In 2023, during the reporting period from May 1 to December 31, the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights received 67 appeals. Based on these requests, the staff of the apparatus conducted more than 100 consultations with applicants. Inspection activities were also carried out within the framework of the powers in accordance with the Law “On the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Abkhazia”, as a result, explanations and consultations were given regarding the means needed for protecting rights and freedom or appeals were transferred to government bodies for resolving appeals on the merits.

Based on requests from citizens, 85 petitions were sent to the prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and other state and municipal bodies to conduct inspections and take response measures, to provide information and materials needed to consider the complaints. In particular, 22 requests were sent to the prosecutor's office, 6 of which were repeated, to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia - 17 requests, 5 to the judicial authorities, 1 of which was repeated, to executive authorities - 24 requests, 6 of which were repeated, to others government bodies - 17, 3 of which were repeated.
As in previous years, the bulk of requests for violation of rights is in the category of civil rights, their share is 51 appeals out of 67, 14 appeals were received for violation of social rights, one appeal was received for political and environmental violations.

The area of housing rights remains relevant for 2023. Over the past year, we have received many repeated requests regarding queues for housing. Unfortunately, the situation in this area does not change; the state has no free housing stock and doesn’t conduct new housing construction. Therefore, at present it is not possible to provide citizens in need of housing. I consider it necessary to pay attention to this issue and take measures when forming the republican budget.

There are several topics that I would like to cover in more detail.
1. Monitoring of places of deprivation of liberty.
Unfortunately, we have to admit that conditions in places of forced detention are predominantly punitive in nature. Certainly, individuals in custody for committing unlawful acts are deprived of their liberty as punishment, but the detention in unfavorable conditions affecting their physical health and psychological state does not correspond to the principles of humanism and respect for human dignity (Article 4 of the Law on Detention). Prisoners cannot be deprived of anything that entails the deprivation of fundamental human rights.

The main problems include: lack of adequate medical care, non-compliance of sanitary standards with the requirements of cleanliness and decency, problems with providing centralized nutrition, lack of cells and beds, leisure activities, outdated buildings and much more. Separately, it is worth highlighting the difficult working conditions of the employees of those places.
Confinement in such conditions does not serve the purpose of punishment—correcting the convicted person and preventing him from committing new crimes. Finding himself in such conditions, a person cannot rethink of what he has done, first of all, tries to adapt to the living conditions that can contribute to the dehumanization of his personality, its further marginalization, embitterment and increased criminalization.

In addition, there are no specialized places of detention for women and teenagers in Abkhazia. In this regard, these categories of prisoners are kept in the temporary detention center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia in the city of Sukhum. Women are kept in cells located on the same floor as men's ones. This state of affairs violates the rights of these categories of convicts, does not contribute to their correction and also complicates the work of employees of the temporary detention center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia.

You should also pay attention to the fact that in the pre-trial detention center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia in the village of Dranda, all convicts are kept in the same conditions, regardless of the severity of the crime committed. In connection with this legislation, taking into account the regime of detention, a system is provided for reducing the terms of serving a sentence determined by the court. However, this state of affairs cannot fully ensure proper conditions for serving the sentence for all convicts.
Solving the complex of all existing problems in the penitentiary system of Abkhazia, requires large financial costs, and first of all, the construction of places of deprivation of liberty that should meet modern requirements. However, today we consider the government’s actions primary, to provide a normal level of medical care in places of forced detention, bring them into compliance with sanitary standards, as well as providing centralized nutrition.

3. The situation with migrants waiting in line to obtain a visa in the Russian Federation
Since the beginning of 2023, the number of foreign citizens who applied to the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Abkhazia to obtain visa has increased. In turn, this provoked the formation of a queue of thousands of people, complicating the work of the Russian Embassy in Abkhazia. Due to the impossibility of obtaining visa within the established time frame, foreign citizens also found themselves in a difficult situation.

Since November 2023, the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights has received 9 requests from foreign citizens with to speed up the process of obtaining visa. During the reception, it became known about individual problems that significantly complicated the further stay of foreign citizens on the territory of the Republic of Abkhazia in order to obtain a Russian visa. Among the most common negative factors are a difficult financial situation due to a long stay in the territory of the Republic of Abkhazia, pregnancy (third trimester), diseases requiring hospital treatment, studying at higher educational institutions of the Russian Federation.

Within the framework of bilateral cooperation with the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Abkhazia, the Commissioner accepted and processed applications from foreign citizens in order to identify cases that required an immediate response. Materials on the processed applications, outlining the critical situation of the applicant, were sent to the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Abkhazia, for further obtaining visa out of turn. Thus, out of nine applicants, two foreign citizens received a Russian visa out of turn, taking into account their difficult situation.

4. Queue for re-registration of pensioners.
Every year, the client services of the Branches of the Social Fund of Russia located in the cities of the Republic of Abkhazia re-register pensioners receiving a pension of the Russian Federation. Due to misinformation spreading among the population, a queue is formed in the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation and local client services of the SFR Branch. Citizens believe that pensioners who do not re-register in a timely manner the issuance of pensions will allegedly be permanently suspended, which is fundamentally untrue. A pensioner who has undergone re-registration is given a coupon indicating the date when he needs to contact the SFR client service again.

However, citizens under the influence of the above-mentioned misinformation, contact customer services earlier than the deadline specified in the coupon.
Customer service employees are forced to carry out receptions both of citizens with valid time of re-registration, and citizens who applied earlier than the specified period. This trend annually leads to the formation of huge queues, which have a detrimental effect on the well-being of pensioners and also complicates the work of SFR client services. It is important to note that for a pensioner who does not re-register on time, the issuance of a pension is not permanently suspended. In the established order, customer service employees also re-register individuals who were unable to complete the procedure in a timely manner, with the recalculation of funds. The main reason for this situation is the lack of competent information to pensioners from the relevant authorities.

5. Cases of detention of citizens while crossing the «Psou» checkpoint

The information about certain detentions of citizens of Abkhazia at the «Psou» checkpoint, for a period longer than it usually takes to pass through passport border control, began to spread in a number of our media and social networks.
A number of statements were made that when crossing the border there were unjustified delays of citizens from five minutes to several hours, interviews conducted by FSB officers in civilian uniform, as well as inappropriate and impolite attitude from law enforcement officers.
In this regard, the Commissioner for Human Rights sent appeals to the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in RA, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the RA, the Chairman of the State Security Service of the RA, where she highlighted the information, with a request for clarification of the situation. Today, no response has been received from the two above-mentioned departments.

As part of border control, employees of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation have the right to detain and inspect citizens if there are “reasons to suspect them of violating the state border regime or the regime at checkpoints”; interrogate citizens if they aware of illegal border crossing or other violation at the checkpoint. However, the above-mentioned circumstances do not apply to citizens of the Republic of Abkhazia, due to the lack of grounds about facts of violation of the state border regime, as well as failure to draw up an interrogation protocol.
Probably (since there was no response from the departments and we do not have more information) an oral questioning was carried out regarding the citizens of the Republic of Abkhazia in order to obtain the additional information or clarify the information obtained during the verification of documents. The concern is a lack of understanding of how the internal political situation in Abkhazia and issues not related to the rules for crossing the state border can become the subject of discussion, and the information obtained during the conversation can ensure the security and protection of the state border.
Starting my work as Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Abkhazia, I outlined medium- and long-term prospects for the formation and development of such areas as:
1. Interaction with human rights institutions of countries friendly to Abkhazia;
In a short period of time, we have prepared and signed a memorandum of interaction with the Human Rights Commissioners in the Russian Federation and the Republic of Venezuela, reached agreements on interaction with the Ombudsman of the Republic of Nicaragua, and are developing interaction with our South Ossetian and Transnistrian colleagues, as well as a number of regional Russian commissioners. In addition to regular online communication with colleagues, we took part in two large-scale international events - the “Eurasian Alliance of Ombudsmen” and the “International Scientific and Practical Conference”, with the participation of the Ombudsmen and diplomats from 47 countries.
It serves the further development of the still young institution of the Ombudsman of Abkhazia, through the study and implementation of the experience of other countries, as well as the popularization of our country within the world community as a whole.
2. Information and educational activities;
We demonstrate openness to dialogue with the media, seek their support, and especially emphasize the role of the media and journalists in human rights activities.
On the site provided by the Abkhaz State University, on the day of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations on December 10, 1948, we held the First International Scientific and Practical Conference, where in addition to representatives of the deputy corps of Abkhazia, the Constitutional Court, Abkhazian scientists and students, were also attended by the colleagues from the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, Moscow, Yaroslavl and South Ossetia via video conference calls. We plan to hold this conference annually and expand its composition.
3. In the development of strengthening interaction and dialogue between the executive branch and civil society.
I want to start with the good. Indeed, today we are witnessing a high-quality development of interaction taking place in a favorable, friendly atmosphere with the People's Assembly - the Parliament of Abkhazia. As one of the striking illustrations of such interaction, we can highlight the joint work of the deputy corps, the Office of the Commissioner and the passport and visa service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia.
In connection with systematic appeals from residents of the Eastern part of Abkhazia with complaints about legal difficulties and contradictions encountered in the interpretation of regulatory legal acts, the Commissioner appealed to the chairmen of the legal committee and the national security committee to consider the current Law on the legal status of foreign citizens in the Republic of Abkhazia with the possibility of making amendments regarding the issuance of residence permits. The first experience of joint activities within the working group to develop amendments to residence permits clearly demonstrated the importance and effectiveness of such cooperation. It is also worth noting the establishment of constructive cooperation with our main contacts in human rights work - representatives of the state, the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. We now promptly receive reliable information on situations that require the Ombudsman’s response. There were several cases when we received oral responses before sending the corresponding written requests, we freely meet with prisoners, and upon our requests the additional medical examinations were immediately carried out.
In my opinion, such interaction became possible thanks to the personal qualities of the leaders who openly outlined the importance of their organizations’ cooperation with us. Naturally, we are ready to introduce an element of stability and reduction, the so-called human factor in such interaction. In our opinion, the stability is possible only if it is secured at the legislative level. The Law on the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Abkhazia has vested the Ombudsman with broad powers, but the entire breadth of these powers is undermined by the optionality of responding to the Commissioner’s requests and the unwillingness to follow the recommendations. Taking this opportunity, I appeal to the legal committee to start the joint considering of the proposed amendments to the law on the Commissioner. To summarize today’s speech, I would like to talk about plans for 2024.
In the short term, the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights plans to organize a permanent discussion club on the basis of the Office of the Commissioner - a platform for discussing the most pressing problems in the field of human rights protection with the involvement of government officials, representatives of civil society, experts, representatives of the Parliament. I believe that this format of interaction between participants will contribute to considering problems from different perspectives, finding new solutions and ways of action. We have strong hopes for this format of interaction and count on the support of the deputy corps.

This year, the Commissioner’s office intends to pay special attention to the problem of providing psychiatric care to citizens. This topic is relevant and in 2024 the international community plans to give it a special meaning. As part of this issue, the apparatus plans to conduct monitoring of the Republican Specialized Psychiatric Hospital (RSPB) to familiarize itself with the operating mode and inspect the conditions of patients. The issue of the lack of a special law that would determine the procedure for providing mental health care remains unresolved, which is a serious gap in the current legislation on health care and guarantees for the protection of human rights in this area. The absence of a children's department or a psychoneurological boarding school does not guarantee the provision of necessary medical care to people with mental disorders.
Regarding plans for the longer term, we will continue to develop relations and strengthen ties with friendly countries, with the aim of introducing the best international experience in human rights issues into our work. We plan to attend international conferences and events dedicated to human rights throughout the year and establish closer contacts with our colleagues from the regions of the Russian Federation and other countries.

You can read the report following this link:  https://ombudsmanra.org/upload/iblock/c27/c27a7a94400decf746f074ba6660b2da.pdf