Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili is echoing the amendments made to the Criminal Code of Georgia with regard to the evasion of military service.

According to the proposed amendments to Article 356 of the Criminal Code, which provides for a responsibility for military service evasion by a recruiter, the cases of evasion have been specified and the article has been formulated as follows: "Evading military service by a recruiter, including through simulating to be sick, inflicting body injuries, using forged documents or other forms of cheating – is punishable by a fine or imprisonment for up to three years."

According to the explanatory note of the draft law, there had been a number of cases when recruiters evaded military service through simulating to be sick, inflicting self injuries, using forged documents or other forms of cheating. The goal of the draft law is to eliminate the abovementioned deficiencies.

The Public Defender considers that the arguments of the author of the draft law are not sufficiently substantiated and therefore, the necessity for making such amendments is not unclear. In addition, the explanatory note is general and does not specify what kinds of deficiencies were identified in practice, which delayed the process of recruiting. In addition, it is unknown whether the current edition of the law created problems in investigating the cases of military service evasion and/or holding hearings of the mentioned cases in the court. The Public Defender also considers that the aim of the proposed draft law is not foreseeable.

It is noteworthy that the changes proposed by the draft law cannot help eliminate the problem of military service evasion. The Public Defender of Georgia has repeatedly underlined the fundamental problems related to military service in his parliamentary reports. Consequently, it is unacceptable for the Public Defender to implement similar fragmented and unjustified changes for the resolution of the problem. It is important the state, instead of using repressive approaches, to develop a vision that would make the military service attractive.

It should be noted that mandatory military service is either abolished in most of the NATO member states, or recruiting is voluntary and therefore no liability is imposed for evasion.

Taking into consideration all the above, the Public Defender of Georgia calls on the Parliament and the Government of Georgia to take effective steps for the fundamental reform of the existing mechanisms of mandatory military service and to bring the system closer to the standards based on human rights and needs.