189. JAL 13/06/2013. Case no. GEO 1/2013. State reply: none to date.
Alleged lack of effective protection provided to demonstrators during the International Day against Homophobia and subsequent threats made against members of an LGBTI organization.
Observations
191. The Special Rapporteur urges the authorities to take all relevant measures to ensure that any individual, in particular lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, can peacefully exercise their rights of freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. He recommends that the Government put in place an enabling and safe environment allowing individuals to exercise their legitimate freedoms without undue hindrances. In this regard, he calls upon the authorities to “[t]ake positive measures, including affirmative action measures, to ensure that all individuals belonging to groups most at risk [such as LGBTI people] have the ability to exercise effectively their rights, including to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association” (A/HRC/26/29, para. 73(c)). Finally, he calls on the authorities to bring all the perpetrators before justice and ensure that the victims are provided with full redress.
192. In this context, the Special Rapporteur refers to Human Rights Council resolution 24/5, and in particular operative paragraph 1 that “[r]eminds States of their obligation to respect and fully protect the rights of all individuals to assemble peacefully and associate freely, online as well as offline, including in the context of elections, and including persons espousing minority or dissenting views or beliefs, human rights defenders, trade unionists and others, including migrants, seeking to exercise or to promote these rights, and to take all necessary measures to ensure that any restrictions on the free exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association are in accordance with their obligations under international human rights law”.
Link to full text of the report: Report-SRAssembly-Communications and replies-2014-eng-fra-esp
Link to Special Rapporteur’s correspondence with the State: Correspondence-SR-Georgia-2013-eng