to the Clerk of the
Committee; Chairman of the House of Commons European Scrutiny
Committee, Chairman of the House of Lords EU Select Committee,
the Clerks of both Committees; Michael Davidson, FCO EU Scrutiny
Coordinator; Monica Cummings, FCO Parliamentary Relations Co-ordinator;
and to Les Saunders at the Cabinet Office European Secretariat.
Rt Hon David Miliband MP
15 July 2009
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