publications

Methodology

This report is based on a two-week field visit by Human Rights Watch researchers to Georgia in May 2006 and extensive additional research. The Ministry of Justice provided Human Rights Watch with access to a number of penitentiary facilities. Human Rights Watch researchers visited a total of six facilities: remand Prison No. 5 and Prison No. 7 in Tbilisi; the Republican Prison Hospital in Tbilisi; the new remand Prison No. 6 and Prison No. 1 in Rustavi, a town approximately 20 kilometers south of Tbilisi;38 and the new combined remand/regular Prison No. 2 in the western Georgian city of Kutaisi. Human Rights Watch did not visit the prison for women or the prison for juveniles, although Human Rights Watch researchers did interview women and children being held as remand prisoners in some of the facilities visited.

Despite repeated requests, the Ministry of Justice refused to provide Human Rights Watch researchers with written confirmation in Georgian that they had permission to visit the prisons, which could have been presented to prison officials upon attempting to enter a facility. As a result, there were delays of up to an hour in entering many facilities. In order to gain access to each facility, Human Rights Watch researchers found it necessary to call one or more officials from the Ministry of Justice or the Penitentiary Department, who would then instruct the prison officials to admit the researchers. In at least three instances, prison officials claimed that there were inspections or shift changes underway at the moment that Human Rights Watch researchers arrived at a facility, which resulted in delays. It was not clear to Human Rights Watch whether these statements were made in order to deliberately stall for time or whether there were indeed inspections or shift changes underway. Human Rights Watch visited Prison No. 2 and remand Prison No. 6 in Rustavi together with a representative from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Georgia, who conducts regular prison monitoring.

Human Rights Watch researchers conducted 110 separate interviews with detainees and former detainees. Detainees who spoke with Human Rights Watch did so of their free will and, to the greatest extent possible, in private, outside of the presence of other prisoners or prison guards. Some detainees declined to talk with Human Rights Watch. In all facilities visited, with the exception of the Republican Prison Hospital, prison authorities actively interfered with Human Rights Watch researchers’ efforts to interview detainees privately. This occurred despite repeated requests by Human Rights Watch researchers to prison authorities to permit interviews to be conducted in private. In one facility, a prison official openly threatened one detainee who wanted to speak to Human Rights Watch researchers. The names of detainees and, in some instances, the date and location of interviews have been withheld in order to protect the identity of detainees who spoke with Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch is particularly concerned about the security of detainees, as in the past, the government has actively sought to identify individuals who gave interviews to Human Rights Watch and other organizations despite the fact that the interviewees specifically requested to remain anonymous.

Human Rights Watch researchers also interviewed prison officials, representatives of nongovernmental organizations and international organizations, as well as the ombudsman, and officials from the Ministry of Justice, the General Prosecutor’s Office, and the Penitentiary Department of the Ministry of Justice.




38 In 2004 the Georgian government appealed to the European Commission to render support under the Rapid Reaction mechanism to complete construction of Rustavi Prison No. 6 and train the future staff of the prison. The project was implemented together with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).