Based on the request of the Public Defender of Georgia, OSCE/ODIHR assessed the compliance of the amendments to the Law on Assemblies and Demonstrations, the Administrative Offences Code and the Criminal Code with international human rights standards. The OSCE/ODIHR report is quite critical and indicates the inconsistency of the above-mentioned legislative amendments with the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

As stated in the report, the state’s positive duty to facilitate peaceful assembly should be reflected in the legislative framework and relevant practices, and when considering restrictions to reconcile this right with the rights of others or broader public interests, the state should prioritize facilitation over unnecessary or disproportionate limitations.

According to the report, some of these new legislative provisions, including the requirement of immediate notification for spontaneous assemblies, general prohibition of holding assemblies inside closed spaces or buildings without the owner’s prior written agreement, the prohibition to erect temporary structures or blanket prohibition to cover one’s face with masks or by other means, as well as severe administrative or criminal sanctions, should be removed or reconsidered entirely; a disproportionate penalty can also be in itself sufficient to constitute a violation of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.

The report says that other proposed grounds for prohibiting assemblies should be re-assessed or at the very least, more carefully and narrowly circumscribed to ensure that they are clearly defined as well as strictly necessary and proportionate and do not unduly impact the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.

According to the report, the imposition of administrative detention contemplated by the amendments as a sanction in case of violation of the Law on Assemblies and Demonstrations should be repealed. In addition, the amount of the fines imposed for administrative offences for violations of the Law on Assemblies and Demonstrations should be substantially reduced, especially with respect to minor violations, to ensure they are proportionate to the harms being prosecuted.

For the full report, click the link.