Interior Ministry pledges to ensure safety for Tbilisi Pride Week

Set to open on Tuesday, this year’s Tbilisi Pride Week will be held without events in public space, as organisers decided against holding a march to “avoid polarising the society” with the backdrop of the country’s ongoing European Union integration process. All events of the Week will be held indoors in this year’s edition. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge

Agenda.ge, 27 Jun 2022 - 13:38, Tbilisi,Georgia

The safety and freedom of expression and assembly of “each individual” will be protected during the upcoming Tbilisi Pride Week, Georgia’s Interior Ministry announced on Monday. 

The Ministry said it was in “constant communication” with organisers of the week-long programme of events designed to celebrate LGBTQ+ community and highlight the rights of queer people, to ensure the planned events would be held in safety.

In its statement, the Ministry said it had been involved in working meetings with the organisers, with the sessions also involving representatives from the United Nations, various other local and international organisations, the Georgian Public Defender’s Office and diplomatic corps. 

The state body also pointed out “certain groups” planned to disrupt Tbilisi Pride Week events and called on the groups to “abide by the law”, noting otherwise “each case” of violation would be prevented and a “strict legal response” would follow.

Organisers of the Pride Week announced yesterday the Conservative Movement political party, which is affiliated with the Georgian right-wing media outlet Alt-Info, had “openly declared” it would attack the Pride Week and “repeat the events” of July 5 last year, when right-wing activists assaulted and injured over 50 journalists who had gathered to cover the eventually cancelled Tbilisi Pride march in Tbilisi. 

Set to open on Tuesday, this year’s Tbilisi Pride Week will be held without events in public space, as organisers decided against holding a march to “avoid polarising the society” with the backdrop of the country’s ongoing European Union integration process. All events of the Week will be held indoors in this year’s edition.

Media Advocacy Coalition, a Georgian-based non-governmental organisation, released a statement earlier today and called on the Ministry to “avoid the mistakes” made last year and take effective measures to ensure the safety of activists, protect media from unlawful interference with their work and ensure “timely and appropriate legal response” to “all calls to violence and attempts to incite hatred”.