Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with his Georgian counterpart on human rights in that country.

I [Minister Doughty] spoke with Georgian Foreign Minister Darchiashvili on 9 October. I shared with him my deep concerns about the negative implications of Georgia's recent laws on Transparency and Foreign Influence and on Family Values. The pressures being applied to civil society and on human rights protections undermine the Georgian people's ambition for a modern, inclusive, Euro-Atlantic future. More needs to be done to embed Georgia's previous impressive progress - on combating corruption, improving prison conditions, and launching a human rights strategy - into reforms that enhance judicial independence and political freedoms, and protect minority rights.