Georgia
Georgia regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR. Georgia's Criminal Code includes general and specific penalty enhancement provisions for hate crimes, as well as substantive offences. Georgia's data do not report cases of discrimination and persecution separately. The Information-Analytical Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Central Administration of Prosecutors of the Ministry of Justice, the Statistical Office and the Supreme Court all collect hate crime statistics.
How hate crime data is collected
Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are instructed to immediately initiate investigations when they suspect that an offence might have been committed on the basis of hatred and intolerance. The Information-Analytical Department of the Ministry generates statistical data about criminal offences with an element of discrimination. In January 2018, the Human Rights Protection and Monitoring Department was established in the Ministry of Internal Affairs to monitor hate crimes, collect statistics and oversee the initial stage of investigation on other, ordinary crimes motivated by bias. The Ministry also indicates the motive for the presumed intolerance and the specific reason for discrimination, such as race, skin colour, sex, sexual orientation or other grounds envisioned by Paragraph 3(1) of Article 53 of the Criminal Code of Georgia. These procedures are in accordance with an instruction issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Based on a recommendation regarding the application of Article 53 §3(1) of the Criminal Code, the Human Rights Unit of the Prosecutor's Office must be notified electronically of potential bias-motivated crimes less than three days after the creation of the relevant procedural document. The information includes case details, details about the judicial process and details of the investigation.
The Georgian judiciary collects its own statistical data on hate crimes through the Supreme Court's Analytical Unit, which collects all judgments in which Article 53 § 3 (1) is used as an aggravating circumstance from city and district courts.
Official Data
National developments
In 2019, the Human Rights Division of the General Prosecutor's Office studied hate-motivated and gender-based discrimination crimes. According to the analysis of the criminal cases studied, the quality and effectiveness of measures carried out by specialized prosecutors to detect the bias motive in such criminal cases have increased. As a result, in 2019 two discriminatory motives (Gender and religious intolerance, sexual orientation and gender identity and race and ethnicity) were identified simultaneously in resolutions by prosecutors.
Selected prosecutors and investigators of the prosecution service have undergone an intensive retraining course to strengthen their capacity to deal with hate crimes. This specialization of prosecutors and investigators of the prosecution service has continued in 2019, and has covered all territorial units of the prosecution service. At the end of 2019, there were 71 specialized prosecutors and investigators of the prosecution service dealing with hate crimes.
On 19 February 2019, a memorandum of mutual co-operation was signed between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and ODIHR. On the basis of this agreement, a specific hate crime investigation training programme – based on ODIHR's Training Against Hate Crime for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme – was launched by the Ministry.
Within the frame of a Council of Europe project, in 2019 the Ministry conducted research aimed at studying hate crime victim satisfaction at the investigation stage. In agreement with the Department, the research focused on representatives of religious minorities and the LGBTI community.
International reports
Racism and xenophobia, Bias against other groups – Sex, Bias against other groups - Sexual orientation or gender identity, Bias against other groups – People with disabilities
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The United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) published relevant recommendations in its "Report from the Thirty-seventh session: Compilation on Georgia."
Racism and xenophobia
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The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers published relevant recommendations in its "Resolution on the Implementation of the Framework Convention for the protection of National Minorities by Georgia."
Key observation
ODIHR observes that Georgia has not made public reliable data and statistics on hate crimes.
