Georgian President refuses to sign ruling party-initiated bills on “family values, protection of minors”

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili on Wednesday refused to sign the package of bills on “family values ​​and protection of minors”, initiated by the ruling Georgian Dream party and criticised by the country’s Western partners, and returned it to the country’s Parliament, media reports said on Wednesday.

The legislative initiative calls for prohibition of “production of LGBT propaganda” in educational institutions - in particular, dissemination of information “aimed at the promotion of a person's belonging to a different gender than their own, same-sex relationships or incest”.

Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, last month published a letter sent to the Chair of the Parliament of Georgia to ask members of the legislative body to refrain from adopting the draft law on “protection of family values and minors”.

The return of the bill to the legislative body has not been accompanied by the President's substantiated remarks, which means that Zourabichvili neither signed the bill nor vetoed it.

The development means Parliamentary discussions of the bill will no longer be necessary, and it will be signed by the Speaker within a five-day deadline.