Georgia suspends participation in Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly

Georgia suspends participation in Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly

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The Georgian Government has announced they are freezing their participation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), after the body voted to accept the Georgian delegation’s credentials on the condition new parliamentary elections be announced.

The vote on Wednesday passed by 114 votes to 13, with seven abstaining.

The resolution came in response to widespread electoral violations documented during October’s parliamentary elections in Georgia as well as the violence and prosecutions against protesters, journalists, and civil society figures.

According to the resolution, the Georgian delegation’s credentials would be reexamined during the April session.

The resolution demanded that by this time, the government must:

• Announce new ‘genuinely democratic’ parliamentary elections;
• Release all political prisoners;
• End police brutality and human rights abuses, and effectively investigate these practices;
• End the misuse of legal proceedings against protesters, journalists, and civil society leaders;
• Revoke the foreign agent law;
• Enable Georgia to resume the European integration process, ‘in line with the European aspirations of the people’.

It also stripped the Georgian delegation of a number of rights, including to be members of a number of key committees.

Tea Tsulukiani, a prominent Georgian Dream MP and member of the Georgian delegation to PACE, announced the decision to withdraw soon after the vote.

She said the conditions imposed were ‘unfair and unfounded’, and that demanding new elections ‘encroaches the sovereignty of our country’.

‘Accepting these reservations on our part would be tantamount to betraying our electorate and, consequently, the vast majority of our society’, she said.

‘We believe that as long as completely unfair and unjustified blackmail against the government elected by the Georgian people continues, no evidence or facts are given, the discussions are biased and offensive to the population of our country, the participation of our parliamentary delegation in the Assembly has no meaning.’

She added they would renew their participation ‘only after the unfair attitude towards the Georgian state and the Georgian people changes’.

Speaking on pro-Government TV station Imedi later that evening, Prime Minister Irkali Kobakhidze said the decision had ‘no significance’ for the country.

He added they had been left ‘absolutely without alternative’ and that ‘in such a situation that we see today, there is no point in working there’.

Georgian officials also repeatedly emphasised that PACE had recognised their delegation’s credentials, claiming this was a recognition of the government’s legitimacy.

Speaker of parliament Shalva Papuashvili said they were withdrawing their delegation ‘until PACE returns to its original values’.

The assembly rejected a more severe amendment tabled by British and Ukrainian MPs that would have denied the Georgian delegation credentials outright.

Speaking in favour of the amendment, British MP Perran Moon urged members not to ‘send the message to the Georgian regime that don't worry, don’t worry about democracy; come on in and join our cosy club’.

‘I would urge all delegates to stand up against those that wish to trash those core democratic values that we hold so dear and vote [not to recognise the Georgian delegation’s credentials]’.

PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos said he ‘regretted’ the Georgian Government’s decision to withdraw from the assembly, stating that it ‘jeopardises the dialogue that could help to advance democratic standards in Georgia’.

International experts say severity of harm inflicted on Georgian detainees ‘may constitute torture’

Six UN Special Rapporteurs have called on Georgia to investigate allegations made by protesters of torture and ill-treatment by police.

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