Council of Europe Commissioner on human rights, Michael O'Flaherty, urged Georgian lawmakers not to finally approve the law against the LGBT+ community. Today, O'Flaherty sent a letter to the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, reports AFP, quoted by BTA.
On September 4, the parliament in Tbilisi approved the second reading of the bill “On protection of family values and minors”, which aims to ban “LGBT+ propaganda” in education and on television. In order to enter into force, the legal text must also be approved in the third reading.
This text “provides a legal basis for discrimination against persons from the LGBT+ community and appears to be contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights”, warns O'Flaherty in his letter.
He recalls that the practice of the European Court of Human Rights shows that democratic societies “reject any stigmatization based on sexual orientation”. These societies are “built on the equal dignity of individuals and thrive on diversity, which they perceive not as a threat but as a source of enrichment”.
Michael O'Flaherty also raised concerns about the prejudice against LGBT+ people that exists in certain sectors of Georgian society, including among political leaders. He notes that the bill, by mentioning sexual orientation and gender identity alongside incest, perpetuates the stigmatization and discrimination faced by members of the LGBT+ community.
In recent years, the ruling party “Georgian Dream“ in the Caucasian former Soviet republic has deepened its conservative and anti-Western bias, notes AFP. Opponents of the party accuse "Georgian Dream" of trying to get closer to Moscow and putting the country's expected accession to the European Union at risk.