Page 13 - GEORptAug21

TI Georgia accuses government of “supporting clan of judges”
be more homophobic than men, with the exception of men and women in the 35–54 age range, who were equally homophobic.
The active role played by priests in the recent riots in Georgia was perhaps unsurprising given that priests also engaged in violence in the homophobic riots that hit the country's 2013 International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia. Furthermore, the church in Georgia established the ‘Day of Family Purity’ in the years following the 2013 riots to prevent events marking the international day from being held.
In this regard, the data tends to suggest that Orthodox Christian countries are more homophobic than others. The only exception to this pattern was that the one Muslim country in the dataset, Turkey, was more homophobic than Orthodox countries on average.
While Orthodox countries appeared to be more homophobic overall than countries where other religions predominate, how strongly someone evaluates the importance of religion in their lives was not correlated with whether or not they held a homophobic view. This suggests that religious belief is not necessarily the issue; rather, that generalised homophobia in society is.
A conclusion is thus that the riots seen on July 5 underlined that Georgia has a problem with homophobia, to put it mildly. The data suggests the problem is among the worst in Europe. Yet, while the church instigated violence, individual religiosity does not appear to be the culprit in whether or not someone is homophobic.
“The ruling party opted for a strategy of completely ignoring the processes, shifting the burden of responsibility entirely to concrete judges and the influential group within the judiciary,” reads a statement from Transparency International Georgia in response to the election of four members of the High Council of Justice (HCJ) by the Conference of Judges.
TI Georgia argued that the government and the ruling Georgian Dream party are operating “facade reforms”, trying to convince international partners and the Georgian public that it wants to reform the judicial system.
At the same time, the NGO blamed the government for refusing to admit the main problem of the system: the existence of “a clan of the judges”.
The appointments were carried out by ignoring calls by international partners and NGOs, and the positions of the clan dominating the judicial system were further strengthened as a result of this decision, said TI Georgia.
“The government’s inaction and evasion of actual responsibility pose a serious threat to the prospects of a fundamental judicial reform, which represents one of the important conditions of the 19 April agreement [to resolve Gergia's political crisis]. This state of affairs indicates that the government is not willing to carry out real reforms and take steps to defuse the political crisis that has taken shape in the country,” Georgia TI’s statement reads.
Transparency International and other NGOs, such as Social Justice Centre (formerly EMC), Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association and the Open Society Foundation have recommended that parliament take firm steps towards judicial reforms and that the international community maintains an active role.
13 GEORGIA Country Report August 2021 www.intellinews.com