UNAG/ANI contributed to a renewed anti-discrimination framework in Georgia

2012-03-17

Civic Integration and Tolerance Council at the President of Georgia, with the support of Advancing National Integration (ANI) project, prepared the draft amendments to the Criminal Code of Georgia in early 2012 that would provide for discrimination to constitute an aggravating circumstance applicable to different types of criminal offenses. ANI thence supported the public review campaign in Tbilisi and Samtskhe-Javakheti region. On February 17/2012, over 60 ethnic minority organizations, members of Public Defender’s Council of National Minorities – also supported by ANI, participated in Tbilisi conference that discussed the draft amendment and collected the preliminary feedbacks from participating CSOs.</p> <p>After initial feedbacks were consolidated in the document, CITC endorsed the draft amendments for a legal committee review. A wider range of CSO participation was further facilitated by the parliamentary committee, collecting significant CSO contributions in developing the final reading of the draft amendment.</p> <p>On March 27 of 2012, the Parliament of Georgia passed a new amendment to the Criminal Code of Georgia, according to which the commission of a crime on the ground of racial, linguistic, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion, political and other persuasion, citizenship, national, ethnic or social origins, wealth or other status is considered as an aggravating circumstance applicable to different types of criminal offenses.