Living in limbo

"Almost 18 years after a cease-fire ended the Georgian-Abkhaz war, the conflict over the breakaway region of Abkhazia remains as far from a political resolution as ever, leaving in limbo the lives of more than 200,000 people, mostly ethnic Georgians displaced by the conflict. The only area where Abkhazia's de facto authorities have allowed returns of displaced persons is the Gali district, where ethnic Georgians constituted 96 percent of the pre-conflict population. About 47,000 displaced people have returned to their homes in Gali district. But, as this Human Rights Watch report documents, the Abkhaz authorities have erected barriers to their enjoyment of a range of civil and political rights, driving some to leave for uncontested areas of Georgia. Those barriers have also presented serious obstacles for large scale, sustainable returns of displaced persons to their homes in Abkhazia. The authorities in Abkhazia require all residents to obtain Abkhaz passports as a prerequisite for the exercise of certain rights. However, for ethnic Georgian returnees, the process of obtaining a passport is often discriminatory and overly burdensome. Further, for those without passports, the procedure to obtain a permit to cross the administrative boundary to uncontested areas of Georgia is onerous. These arbitrary restrictions lead many to cross unofficially, thereby risking detention, fines, and imprisonment. Additionally, the Abkhaz authorities' education policies have increasingly limited access to quality education for ethnic Georgian youth. Although Abkhazia is not recognized as an independent state under international law, the authorities there nevertheless have obligations under international law to respect and protect human rights. This report calls on the authorities in Abkhazia to ensure freedom of movement across the administrative boundary, and non-discrimination, in particular with regard to the issuance of identity documents and the right to education, and other rights in Abkhazia"--P. 1.