GEORGIA: Annual Report of the Tolerance and Discrimination Institute on Freedom of Religion or Belief
TDI (06.07.2023) – The Tolerance and Discrimination Institute (TDI) has recently published its annual report about Freedom of Religion or Belief in Georgia with the support from the USAID Rule of Law Program implemented by the East-West Management Institute (eWMi). See their website https://tdi.ge/.
Project Manager: Mariam Gavtadze
Contributors: Mariam Gavtadze, Saba Elizbarashvili, Manuchar Tsetskladze, Mariam Mindiashvili
Content
- DISCRIMINATION IN LEGISLATION
1.1. TDI’s constitutional claims on Tax and Property inequality
1.2. Compulsory Military Service
1.3. The right to obtain Forest Property by the Patriarchate
1.4. religious Holidays and days of rest
- PROPERTY RIGHTS OF MINORITY RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
2.1. Return of Historic Properties
2.2. The Case of Building a New Mosque in Batumi
2.3. The Case of the Evangelical Church of Georgia
- THE STATE FUNDING FOR RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
3.1. Litigation over discriminatory Municipal Funding
- CRIMES COMMITTED ON RELIGIOUS GROUNDS
4.1. Crimes Motivated by religious intolerance
Violence against Jehovah’s Witnesses and Their Persecution
The Murder case of Vitaly Safarov
4.2. Total State Control over Religious Communities
Illegal Surveillance, Monitoring, and Pressure
The case of Muslim Religious Leader Vagif Akperov
The case of the Leader of Episcopal Anglican Church
- FREEDOM OF BELIEF IN PENITENTIARY INSTITUTIONS
- THE CASE OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES BLOOD TRANSFUSION
- RELIGION AND EDUCATION
7.1. The Problem of Preserving Religious Neutrality in Public Schools
7.2. Discrimination on Grounds of Religion at Unified National Examinations
- ANTISEMITISM AND HATE SPEECH
8.1. A New Wave of Anti-semitism against the Murdered Vitaly Safarov
8.2. Nazi Symbol on the Wall of a Jewish Cemetery
8.3. Anti-semitic Messages Spread by the Clergy of the Orthodox Church