Ombudsman on Tbilisi Pride: State must ensure safe manifestation
By Tea Mariamidze
Wednesday, June 5
Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria has commented on the recent developments regarding Tbilisi Pride, an event organized by the LGBT community, stressing the state has to ensure safe manifestation.
The Ombudsman commented on the recent statement of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Georgia, which stated a few days ago that the planned parade should not take place outdoors, due to safety concerns for its participants.
The MIA offered Tbilisi Pride other alternatives for the gathering, like a stadium of a club, saying it would be more secure for the participants.
"The Public Defender of Georgia underlines that the peaceful assembly and manifestation is the right guaranteed by the Constitution. The State is obliged to ensure the full-fledged realization of this right by peaceful demonstrators and mobilize the appropriate resources to ensure their proper protection from private persons," Lomjaria said.
The ombudsman also said if this is the case of the restriction of freedom of assembly under the law, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia has to provide proper explanations why this restriction serves to achieve the goodness ensured by the Constitution, and how its benefits exceed the damage inflicted by the restriction of such a right.
"The general statement released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia is unfortunately not considered to be such a reasoned decision," she added.
Lomjaria stressed the LGBT community and their human rights defenders have not had the opportunity to gather in an open environment for many years, which is closely linked with high homophobic background existing in the country.
Georgian NGOs also commented on the issue, saying the state does not recognize homo /bi/transphobia as a systemic problem and does not carry out a consistent policy to eliminate it.
They called on MIA to secure the right to the peaceful assembly of participants of the planned Tbilisi Pride week in the public space and take adequate measures to ensure the safety of participants at the peaceful gathering.
Tbilisi Pride is scheduled for June 18 - 23.
