DFWatch staff 
TBILISI, DFWatch – The Public Defender in Georgia believes the time has come to reduce the number of prisoners in the country.
The ombudsperson said this at a joint session of parliamentary committees to discuss his report about the human rights situation last year.
TBILISI, DFWatch – Georgian non-governmental organizations call on Georgian politicians to stop making xenophobic statements and ask the media not to spread such comments.
“The authors of such statements probably try to play on ethnic and religious feelings
TBILISI, DFWatch – Georgia’s Foreign Ministry today invited international organizations to send a long-term observation mission ‘immediately’ ahead of the parliamentary elections in October.
Normally, long-term observers would arrive about six weeks before the election,
TBILISI, DFWatch – Georgia’s breakaway region South Ossetia makes Russian its second state language.
The region’s elected assembly adopted a constitutional law called “On State Language of the Republic of South Ossetia”, which obliges the de facto state’s bodies
TBILISI, DFWatch – Georgia will no longer let Russia conduct observation flights over its territory, and has suspended its obligations under a post-Cold War treaty which provide countries with mutual openness in each other’s military activities.
The Georgian Foreign
TBILISI, DFWatch – The de facto parliament of Georgia’s breakaway republic Abkhazia has elected a Speaker of Parliament.
The first session of the new breakaway Abkhazian parliament was held yesterday, April 3.
Valery Bganba was elected as new Speaker of Parliament.
TBILISI, DFWatch – The U.S. Ambassador to Georgia, John Bass, says there is a deficit of curiosity and questioning among Georgian journalists.
He said this in Batumi while meeting with the media.
Bass says he sometimes is surprised by the lack of curiosity among
TBILISI, DFWatch – Finland’s Foreign Minister is on a working visit to Georgia within the frames of a tour of the region.
Erkki Tuomioja arrived in Georgia on April 3, the 20 year anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Finland and
TBILISI, DFWatch – Georgia’s foreign minister Grigol Vashadze says he too is concerned about a major military exercise Russia is planning to hold right before Georgia’s parliamentary election in October.
Russia’s exercise “Kavkaz 2012” will for the first time take place
TBILISI, DFWatch – The Georgian president calls on the international community to send ultra long-term election observers to his country before the parliamentary elections in October.
Rights groups and part of the opposition have been appealing to the world to send