The Ministry of Internal Affairs unlawfully infringed the right to peaceful protest

On the night of November 8-9, there were no prerequisites to disperse the protest rally near the building of the Central Election Commission of Georgia, yet the force used against the protesters was disproportionate. The state failed to strike the right balance between the obligation to ensure freedom of assembly and the goal of establishing public order, ultimately resulting in unlawful restriction of public protest.

The police measures applied against the protesting individuals leave the impression that the aim of their use was not to restore public order for the respect of human rights but to punish the protesters.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs violated the requirements of the Georgian legislation and those provided by international organizations that set standards for freedom of assembly and the use of force by police during protests. In particular:

There were no grounds for the state to disperse the protest assembly

The decision to dissolve the assembly had no legal grounds, as the protest did not escalate into violence. Separate acts of violence by individual protesters are not sufficient for the state to disperse the assembly.

The footage released by the Ministry of Interior shows[[1]] that the confrontation between the protesters and police officers was happening locally and was not of a mass character, while the water cannons used by the police was aimed at all the protesters, including media representatives and several protesters, who got injured and their equipment damaged. The participants of the assembly were not a homogeneous group, so they should have been differentiated by their actions rather than the group they belong to.

Interruption of a protest rally by the state may be justified if there is a call for violence by the organizers of the protest and there is an immediate threat of violence (where the protest becomes completely violent or the violence becomes so large-scale that it is impossible to neutralize it with lenient measures). Video footage released by various media outlets cannot confirm that the rally organizers had such an intention or there was an immediate threat.

Individual cases of violence (e.g., throwing stones at police equipment as seen in the video footage) should have been considered as individual cases and should have been prevented by the police in a way that would not result in a complete cessation of the exercise of the right of assembly.

A homogeneous approach to the use of force against protest rallies can allow the state to disperse any assembly by force, which would generally make it impossible to exercise the right of assembly in the country.

The protesters were not warned in advance about the imminent use of force

Neither the local self-government nor the Ministry of Internal Affairs warned the protesters about the possible use of force by the police, as required by law. The Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Kakhaber Sabanadze, admitted at a briefing today that the protesters had not been warned in advance about the use of force against them.

Georgian legislation strictly obliges the police to issue a warning before using coercive measures. Any breach of the above obligation renders the means of coercion used by the police completely unlawful. The footage released by various media outlets clearly shows that there was no immediate and real threat that could have necessitated the immediate use of large-scale coercive measures by the police, without any prior warning.

The police used disproportionate force against the protesters

According to the UN Human Rights Guidance, water cannons can be used only in situations of serious public disorder, where there is a risk of loss of human life, serious damage or large-scale destruction of property. The use of water cannons entails specific risks, namely the risk of hypothermia, cold- water shock in cold weather, and the risk of people slipping or being forced by strong water current against walls or other hard objects. [[2]] As long as there were no mass violations by the organizers and participants of the rally, nor was there an immediate threat of violence, the massive use of water cannons against the protesters was disproportionate.

The footage released by various media outlets shows that the special force used by the authorities was aimed at preventing violence and not eliminating it. The use of force against protesters for preventive purposes is totally inadmissible and contradicts the requirements of immediate danger. According to the international standard, even when an assembly is considered unlawful under the domestic law of a state, law enforcement bodies should not use force solely because of its unlawfulness. [[3]] The use of force is permissible only when there are compelling reasons – for the prevention of public safety and the prevention of crime. [[4]]

Individual cases of violence may have been provoked by the unlawful use of police force

The video footage released by various media outlets clearly shows that the use of disproportionate force by the police without a prior warning exacerbated the situation between the protesters and the police forces and provoked individual acts of violence locally. Cases of throwing stones by the protesters were reported after the illegal and disproportionate use of police force. And only after that did the police fulfill its obligation to warn the protesters.

"Democracy Index - Georgia" calls on the government to:

- Employ all legal and political means to engage into a dialogue with the boycotting opposition to prevent the aggravation of the situation;

- Initiate legal prosecution against individuals who ordered the use of force without a prior warning and used disproportionate force against the protesting individuals.

[1] The video footage - Protesters violently broke the fence and tried to break into the CEC territory, the official Facebook page of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, https://www.facebook.com/MIAofGeorgia/videos/2071353789666355 [09.11.2020 12:20]

[2] United Nation Human Rights, GUIDANCE ON LESS-LETHAL WEAPONS IN LAW ENFORCEMENT, 2020, pp. 38-39

[3] Amnesty International, Use of Force: Guidelines for Implementation of the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, 7 September 2015, Guideline No.7, pp. 147-148

[4] Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Report on the situation of human rights defenders in the Americas, 2006, § 68.