Georgia

In February and April 2021, the Department of Human Rights Protection and Investigation Quality Monitoring of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted two training sessions on hate crime for 90 police officers in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region and the Autonomous Republic of Adjara. In March 2021, the Department organized an online meeting with the Public Defender's Council of Religions, which was also attended by the Centre for Tolerance and international and local non-governmental organizations. During the event, the Prosecutor's Office presented measures taken to combat crimes committed on the grounds of religious intolerance. 

In June and July 2021, three trainings were co-organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and partner institutions. The first event was a hate crime training held for 20 Ministry employees responsible for territorial and structural units. Organized as part of a Council of Europe project, the training touched upon psychological and legal issues related to hate crime. Following this, 40 Ministry employees responsible for territorial and structural units participated in a four-day training organized by the UN OHCHR aimed at enhancing their understanding of discrimination and bias-motivated crime. Lastly, the Ministry of Internal Affairs co-operated with the Council of Europe to train 20 participants on discrimination, hate speech and the investigation of hate crimes. During the event, participants learned about bias indicators, investigative standards, and specific forms of discrimination, including on the grounds of sex, disability, race, nationality, ethnicity, religion and political views, among others.  

In September 2021, the Ministry of Internal Affairs launched a HELP course on "Hate crime and hate speech" – an online distance learning course developed as part of the Council of Europe's project on "Fight against discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in Georgia". A total of 25 Ministry employees and 25 judges participated in the course. As part of the project, in December 2021, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs participated in a training focused on crimes motivated by anti-religious bias. 

Finally, the High School of Justice conducted three training sessions on discrimination and hate crimes for 75 judges and court officials from the Tbilisi City Court, other district courts and the Tbilisi and Kutaisi Appellate courts.

Notable cases 

Case 1: On 5 July 2021, the offices of the "Tbilisi Pride" and the "Shame" movement were attacked and vandalized by a mob of far-right demonstrators protesting against LGBTI Pride Week. The organizations' employees were chased into the streets, and at least two other people – a journalist associated with the LGBTI community and a cameraman – were physically assaulted. A number of other participants, including journalists, were attacked during various rallies. The Ministry of Internal Affairs condemned the hate-motivated acts and launched an investigation into the incident. More than 300 persons were interviewed and a number of individuals were charged with hate crimes. 

Case 2: On 31 October 2021, a transgender woman and her colleague were stabbed with a knife by a man in a massage salon, resulting in the death of the transgender victim. In November 2021, the perpetrator was charged with murder and attempted murder motivated by bias based on gender identity. In July 2022, the Tbilisi City Court sentenced him to 12 years of imprisonment. An appeal process was ongoing at the time of publication of ODIHR's 2021 Hate Crime Report.