Georgia’s Public Defender Levan Ioseliani visited Ashgabat on September 25-27 at the invitation of Turkmenistan’s Commissioner for Human Rights (ombudsperson) Yazdursun Gurbannazarova, holding talks with officials from the ombudsperson’s office, parliament, and foreign ministry.
During the meeting with Gurbannazarova, “the parties discussed the importance of the long-standing cooperation between their institutions,” Georgia’s Public Defender’s Office said in a September 28 statement.
Gurbannazarova “positively assessed the work of the Office of the Public Defender of Georgia, particularly its National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) [a body authorized to oversee the conditions in detention facilities], and expressed her readiness to draw on Georgia’s experience in establishing a national preventive mechanism,” the statement said.
The two sides also agreed to sign a memorandum of cooperation in 2027 “to mark the 10th anniversary of the Ombudsperson’s institution of Turkmenistan,” according to the statement.
Ioseliani also met with the chair of the Committee on International and Interparliamentary Relations of Turkmenistan’s parliament, known as the Mejlis, and the country’s deputy foreign minister, according to the press release.
The meetings focused on the Georgian Public Defender’s Office’s three decades of practice, its institutional development, and the structure of its annual report to parliament, the statement said.
“The discussions also addressed the situation regarding women’s rights, including strengthening women’s participation in the legislative process and decision-making in Parliament,” the office said.
According to the statement, Turkmenistan’s deputy foreign minister “emphasized the importance of drawing on the experience of the Public Defender of Georgia as one of the region’s leading institutions with a broad mandate.”
Ioseliani also participated in events marking the 35th anniversary of Turkmenistan’s independence. Together with Georgia’s ambassador to Turkmenistan, Konstantine Sabiashvili, and members of the diplomatic corps, he attended a flower-laying ceremony at the Independence Monument and visited the Georgian Embassy in Ashgabat, the statement said.
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