Amendments Planned to the Criminal Code of Georgia in Connection with Sexual Crime

Nino Devidze

Amendments are planned into the Chapter of the Criminal Code of Georgia referring to sexual crimes. Concrete formulation of the amendments is not known yet. Representatives of the Ministry of Justice state they are working on the content. Nongovernmental organizations proposed their draft-amendments to the Chapter on Sexual Crimes in the Criminal Code of Georgia.

Executive director of the Union Sapari Baia Pataraia explained the necessity of amendments in the Criminal Code of Georgia with its noncompliance with modern standards. “According to our and international organizations’ assessments, the Chapter on Sexual Crimes is very outdated and incompliant with modern standards. It is survival of the soviet regime and amendments shall be necessarily introduced.”

Representatives of the Union Sapari and GCRT (Georgian Center for Psycho-Social and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims) think, the bill shall contain new articles – one defining the rape and a new article on “incite”: “Rape is nowhere defined in the current edition of the law, though it is important. Separate articles on “perversion” and “buggery” shall be removed from the Code. According to our bill, a new article on incite shall appear in the Code that is real innovation for the Georgian legislation. Incite means illicit, repeated abuse, watch, chase, threat or other action against a person which causes grave psychological stress of the victim. This action shall be punishable by corrective labor,” Baia Pataraia said and added that some other sexual crimes, besides rape, shall be added to the Code whose absence created problems when qualifying concrete crimes.

Deputy Minister of Justice Aleksandre Baramidze agrees that it is necessary to introduce amendments to the Chapter on Sexual Crimes. “Current edition of the Code is really very outdated and shall be amended by all means. We have almost finished revision of the general part. As for the private part, we are about to start work on it and it was good time for the nongovernmental sector to offer their bill. We might not share all their suggestions but we will definitely work on their version.”

The project also aims to increase civic engagement in the assistance of the victims of domestic violence and sexual violence. “Sexual violence is a very acute problem and civil process shall properly reflect the gravity of this problem. We want to active relevant stakeholders and do more for the assistance of the victims; we should create better legislation and services,” executive director of the GCRT Lela Tsiskarishvili said.