Protection of the right to assembly means holding an event and not the evacuation of the place, as if security could not be protected otherwise, – President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili stated at a briefing, responding to the attack on the “Pride Festival”.
According to the President, the right to freedom of expression and assembly was violated in Georgia.
“Today, in our country, the promise given by our Constitution was violated – the right to expression of opinion, Article 17 of our Constitution, and to freedom of assembly, Article 21. Today, both were violated, because people were not given the opportunity to hold a pre-planned event in a closed space, the space and conditions of which were agreed with law enforcement officers – and for which the law enforcement structures had given a promise of protection. All necessary measures should have been taken.
“I would like to emphasize that protection of the right to assembly means holding an event and not the evacuation of the place, as if security could not be protected otherwise. In this form and with this motive, we can imagine that all events whose form or content will not be liked by any radical group will probably fail if the law enforcement agencies act in this way, as they did today,” the President said.
On July 8, opponents of the “Pride Festival” broke through the police cordon and into the territory of Lisi Lake, where the “Pride Festival” was to be held.
This was followed by a confrontation between the police and the participants of the rally.
Related Story: Tbilisi Pride: Participants were evacuated from the “Pride Festival” area
