Today, on the 1st of May, at 15.00 a peaceful manifestation took off in the name of the international day for the rights of laborers. The organizer of the manifestation was a youth movement “Laboratory 1918”. Demonstrators marched from Tbilisi State University to the Ministry of Economics (through Varazis Khevi, Aghmashenebeli avenue, Rustaveli avenue) – the demonstrators were occupying the driving roads. At about 15:30 there was a clash on Rustaveli avenue between the demonstrators and tens of policemen. Police detained up to 25 participants of the manifestation, including the journalists. The demonstrators were hurt in the process when the manifestation was being dispersed. The remained crowd moved to the Ministry of Economics and Sustainable Development. Although, the policemen did not allow the demonstrators to approach the administrative building, hundreds of policemen were mobilized at the place. The protesters detained during the manifestation were released after 4-5 hours from the police department.

Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center expresses its concern regarding the non-proportionate usage of force towards the demonstrators. In the video episodes spread by media, we see that using detentions as the method for inhibiting unlawful actions was itself an non-proportionate mean. For example, it was surprising to see several demonstrators being detained at the pedestrian sites (side-walks), while in that moment they were not violating the order or when the transportation sites were not occupied by them. The video records also revealed that in particular cases the manner of detainment (even when it was a demonstration of the policeman’s response to resistance – e.g. argument) was not answering the tests of proportionality. According to the witnesses and the participants of the manifestation, in some cases we had expression of aggression and totally purposeless usage of violence from the side of the policemen towards the demonstrators. The number of detainees could also speak for the non-proportionality of the force used.

EMC also thinks that, the deliberate restriction of journalists to adequately cover the happenings, shall be evaluated as interference in journalistic work.

EMC calls for the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Georgia, to give adequate evaluation to the acts of the policemen and take into account the respective norms of responsibility.

Besides, we would like to let you know that EMC plans to investigate the above-mentioned fact in detail and to present a report to the society in the nearest future.

Share