The Public Defender’s Office is monitoring an assembly in front of the Parliament building, which is ongoing peacefully and the participants are expressing their protest in a peaceful manner. The right to hold an assembly/demonstration is a fundamental human right enshrined in the Constitution, which is one of the necessary prerequisites for the existence and development of a free and democratic society.

The Public Defender emphasizes that interference with freedom of assembly is permissible only if the assembly becomes violent or illegal, during which the termination of the assembly by the authorities should be used as the last resort, and the use of force within the mentioned framework should meet the strict test of necessity and proportionality.

As of now, according to the observation of the Public Defender, no unlawful nature of the assembly can be observed, therefore there is no reason to interfere with the constitutional right of the demonstrators.

The Public Defender calls on the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia not to prevent the participants in the assembly from exercising their rights guaranteed by the Constitution.