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
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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”.
The Georgian Government’s responsibility to safeguard the rights to peaceful assembly of LGBTQI+ persons, prevent discrimination and violence and ensure commemoration of IDAHOBIT, the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia “openly and publicly” were stressed by the diplomatic missions in Georgia on Monday.
A new survey under the United Nations Joint Programme for Gender Equality has revealed a decreasing tendency of negative attitudes toward the LGBTQI community in Georgia, while still pointing out a “significant challenge” in the protection of the rights of queer people.
Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze has called everyone to refrain from violent attacks against 'adults, women, tourists' following today's demonstration of right-wing groups against LGBT people and their supporters.
A Palitranews cameraman who was attacked by right wing activists earlier today has undergone an operation at New Hospitals and is being taken to the med ward at this time. Head of the New Hospitals emergency service Mikheil Beriashvili said that the patient had a head injury and a broken nose.
The programme for this year’s Tbilisi Pride Week kicked off on Tuesday in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi with a screening of Wet Sand, an award-winning feature by director Elene Naveriani.
Police arrested 26 participants of a right-wing rally against the ongoing Tbilisi Pride Week in Tbilisi on Saturday for “disorderly conduct”.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry on Saturday issued a call for groups opposing the ongoing Tbilisi Pride Week events to abide by the law, and pledged to ensure public order, safety and freedom of expression and assembly of “each individual”.
Police arrested 17 participants of a right-wing rally against the ongoing Tbilisi Pride Week in the city on Saturday for non-compliance with law enforcement officers, with the development following arrests made earlier during the day.
A new survey released on Friday by the US National Democratic Institute and CRRC Georgia showed an increase in support for protection of LGBTQI+ rights in the country.
Conducting the events planned within the Tbilisi Pride Week in a “safe environment” was discussed on Tuesday in a meeting between Georgian Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri, Pawel Herczynski, the European Union Ambassador to Georgia and ambassadors and representatives of the EU member states.