29th Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe (Strasbourg, 20-22 October 2015)

Speech by Paata Zakareishvili, State Minister of Georgia for Reconciliation and Civic Equality  

Debate on “The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages: practical applications at regional level”

Strasbourg, 21 October 2015

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Dear President of the Congress,

Dear Secretary General of the Congress,

Distinguished Members of the Congress,

First and foremost, I would like to extend my thanks for your invitation and for the honor to address the Congress.

Georgia is a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional country, whose strength is based on the valuable role of its each and every citizen. Together with the Georgians, who comprise the major ethnic group, representatives of other ethnicities significantly contributed to the development of a country all through the different periods of history. Approximately 16% of the total population (apart from Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia) belongs to ethnic minorities. The Government of Georgia devotes special attention to the protection of identity and civic integration of residents who live in the entire territory of Georgia, also in its integral territories of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia, in a sense that these regions are occupied by Russian Federation and there is a real threat for ethnic groups represented there to lose their identity.

Whilst, the protection of identity is ensured in the regions compactly settled with ethnic minorities, the challenge related with the low level of their integration with the rest of community remains, partly because of compact settlements, along with many other reasons. Besides, representatives of other ethnicities, including relatively small ethnic groups (Abkhazians, Kurds, Assyrians, Roma, Kists, Greeks, Udi, Russians, etc.), are dispersed into different cities and regions of Georgia.

Georgia has a positive experience in maintaining centuries-old tradition of cultural diversity, coexistence in tolerant environment and development. Diversity, in its part, remains indispensable to the richness of our country, to democratic and stable development of Georgia.

The National Legislation is quite comprehensive and implies many provisions regulating the rights of ethnic minoritiesand the overall promotion of civic integration process. Each one of them represents a mechanism for the implementation of rights and responsibilities defined by the Constitution of Georgia. Likewise, the civic integration process is based on best international practices, legal and political regulations in the light of international standards for the management of ethnic diversity. Georgia, as a member state of the United Nations, Council of Europe, OSCE and other international organizations, expresses awareness to share and adopt best international practices and regulations that proved to be successful in the field of the protection of ethnic minorities’ rights and providing civic integration within the Georgian context. Georgia remains committed to the responsibilities it has undertaken by accession to the Council of Europe in 1999, to respect the preservation of ethnic identity and create appropriate conditions for the fulfillment of these rights.

In recent years, Georgia has achieved significant progress with regard to the protection of rights and cultural identity of ethnic minorities, through creating legal guarantees and defining further mechanisms for the implementation of legal norms.  

In 2014, the Parliament of Georgia adopted Law “Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination”, also Human Rights Strategy and respective Action Plan was approved, which emphasizes the protection of ethnic minorities’ rights as well.  In July 2015, the Parliament of Georgia adopted the Law on the State Language, which includes the definition of the “language of national minorities” and the provisions for the use of minority languages.

Cultural identity of ethnic minorities, including their linguistic rights, is preserved and well-protected.

Ethnic minorities in Georgia have access to all stages of education (preschool, general, higher and professional), also in their native languages (Azerbaijani, Armenian, Russian).There are non-Georgian pre-school institutions, 213 non-Georgian public schools and 77 non-Georgian sectors functioning in Georgia.

[Statistical data: 85 Azerbaijani schools, 117 – Armenian schools, 11 – Russian schools. Also, 28 – Georgian-Azerbaijan sectors, 31 Georgian-Russian sectors, 3 –Georgian, Russian-Azerbaijani sectors, 7 Georgian-Russian-Armenian sectors and 8 – Georgian-Armenian sectors.]^[1]

Mitigation system (the so-called quota system) for national minority students, that was put into practice since 2010 resulted in substantial increase of the number of ethnic minority students enrolled in higher education institutions (HEIs) of Georgia.

[Statistical data: According to the official data, in 2010 247 non-Georgian entrants were enrolled at HEIs, in 2011 – 430, in 2012 – 589, while the number for 2013 equaled to 890 students, in 2014 – 673 and 2015 – 741.]

Georgia also pays attention to the preservation of languages exercised by small ethnic groups that require promotion and support. At this stage, the standards of language instruction (for Kist/Chechen, Kurdish, Udi, Avar, Assyrian languages) are approved, whereas the methods for teaching are in the process of elaboration at secondary schools. Rational for carrying out these activities derives from the needs and requirements of those ethnic minorities’ representatives; therefore, we do hope that they will be able to make use of existed opportunities at their best.

Simultaneously, the lack of knowledge of state language in the regions of compact ethnic settlements remains considerably challenging. (According to the 2002 census, only 30% of non-Georgian population could understand/speak state language). In this regard, special programs that aim at improving state language instruction and civic integration of ethnic minorities are implemented at non-Georgian schools  and are intended for ethnic minority public servants in the regions compactly settled by ethnic minorities; Georgian language courses are also available for various groups. We shall keep intensified work in this respect.

Lack of knowledge of state language seriously impedes the integration of ethnic minorities, hindering their active engagement in different spheres of public life. As already mentioned, it remains as one of the most important challenges.

Lack of knowledge of state language also limits their access to media and information. At the same time, the right to have access to information is defined by the law. Television/radio programs are daily aired on the Georgian Public Broadcaster on ethnic minority languages and for ethnic minorities. Nevertheless, in this respect, we plan to broaden the area and improve access to media for ethnic minorities in line of the current reform at the Public Broadcaster. It should be noted that the state also supports non-Georgian printed media.

The National Legislation provides access to the services of public and law-enforcement agencies for ethnic minority representatives.

Full and equal participation of ethnic minorities in political processes, like elections, is ensured. All of the necessary documentation is translated into ethnic minority languages (Armenian, Azerbaijani, Russian), also representatives of various ethnic groups are encouraged to be engaged in electoral process. Reader-friendly information on electoral procedures is also provided to the population of the regions that have compact ethnic settlements.

The representation of ethnic minorities in local self-government bodies is proportional to the percentage of the population in those regions. In future, we shall consider more active support to their increased participation.

Ethnic minorities have full and equal access to social-economic programs and benefits.

The state supports activities aimed at promoting and popularizing cultures of ethnic minority groups, as well as inter-cultural dialogue.

The state pays a particular attention to religious issues. We find essentially important to incorporate the issues related with religious unions into the single legislative setting and take respective decisions, accordingly. For this purpose, in December 2013 under the initiative of the State Minister’s Office, the “Inter-agency Commission for the Study of Issues Related with Religious Unions” was established. As a part of its activity, the Commission launched a number of initiatives: 1) “It prepared the rules for partial recovery of losses to religious unions of Georgia, affected by Soviet totalitarian regime”, laying a foundation for the partial recovery of losses to religious unions of Islamic, Judaic, Roman-Catholic and Armenian Holy Apostolic confessions and were registered under the status of legal entities of the public law; 2) in 2014 a State Agency for Religious Issues was established, with a basic mission to conduct applicable study and develop recommendations for legislation in the areas like the construction of religious/cult sites, funding of religious unions, regulation of religious studies, etc.

After Parliamentary Elections of 2012, the new Government made serious efforts to study and define all those problems and challenges that are related to the signature and ratification of the “European Charter on Regional and Minority Languages.” The Charter is one of the responsibilities Georgia has undertaken by its accession to this organization and still continues work for its implementation.

Currently, the Charter is under review. We have conducted meetings at political level, also with experts, linguists, civic and international actors and various target groups. We keep intensified analytical work to study paragraphs of the Charter in depth. Certain steps have been taken for awareness raising with regard to the Charter; the State Commission has been established and works continuously. As far as the process is uneasy and the issue is quite politicized, there is a need for deep analysis.

The issue of Charter is also used by certain politically motivated groups for implanting overrated and false expectations, also inspiring the perception of threats and risks within a society.For that reason, it is immensely important to find a solution based on increased awareness and public consensus, without any political deliberations. In parallel, the standards that are covered by the Charter are introduced and supported.

The spirit of the Charter is designed primarily to promote culture and remains essentially focused on the protection and support of the application and development of regional and minority languages, as indivisible part of common European cultural heritage. Simultaneously, we need to realize, that Charter does not necessarily defines individual and collective rights of those who speak regional or minority languages.

Despite the Charter is under review, I would like to stress that it does not prevent the process of realization of most of provisions. Georgia protects and preserves the languages of ethnic minorities in frames of different mechanisms. For this moment, our objective is to conduct needs assessment and figure out which languages require support and development. In order to ensure its effective implementation, it is essential to achieve public consensus.

Two unique languages are applied on the territory of Georgia: these are the Georgian and the Abkhazian languages that are protected under the Constitution of Georgia. Georgian is the State Language on the whole territory of the country, whereas Abkhazian has a status of State Language within the territory of Abkhazia. Protection and development of these languages is important objective for us. Other languages do not face any threat of extinction, since they have a historic homeland; simultaneously, the state encourages their protection and development on the whole territory of Georgia.

As far as Abkhazian is concerned, protection and application of this language is maintained in the rest of Georgia, but it faces serious threats in Abkhazia proper; as you may recall, this part of Georgian territory is occupied and the Government does not exercise control over the territory to protect Abkhazian language. Even though our essential goal is to save the unique Abkhazian language from extinction in the occupied territory of Abkhazia, the occupying regime struggles against Georgian language continuously. It is completely unacceptable, that since September 1^st, 2015 education in native Georgian language for ethnic-Georgians was suspended for 1-4 grades students at 11 Georgian schools of Gali district; it was substituted by Russian language, respectively.

Since 2008, according to Abkhazian curriculum, Georgian language is taught as an ordinary subject and Georgian textbooks are forbidden in those schools that are located in Tkvarcheli and Ochamchire districts. Academic process runs by using textbooks prepared for Russian schools. Due to the absence of Abkhaz language teachers in the majority of schools in “Lower Zone” of Gali, Abkhaz language hours are substantially limited. Similarly, Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia faces serious difficulty- Ossetian language is gradually wiped out and replaced by Russian. In terms of receiving appropriate education, ethnic-Georgians of Akhalgori district have problems as well.

The State Strategy on Civic Equality and Integration and its respective Action Plan are one of the basic instruments for the state policy. In August 2015, the Government of Georgia has approved the new Strategy and Action Plan for 2015-2020. The new policy document is based on the results obtained throughout the previous years and considers support to the rights of ethnic minorities, including the preservation and development of their culture.

Our approachis: more integration, more diversity, as a prerequisite for stable and democratic development of the country.

We express our readiness to cooperate with all interested actors in order to achieve these goals. We highly appreciate engagement of international community, participation/support of the Council of Europe in the process of implementation of state policy for the protection of the rights of ethnic minorities. Eventually, it is precisely joint efforts that can lead us to positive results and success.