A/HRC/42/34 29. According to UN-Women, concrete and measurable results of joint efforts of the Government, development partners and civil society include the increased disclosure of and response to instances of violence against women and domestic violence in 2018. The number of restraining and protective orders and indictments in cases of violence against women, including domestic and sexual violence, had increased significantly in recent years and the State budget allocation for the State Fund on domestic violence service provision had increased by 84 per cent between 2014 and 2018. F. Business and human rights 30. In her submission to OHCHR, the Public Defender considered ineffective labour safety regulations and the increased number of accidents at industries to be among the most acute problems in Georgia. 31. As noted earlier, the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises visited Georgia in the reporting period, from 3 to 12 April 2019. In its end-of-mission statement, the Working Group observed that the occupational safety and health of workers was one of the most serious human rights concerns in Georgia. The absence of a comprehensive regulatory framework on occupational safety and health, combined with a general lack of awareness among workers about their rights, had resulted in an alarming number of accidents across sectors. According to the Working Group, 418 workers had died and 1,183 had been injured between 2010 and 2018. 32. The Working Group further noted that the new Law on Labour Safety, introduced in March 2018 to reinforce the mandate of labour inspectors, remained limited in scope as it only covered sectors identified as especially hard, risky and hazardous. It welcomed the adoption, in February 2019, of a new Organic Law on Occupational Safety, which made the labour inspectorate a separate legal entity and provided it with the authority to inspect all sectors, both public and private, without a court order or prior notice. The relevant amendments were to enter into force on 1 September 2019. Nevertheless, the Working Group considered that the regulatory framework would remain inadequate, as the new law did not cover the whole spectrum of labour rights. More specifically, from 2020, mandatory inspections covering all labour rights were planned to be conducted but only for risky, heavy, hazardous and harmful activities. G. Civic space 33. Throughout its activities, OHCHR cooperates closely with civil society. In its submission to OHCHR, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy noted that Georgia had a vibrant civil society, which over time had become an important contributor to the democratic process in the country. However, it reported that in recent months there had been alarming signs of deterioration of civil society space due to unprecedented, coordinated attacks on civil society organizations by the authorities and the ruling party officials, accompanied by a smear campaign on social media. For instance, several non-governmental organizations had faced verbal attacks, including by the Chair of the parliament, following concerns that they had publicly expressed about the appointment of new Supreme Court Justices in December 2018, deploring the absence of any selection procedure or transparency. IV. Human rights situation in and around Abkhazia and South Ossetia A. Access to Abkhazia and South Ossetia 34. In 2019, the Secretary-General reiterated his calls for OHCHR to be granted unfettered access to Abkhazia and South Ossetia to enable it to assess human rights 8

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