|2016

WORLD REPORT 2016
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
They said they encountered an atmosphere of fear and were denied access to detention
centers, including the security wing of Mile 2 Prison in Banjul.
In March 2015, Gambia rejected many recommendations from the UN Human
Rights Council in Geneva during its last Universal Periodic Review, including
abolishing the death penalty, decriminalizing homosexuality, and removing restrictions
on freedom of expression.
In February and March 2015, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances transmitted seven cases under its urgent action procedure to
the Gambian government on behalf of seven people abducted in January 2015,
allegedly by the NIA.
In December 2014, EU assistance to Gambia was frozen over concerns about the
country’s dire human rights situation. In June 2015, Gambia cut ties with the EU,
declaring its representative in Banjul persona non grata. However, plans for resuming
EU aid were under negotiation at year’s end.
The Banjul-based African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted a
resolution in February on the deteriorating rights situation in Gambia, calling on
the government to invite the commission to conduct a fact-finding mission into
events after the December 2014 attempted coup.
In May 2015, US National Security Advisor Susan Rice said she was “deeply concerned
about credible reports of torture, suspicious disappearances and arbitrary
detention at the government’s hands,” adding that the US government was
“reviewing what additional actions are appropriate to respond to this worsening
situation.”
In 2015, ECOWAS pressed Gambia to improve its human rights record and to establish
a credible human rights commission.
Georgia
Georgia’s human rights record remained uneven in 2015. The numerous investigations
into alleged crimes by former officials raised questions as to whether
they were being pursued on the merits of the cases, or were the result of selective
justice and politically motivated prosecutions.
Law enforcement officers continued to use torture and ill-treatment and in many
cases were not held accountable for abuses they committed. Media pluralism
was threatened by the closure of several political debate programs and a dispute
involving past and present high-level officials’ alleged interference in the ownership
and management of the most-watched television station, Rustavi 2. The
prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) requested the court’s authorization
to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed
during the August 2008 war with Russia.
Justice
The Georgian Dream coalition government continues to investigate dozens of
criminal cases against former officials who served under the previous government,
led by the United National Movement (UNM) party. Authorities selected
these cases from thousands of complaints citizens filed after the UNM was voted
out of office in 2012. UNM members and supporters allege that the prosecutions
are politically motivated, pointing to the absence of clear criteria for determining
which cases to prosecute, and that investigations overwhelmingly target UNM
members.
In September, the Tbilisi city court sentenced Gigi Ugulava, the UNM leader and
Tbilisi ex-mayor, to four-and-a-half years in prison on misappropriation charges.
Ugulava was acquitted of separate money laundering charges. The verdict came
the day after his release from pretrial detention following a Constitutional Court
decision that Ugulava’s 14-month detention exceeded the constitutionally mandated
limit of 9 months.
In October, a court in the city of Kutaisi ordered pretrial detention for three activists
from the UNM party and its affiliated nongovernmental organization
(NGO), Free Zone, following a confrontation with a Georgian Dream parliamentar-
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