Introduction

The practice of financing religious organizations operating in Georgia is carried out annually against the backdrop of neglecting the principles of secularism, neutrality, and pluralism, as well as discriminatory allocation of budgetary resources, which results in sharply asymmetrical access of religious organizations to public funds and resources.[1]

The present document, through the study of state and local budgets from 2020–2024, government decrees, and public information obtained from various state agencies, aims to examine the budgetary financing of the Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church and four religious communities (Muslim, Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Armenian Apostolic Churches), as well as to compare the financial resources allocated to them.

The research results show that the largest share of state funding is received by the Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the legal entities established by it. The budgetary financing of the Orthodox Church is characterized by an annual increasing trend. During the reporting period, it received a total of 283,312,365 GEL from central and municipal budgets, as well as on the basis of government decrees.

It is noteworthy that despite the conditions of the constitutional agreement between the Georgian state and the Orthodox Church, in practice the Orthodox Church is financed by the state not according to the logic of compensation for damages, but through direct subsidies. This grossly violates the constitutional principle of secularism and drastically increases the risks of inadmissible interdependence between the state and the Church.

The amount of budgetary funds received by the four religious organizations is small and is ten times lower than the total funding for the Orthodox Church. In the last five years, only 26,527,671 GEL was allocated to all four religious associations. Unlike the funds allocated to the Orthodox Church, the state closely monitors the purpose and spending of the funds provided to the four religious organizations.

As part of the research, it was also planned to conduct a factual analysis of the real estate transferred by the state to religious organizations between 2020 and 2024. For these purposes, the Social Justice Center submitted a public information request to the National Agency of State Property, asking for segregated data on real estate transferred to religious organizations, local eparchies (diocese), and individual clergy members between 2020 and 2024. In response, the National Agency of State Property responded to Social Justice Center on October 2, 2024, including a list of properties transferred through direct sales and gratuitous usufruct from January 2020 to June 30, 2024. However, the list sent by the Agency did not specify the type of real estate, its purpose, or the form of its transfer. In order to clarify the incomplete information, the Social Justice Center once again addressed the National Agency of State Property on October 10, 2024, requesting the provision of the real estate transferred to religious organizations in a uniform, segregated format.[2] However, the Agency has not yet fulfilled its legal obligation and provided the requested public information, which has prevented the analysis of the real estate transferred to religious organizations for the purposes of the research.

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