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Public Defender Submits Amicus Curiae Brief with Constitutional Court

On December 8, 2015, the Public Defender of Georgia has filed amicus curiae brief with the Constitutional Court in relation to the constitutional claim "Georgian Citizen Tamar Tandarashvili v. the Government of Georgia".

The Public Defender considers that the ban of registration of persons that have intruded into state properties in the database of socially vulnerable families contradicts the constitutional right to equality. The families who have illegally intruded into state properties, as well as any other family, could have needs for getting social assistance. Accordingly, the imposition of a blanket ban represents such an intense interference with the right that it makes the idea of ​​equality senseless.

Although the state has certain discretion at the state of implementation of social policy, the restriction of availability of basic living needs for a person, in order to protect property, leads to humiliation and degrading treatment of a person as well as to the use of a person as a method for achieving a goal. Considering all this, the Public Defender considers that the blanket ban of the access to social assistance may be considered by the Constitutional Court in the context of human dignity.

At the same time, it is necessary to ensure realization of the right to social protection by analyzing the international commitments of Georgia and by giving sense to the constitutional principle of a social state. Otherwise, the state's international commitment for realization of social rights under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, will remain abstract and illusory.

The Public Defender believes that a social state is not just a declared, vague statute, the implementation of which is dependent on the goodwill of a state, but a principle the content of which is defined by the unity of state commitments and objectives.

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