Question: How would you assess mass media reports saying that Georgian school teachers are forced into Russian language training in the Gali district, on the territory controlled by Russian occupation troops?

Answer: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia has repeatedly focused the international community’s attention on the fact that mass and gross human right violations still continue to take place on Georgia’s occupied territories.

By prohibiting native language education, Russian occupation troops and the proxy regimes grossly violate the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, International Pact on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Article 13) supplemental protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, (2 Article) prohibiting any kind of restriction on native language instruction.

The reason why the Russian Federation made a decision on speedy recognition of the proxy regimes on the Russian-occupied territories must be clear to everyone. Russia’s aim is first to do all in its power to interfere with the functioning of international monitoring missions on the occupied territories and eventually achieve their expulsion upon creating a kind of ‘new reality’ and then to employ mass violations, discriminations, restrictions and prohibitions to force the remaining local population to leave their own places of residence, thus bringing to conclusion the ethnic cleansing process that started away back in the 1990s.
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