Expert says OSCE Moscow Mechanism activation signals ‘serious’ human rights concerns in Georgia

Tamta Mikeladze, a lawyer at the Social Justice Centre, on Thursday said the activation of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE) so-called Moscow Mechanism indicates that human rights conditions in Georgia are being judged “critically” by international actors.

“The use of the Moscow Mechanism means that the human rights situation in Georgia is being critically evaluated by international stakeholders, and the Georgian authorities are increasingly being likened to very serious authoritarian states, such as Russia and Belarus,” she said.

She described the Mechanism as one of the OSCE’s toughest and least-used human dimension instruments, deployed when concerns about a country’s human rights, democracy and rule of law are particularly grave.

“The Mechanism sends a strong political signal that violations of human rights in a country are acute, that domestic and traditional monitoring and accountability mechanisms are insufficient to address the crisis, and that urgent international intervention is needed,” Mikeladze said.

She emphasised that the Mechanism does not require the consent of the national authorities, underlining a serious deficit of international trust in the country’s handling of human rights.

Mikeladze added that the process will strengthen monitoring and oversight of human rights in Georgia, and that the findings from the expert mission are likely to influence assessments by other international organisations.

The move to activate the Moscow Mechanism for Georgia was taken by 24 OSCE participating States, which have called for the establishment of an expert mission.