Georgian society has been pushed to aggravation this month – first with the provocative anti LGBT propaganda bill, then with the abolition of the gender quota for party lists, and now with the re-introduction of the “Russian Law” (foreign agents bill) just over a year since the Rustaveli riots against said bill saw protesters hit with pepper spray, tear gas, and water cannons, and the bill withdrawn in recognition of wider society’s rejection of it.
With a stated 80% of the Georgian population claiming to support the country’s western orientation, which includes eventual EU and NATO integration, the latest apparent ruling party backsliding and moves in opposition to western values is alarming, to say the least.
“What is the purpose of this challenge?” President Salome Zurabishvili asked. “To cause chaos, destabilize, and baptize everyone as a radical, a foreign agent, a supporter of the war party! These are very well-known tactics, and some of us have been through them before, many years ago. It’s nothing new. Society is prepared for it. No one can divert Georgia from its path.”
Submitting the Homophobic Bill
As reported in GEORGIA TODAY last week, on March 25, the executive secretary of Georgian Dream, Mamuka Mdinaradze, said that they would initiate constitutional changes.
These amendments prepared “against LGBT propaganda” were initiated Wednesday with the signature of the deputies of the ruling majority in parliament. Two constitutional initiatives have been registered: “Against LGBT Propaganda,” a draft of amendments to the current constitution, and a draft of the constitutional law entitled “On family values and protection of minors.”
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, was among those who condemned the proposed changes.
“I am concerned about the present political discourse in Georgia, as illustrated by the announcement made by the Georgian Dream Party of their initiative to amend the Constitution and to adopt a new constitutional law on ‘Protection of Family Values and Underaged Persons’,” Mijatovic told the Council. “It is reflective of the entrenched harmful stereotypes and prejudice against LGBTI people which still prevail in segments of Georgian society, including some politicians, and is capable of having a strong, negative impact on the human rights, safety and well-being of LGBTI people and defenders of their rights. It also represents the political manipulation of LGBTI-phobia in the run-up to the elections.”
Abolition of the Gender Quota
Georgian Dream this week said it is to support the Girchi party initiative, which provides for the abolition of gender quotas in the party list.
Based on the existing law on gender quotas, at least every 4th candidate in the party list should be of a different gender.
Georgian Dream member Beka Davituliani stated that the parliamentary majority supports consideration of the mentioned legislative changes in an accelerated manner, and noted that they have received consent from Girchi, in return for the selection of the CEC chairman being focused on the integrity and professionalism of the candidate and not for it to be used for personal political gains.
Girchi Chairman Iago Khvichiya thanked the members of the majority, because “for the first time in parliament, it was possible to talk about the case and reach some kind of agreement”. Khvichiya asked the remainder of the parliamentary opposition to support the abolition of gender quotas, as it is a “morally important” issue.
The Public Defender of Georgia responded to and negatively assessed the draft law.
“For the democratic development of the country, it is necessary for women’s voices to be clearly heard in the country’s legislative body and other policy-making agencies, so that women’s needs and measures promoting gender equality are kept on the agenda,” the Public Defender’s statement reads.
“These changes are particularly noteworthy in light of the fact that, contrary to the above, in 2022, the Parliament of Georgia supported the extension of gender quotas until 2032, and thus clearly emphasized the importance of women’s political participation and the implementation of relevant necessary measures to increase women’s involvement.
“The gender quota mechanism is not a privilege granted to women, but an important tool for eliminating discriminatory attitudes towards women, fighting stereotypes, and fulfilling international obligations.
“Women face invisible barriers every day, which can be eliminated, and substantial equality achieved in the country by improving the proportion of the mandatory gender quota and implementing other supportive measures. The planned legislative changes ignore the results of the long-standing struggle of women and worsen the existing mechanisms for achieving equality.
“For the democratic development of the country, it is necessary for women’s voices to be clearly heard in the country’s legislative body and other policy-making agencies, so that women’s needs and measures promoting gender equality are kept on the agenda.”
Women’s Movement in turn claimed that Georgian Dream and Girchi are “fighting against the participation of women in politics.”
The Movement, in their statement, also drew attention to the fact that the ruling party is going to cancel a law it previously endorsed.
“In 2020, the quotas were adopted by Georgian Dream itself, with the active involvement of (now) Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, which resulted in the increase of women’s representation in politics from 14% to 20%. Despite this progress, in terms of women’s political participation, Georgia still lags behind other countries and ranks 125th globally.
“The Women’s Movement believes that the preconditions for the abolition of gender quotas do not exist. Such initiatives are a fight not only against women politicians, but against all women living in this country,” leaders of the Women’s Movement said, reading the mentioned statement in front of Parliament. They went on to highlight several points:
“We, women voters, are rallying to defend our rights and equality across the country, because this is the exclusion of women from public politics and the political life of the country;
“We, women voters, will stand firmly to protect women’s political rights, because all women’s rights rest on the right of women’s political participation;
“We, women voters, demand more women in politics, the vast majority of people in this country demand more women in politics, because solving the problems of immigrants, single parents, people with disabilities, children and other vulnerable groups are what women’s voices and women’s visions in politics are needed for;
“We, the women voters, declare an uncompromising fight against the expulsion of women from parliament with the motive of including more millionaire men in the electoral lists, whose only goal is to protect their own business interests, not to protect the interests of the people;
“We, the women voters, will not allow the essential equality guaranteed by Article 11 of our Constitution to be violated, the decision of the Constitutional Court to be ignored, and our European integration to be pushed back;
“We, the women voters, will not tolerate this injustice, and we demand from all political parties to present us a plan for the empowerment of women – on election day, we will come to the ballot boxes to defend our rights! We will make up the majority of voters – 53%, and in the 2024 elections we will show the political groups that our vote is decisive!”
In a shocking turn of events, during a heated debate on the issue of the gender quota, Georgian Dream deputy Beka Odisharia attacked women deputies in parliament with foul language: “F*uck you, you herd of unf*cked women, this is a syndrome of unf*cked women,” he shouted at them.
Public Defender Levan Ioseliani, in response, noted that insulting statements towards female politicians undermine the importance of women’s participation in the decision-making process and reminded the public that, according to the Code of Ethics of the Parliament of Georgia, “Offensive, obscene, sexist, discriminatory speech, statement, action, or other use of hate speech is not permissible for the Member of Parliament.” Accordingly, in all similar cases, internal mechanisms should be activated and the issue should be discussed by the Parliament.
The Public Defender has called on politicians and public figures not to use expressions containing sexist or other discriminatory content and to observe the principle of equality when performing public activities.
Bringing back the “Russian Law”
On April 3, Mamuka Mdinaradze, announced the Georgian Dream’s intention to re-submit its foreign agents bill, with minimum changes to the wording as compared to the bill they introduced last March, a bill which led to mass protests and a riot in Tbilisi that police suppressed using tear gas and physical force.
Mdinaradze said the bill will be initiated in parliament with exactly the same text as it was initiated with last year, with the only difference being that the term “agent of foreign influence” will be replaced by the term “organization carrying the interests of a foreign power”.
“All other notes of the bill are unchanged. We remind you that the draft law envisages the only requirement for organizations receiving foreign funding to publish their annual financial report, for the violation of which only financial sanctions are provided. This is the minimum standard of public accountability and transparency that any organization with even a formal claim to integrity must meet. Accordingly, the content of the draft law does not provide even a minimal basis for criticism. The draft law will be adopted by all three hearings by the end of the current session,” he said.
Georgia’s western partners, including the US and the European Union, consider the law an obstacle to Georgia’s western integration, seeing its purpose as being to discredit and limit the media and civil sector in the country.
Negative responses to the planned re-submission were quick to flow.
Peter Stano, Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said, “The EU regrets that draft law on ‘Transparency of Foreign Influence’ is once again being considered, despite strong public and international reactions in March 2023.”
US Senators Jim Risch, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Jeanne Shaheen, chair of the Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation, released the following statement: “It is incredibly disheartening to see the Georgian government bring back the foreign agents law. All this does is further divide the country. It is similar to laws Russia uses to restrict civil society and suppress political opposition. A democratic government in Georgia should have no reason for it.”
Lithuanian MEP, Renew Europe Group member Petras Austrevicius, wrote on X: “It seems that the ruling party of Georgia is striving towards Euro-Asian tyranny. There is no compromise between the European Union and the latter, because democratic criteria are not subject to negotiations.”
“GD made its statement very clearly – it said ‘no’ to Europe, in all directions which were written in the previous recommendations, and which are written in today’s nine recommendations. Today, GD is busy sabotaging our path and our future,” said Georgia’s President Salome Zurabishvili.
“The ruling party of Georgia is declaring its intention to manipulate the elections by re-introducing the Russian foreign agents law,” ‘For Georgia’ party leader Giorgi Gakharia said. “Georgian Dream intends to completely destroy trust in national and international election observation organizations and their donors to prepare the ground for the public recognition of manipulated results. It’s time to unite efforts to protect the integrity of upcoming 2024 elections and the future!” he wrote on X.
“Georgian Dream has clearly stated that it does not want the European Union. This law means that they don’t want the European Union,” ‘Strategy Aghmashenebeli’ deputy Giorgi Vashadze told journalists.
“October 26 [election day] is when the people must decide whether the opposition is winning, and bringing us the European perspective, jobs, investment and development, or if Georgian Dream is to win again, which will lead to hunger, ‘greedy’ officials and impoverished people. This is an unequivocal, direct, clear statement, it has no other explanation. It is a clear message to Europe and to everyone to ‘Give us up’,” Vashadze added.
Shalva Papuashvili, in response to protests voiced by the opposition parties in parliament, told the opposition: “The pathetic things you got away with last year won’t fly this year. We will not allow the spread of anti-Georgian propaganda. I will turn off the microphone to all who term the new bill as a Russian law!”
Member of the European Parliament Viola Von Cramon reacted to his words from afar: “Shalva Papuashvili is a person who was employed by the German Society for International Cooperation for rule of law projects in Georgia – shame! How can Western donors be so misled as to employ people who do everything but respect the rule of law, who violate the rights of MPs in parliament, and who pursue Russian interests? Shame!”
Last year’s submission of the foreign agent’s bill led to large-scale demonstrations by many citizens of Georgia, culminating in the March 9 forced submission of protesters by the authorities.
As GEORGIA TODAY goes to press, a rally is beginning on Rustaveli Avenue, organized by civil organizations Geut and Talgha, and titled: “No to the Russian law.”
“The result of all this, this usury, rudeness, and the immense insult to Georgia which is called the Russian law and Russian path, is set to cast away our European chances at the elections,” President Zurabishvili noted this week. “The overwhelming majority in the country knows what they want, and they want an independent European future for this country. We need to go to the polls. This requires the greatest mobilization. Not hopelessness, depression, pessimism, or unrest, but preparation.
“Georgia’s European path cannot be stopped. Nobody can take us back to the past! No Russian law, nor any other destructive policy can prevent a determined nation from achieving its goal.”
By Team GT
