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Georgia

Monthly Event Reports

July 2023 | Thousands of far-right activists attack pride festival

Roughly 5,000 ‘protesters’ organised by several far-right organisations stormed a closed Pride Week festival outside of Tbilisi on 8 July. Facing little visible resistance from police on the scene to provide security, the protesters destroyed the festival’s stage and burned both LGBTQIA+ and Ukrainian flags. Georgian LGBTQIA+ groups have not attempted to hold a Pride event open to the public since a violent attack on Pride marchers in 2021 resulted in the death of a journalist and many others injured. In the months leading up to this year’s attack, the leading members of the ruling Georgian Dream party, the Georgian Orthodox Church and government- allied media have raised alarms about “LGBT propaganda” from sources including McDonald’s Happy Meals and the works of French children’s author Charles Perrault, who died in 1703. The organisers of Tbilisi Pride and other CSOs have accused the government of cooperating with the protesters, noting both the lack of police resistance at the event, as well as the unopposed four-kilometre march of the protesters from the city centre.

June 2023 | Parliament amends electoral code

Georgian parliament amended the electoral code on 13 June to transfer the authority to nominate members of the Central Election Commission (CEC) from the president to the speaker of the parliament and reduced the necessary votes from 100 to 76 (the governing coalition controls 84 of 150 seats). Candidates will still be taken from a shortlist provided by a committee constituted of civil society, academics, and a representative of the president. The new system replaces one that had been designed by EU Council President Charles Michel, and was part of a deal between the ruling Georgian Dream and opposition parties negotiated in 2021. The EU Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement said on 22 June that the amendments ran contrary to the 12 priorities set out for Georgia’s EU accession and would need to be reversed for the process to move forward. Georgian experts concurred, saying the changes reduced the CEC’s independence and placed it under the influence of the ruling party.

March 2023 | Contested ‘foreign agent’ bill withdrawn

Following significant domestic street protests and Western criticism, the ruling Georgian Dream party withdrew its support for two ‘foreign agent’ bills on 9 March. The Georgian parliament had adopted one of the bills on a first reading on 7 March. Despite the withdrawal, Georgian Dream officials continued to defend the bills, promised to reintroduce them in some form in the future, and widely attacked the protesters as “liberal fascists”, “satanists”, “anarchists”, and tools of foreign influence in media. Many such attacks have focused on Lazare Grigoriadis, a 22-year old protester arrested on 29 March, who faces up to 11 years in prison on charges of arson for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at police. Officials have speculated on his sexuality and private life in the media, and Grigoriadis’ lawyers say police elicited a forced confession, denied him access to legal counsel, and forcibly shaved his head.

February 2023 | Georgian Dream announces support for draft ‘foreign agent law’

The ruling Georgian Dream party announced its support for one of two bills that would require all non-governmental organizations and media outlets who receive foreign funding to publicly register as ‘agents of foreign influence’ and face fines up to 25,000 GEL for failure to comply. Both bills, which were introduced by a Georgian Dream breakaway faction on February 14 and 22, have been subjected to sharp criticism from domestic civil society organizations, the President of Georgia, the United Nations in Georgia, and western embassies and government spokespeople, and special rapporteurs from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The PACE rapporteurs wrote in a statement that the draft law “raises several concerns with regard to its compatibility with democratic and human rights standards.” The bill’s various critics worried it would be used to attack and discredit NGOs and media critical of the government, and noted it appeared to be modelled on Russia’s ‘foreign agent law.’

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GSoD Indices Data 2013-2022

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Basic Information

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Population Tooltip
3 708 610
System of government
Semi-Presidential system
Head of government
Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili (since 2021)
Head of government party
Georgian Dream
Electoral system for lower or single chamber
Parallel
Women in lower or single chamber
19.1%
Women in upper chamber
Not applicable
Last legislative election
2020
Effective number of political parties Tooltip
3.2
Head of state
President Salome Zourabichvili
Selection process for head of state
Direct election (two-round majority)
Latest Universal Periodic Review (UPR) date
26/01/2021
Latest Universal Periodic Review (UPR) percentage of recommendations supported
90.18%
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Human Rights Treaties

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State Party State party
Signatory Signatory
No Action No action
United Nations Human Right Treaties
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
State Party
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
State Party
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
State Party
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
State Party
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment
State Party
Convention on the Rights of the Child
State Party
International Convention on Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
No Action
International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance 
No Action
International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
State Party
International Labour Organisation Treaties
Forced Labour Convention
State Party
Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention
State Party
Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention
State Party
Equal Remuneration Convention
State Party
Abolition of Forced Labour Convention
State Party
Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention
State Party
Convention concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment
State Party
Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention
State Party
Regional Treaties
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
State Party
Protocol to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
State Party
Protocol No. 4 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
State Party
Protocol No. 6 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
State Party
Protocol No. 7 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
State Party
Protocol No. 12 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
State Party
Protocol No. 13 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
State Party
in
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Categories of Democratic Performance

Representation neutral Representation
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Representation neutral Rights
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Representation neutral Rule of law
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Representation neutral Participation
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Global State of Democracy Indices

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Representation
Representation
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/1
high 0.7-1.0
mid 0.4-0.7
low 0.0-0.4
Rights
Rights
0
/1
high 0.7-1.0
mid 0.4-0.7
low 0.0-0.4
Rule of Law
Rule of Law
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/1
high 0.7-1.0
mid 0.4-0.7
low 0.0-0.4
Participation
Participation
0
/1
high 0.7-1.0
mid 0.4-0.7
low 0.0-0.4
Annual value

Factors of Democratic Performance Over Time

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