The recently submitted law restricts even more the right to demonstrate, - this is how the fifth President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, responds to the Georgian Dream’s submission of a package of amendments to the Law “On Assemblies and Demonstrations” and the “Code of Administrative Offenses”.

“A new law JUST introduced restricts even more the right to demonstrate. All protests will need prior authorization if planned in “public crowded places”i.e. all central locations in Tbilissi. The main target is the 1 yearlong protest on RUSTAVELI!,” Salome Zurabishvili writes on X.

For information, the Georgian Dream is tightening the rules related to assemblies and demonstrations again. In this direction, amendments are being made to the Law on Assemblies and Demonstrations and the Code of Administrative Offenses, which the Parliament will consider and adopt in an expedited manner.

At today's session of the Bureau of the Parliament, a package of legislative amendments was submitted by the majority of deputies, according to which the obligation to warn a state body is being established in the event that an assembly or demonstration is held in a place where people move. According to the draft, if an assembly or demonstration poses a threat to public safety, law and order, the normal functioning of institutions and organizations, means of transport and the movement of people, the state body will be authorized to instruct the participants of the demonstration about an alternative place, time or method of holding the demonstration.

Failure to comply with this instruction will result in liability.