March 16, TBILISI - At the plenary session on Friday the Parliament of Georgia has upheld the legislative amendment that addresses the intolerance and discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity in the Criminal Code of Georgia. The legislative change that has been initiated as a response to the recommendations from European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) initially only included race, religion, ethnicity, nationality and language as discriminatory factors.

Members of the Parliament took into consideration the joint recommendation of “LGBT Georgia” and “Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association” about expanding the list of the discriminatory grounds and adopted the edition jointly proposed by the two organizations. On Friday’s plenary session the Parliament passed the revised edition that currently reads:
“Committing a crime on the grounds of intolerance of race, skin colour, language, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, age, religion, political and other views, disabilities, national, ethnic or social belonging, origin, economic status or position, place of residence or other discriminatory ground is an aggravating factor for all relevant crimes addressed in this code.”

Next week the Parliament will hold the final hearing to discuss the technical aspects of the amendment and its compliance with other legislation. After the final voting, the bill has to be signed by the President and published for the amendment to enter into force.