The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has elected Givi Mikanadze, a member of the Georgian Parliamentary delegation, to speak on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on inmates in European prisons.

The Committee considered the motion by Givi Mikanadze on the first day of the spring session, which provided for the election of a rapporteur.

The MP will lead a working group that will conduct the research in prisons of 47 member states on how prisoners' rights were restricted during the pandemic and how limited rights were compensated, as well as what preventive measures were taken to suppress the spread of the virus in penitentiaries and what was the level of the staff involvement.

Based on the outcome, in line with best practice and CoE standards, a draft resolution will be prepared, which will be submitted first to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights in the first half of 2022 and then to the Plenary Session of the Parliamentary Assembly.

"It will be an unprecedented case when the author of this motion and later the researcher on the draft resolution will be a representative of the Georgian delegation and this document will be given the status of a Council of Europe resolution, but, in fact, it will be a document created by the Georgian delegation from beginning to end, which will enable the member states of the Council to be guided by the standards that will be written in the format of this resolution”, - G. Mikanadze remarked.