Due to the sensitive nature of the crime, rapes are frequently underreported,...

Due to the sensitive nature of the crime, rapes are frequently underreported, especially in war. Nonetheless, the rape, torture and mutilation of ethnic Georgian women were by registered by various international and non-governmental organizations, including the independent fact-finding mission headed by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini. The documented cases unequivocally prove the involvement of occupying forces from a neighbouring country and its proxies in serious violations of women's rights, including sexual violence and humiliating treatment, among the other instruments of ethnic cleansing that we have witnessed on the occupied territories of Georgia since the early 1990s. Even today, the rights and freedoms of Georgian women are jeopardized in the occupied territories of Georgia. Human rights watchdogs and international missions are banned from monitoring the humanitarian and human rights situation in the occupied territories. As a result, this situation, which has deteriorated, remains off the United Nations radar. The continuation of the current state of affairs cannot be tolerated by the international community.