Ruth GreenMonday October 14, 2024
A law that was recently adopted by Georgian legislator has fears in the LGBTQI+ community and increased concerns about the reduction of bourgeois space before the country's parliamentary elections later in October.
In September, the legislators voted with the approval of the far -reaching law on “family values”, which prohibits same -sex marriages, adoptions of same -sex couples and gender treatments.
The vote was boycotted by the opposition, and President Salome Zourabichvili refused to sign the bill, a sign of how deep the topic is polarized. According to Georgia's constitution, the task fell to the parliamentary spokesman Shalva Papuashvili in order to sign the law on October 3 in the law. Proponents of the legislation say that it is necessary to protect traditional moral standards.
These developments occur dramatically just a few months after the Veto veto of a law on foreign agents. According to this legislation, media and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which receive more than 20 percent of their funds from abroad, must register as “organizations that act in the interest of foreign power”.
The two youngest Georgian laws are striking similarities to the laws adopted in Russia in 2012, which has been increasingly expanded to silence NGOs, media, activists and political opponents.
We will […] If necessary, take constructive dialogue or strategic legal disputes to ensure that the legal framework in Georgia promotes inclusion and protects the rights of all people
David Asstiani
Co-Optled member, IBA Bar Issues Commission Policy Committee
There are already fears that the law of “family values” will lead to similarly devastating restrictions in Georgia. 'It is a law [bringing] Censorship because it aims at everyone within the science, within science, within the media and in activism. “If the problems are related to the LGBTQI+ community, they can be approved first and then for reasons of criminal liability.”
Oniani is particularly concerned about the effects of the law on the trans community in Georgia. 'The most drastic part for me is the ban [relating to] Trans health problems, «she says. “It forbids any kind of hormonal therapy that could be very important for people who need this type of treatment and leave them without essential health opportunities.”
On the day after the invoice was passed, Tbilisi's capital, top-class Georgian transgender model Kesaria Abramidze, was reported from stab wounds. Abramidz's death has reproduced the concerns that the law will present hate crimes, homophobes and transphobic behavior. Zourabichvili took part in Abramidze's funeral a few days later.
David Asatiani, the participant of the IBA Bar Issues Commission Policy Committee and Chairman of the Georgian Bar Association (GBA), tells global findings that the GBA is closely followed by the effects of the law and the compliance with constitutional and international obligations. “We will continue to monitor the situation and, if necessary, do a constructive dialogue or strategic legal disputes to ensure that the legal framework in Georgia promotes inclusion and protects the rights of all people,” he says.
The EU has already criticized the law of “family values”, which has already been discussed with Georgia's access negotiations, which may lead to the block to the block – in July after the law on foreign agents. An EU spokesman said that the latest legislation undermines “Georgians' fundamental rights and risks further stigmatization and discrimination against a part of the population”. It warned that it would “continue to burden the relationships between the EU Georgia”.
In October, the EU delegation announced to Georgia on X, which was previously known as Twitter that the country from 2022 and 2023 million EUR at the EU support – the country from 2022 and 2023 million – the remaining EU – Fund “loses.
The election on October 26 is generally seen as a public vote on whether Georgia would take EU values or want to get a path to the authoritarian Russian style. “It is absolutely a referendum,” says Anna Gvarishvili, a journalist based in Tbilisi and head of the investigative media laboratory at the University of Georgia. “It sounds somehow poetic when I say it, but the Georgian society is going through a large process in which we can finally decide which side we are on.”
There is still strong support from the population to join the block. Despite the latest restrictions on the public protest, civil society organizations have organized a march that supports the country's EU offer, which is due to take place on October 20.
Local efforts were also made to question the legality of the law on foreign agents. At the beginning of October, the constitutional court in Georgia decided that the law would not suspend, but ordered a “material review” of legislation.
Gyla is one of the NGOs who have brought the legal contestation with them, and Oniani says that the court has a “historical opportunity to resist the exposure to the European integration of the country”. Since the law, Gyla has been targeted by attacks and received impending phone calls that characterized the “agents” of the employees. The NGO refuses to join the register of “foreign agents” – a step that Oniani says is not about “disobedient”, but about “resistance to the law”.
Some independent media have identified gaps and problems to avoid the law, but Gvarishvili is concerned about the effects that it already has on the media landscape in Georgia. The law, she says, “is so hard because it is the best journalists and the best media that are really independent and are not financed by opposition parties or in which no political money is entered.”
Legislation has also presented a threat to voting observations in the country. At the beginning of October, Transparency International Georgia had to stop operations after the anti-corruption office declared the NGO and its director as “topics with a declared election goal”. The parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe Co-Rapportleurs for monitoring Georgia, Claude Kern and Edude Estrela were among the concerns about this development.
Days later, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze asked the state -controlled body to reverse his decision to “prevent external manipulation during the election process”. Kobakhidze has now declared that the introduction of “advanced coordination technologies” will “make voice equipment impossible”, although Gvarishvili still believes the Georgian people. 'Nevertheless, she believes that power lies with the Georgians to make changes in the choice and demands that “unprecedented numbers” vote.
Milos/adobestock.com
