Presumable Discrimination Facts in the Planning of Hope Festival

Natia Gogolashvili 

Festival of Hope was scheduled in the Sport Palace of Tbilisi on June 6-8, 2014. However, the palace administration refused the organizers to hold the festival because of the fire that broke out in the building several days before the event. The organizers faced problems in the advertisement campaign too. Considering the fact that everything was planned and international organizations also participated in it, the festival did take place in Tbilisi but in a less scope.

Faith Gospel Church in Didube district of Tbilisi hosted the Festival of Hope. Director of the largest American protestant organization Billy Graham Evangelist Association (BGEA) and president of the international charity organization Samaritan’s Purse Franklin Graham visited the festival.

PR Manager of the Festival of Hope Lela Khonelidze spoke about the problems, they faced during the advertising campaign. ““When we started working about PR and outdoor advertisements, we faced some obstacles. We cooperated with many advertisement companies but communication with the Outdoor.ge resulted in the most complications. We signed different agreements with them. According to one contract, they had to place advertisements in the underground stations and on the billboards in the streets. We paid the money; everything was agreed but three days later our billboards disappeared from the airport road. When we asked clarifications from the company, they said they had placed the billboards on the place of other advertising company. It was official reason but no other advertisement has been placed on those billboards for three days; after the argument they restored our advertisements.”

In parallel to the official reasons, Lela Khonelidze spoke about the reasons which were mentioned by the company representative with her. As Khonelidze was told in the company, the Prime Minister was interested to remove the bill-boards. “Prime-Minister was going to meet a delegation and he did not want to see non-patriotic bill-boards on the road to the airport,” Lela Khonelidze said. 

The PR manager said they had signed the contract about the Festival of Hope with the Sport Palace administration a year ago. However, several days before a fire broke out in one part of the sport palace that became enough ground for the administration to refuse them to hold the festival.

“4-5 days before the festival a minor fire broke out in the building. Our group was working on the decorations and illumination in that period. The workers some incidents about electricity and we warned the administration but they did not pay attention. With this behavior we became suspicious about their intentions. An hour later the same incident occurred but the administration did not react again. Their expectations realized- it was their approach,” Lela Khonelidze said.

MP Tamar Kordzaia said in her conversation with Human Rights Center that she tried to resolve problems with the sport palace administration but in vain. “MP Tina Khidasheli and I tried to convince the sport palace administration to resolve problems before the festival date but it was not done.” The MP refrained from making evaluations of the fact without estimated connection between the causes and results. 

According to Lela Khonelidze, they offered the palace administration to bring group of specialists who could repair everything in the building to make the organization of the festival possible. “We told them we would not use the space where the fire broke up but they refused. They said nothing will be held in the place for the net 4-5 days. We spent so much resources on the organization of the festival and nobody even apologized us for the fact. Then they brought expert and made them speak loudly; they staged cheap performances. The administration did not allow us to bring our expert. After the fire in the sport palace, no hall in Tbilisi accepted us to organize the festival; we applied for the dynamo and locomotive stadiums too but in vain.”

Lawyer Tamta Mikeladze of the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center said religious minorities often face obstacles and are subjected to blatant human rights violations when they try to publicly represent their religious affiliations. For the last period, the government has failed to adequately respond to the facts of indoctrination of public spaces by dominant religious group and to the facts of religious violence.  

Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC) petitioned to the Public Defender based on the Law of Georgia on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination; they requested the PDO to study alleged facts of religious discrimination by private persons – administration of the sport palace and advertisement company Outdoor.ge during the planning of the International Festival of Hope.

Tamta Mikeladze of EMC said that in his clarification to the EMC about the incident Teimuraz Giorgadze said the fire in the sport palace was so minor that it could be assessed as middle level.

“In his explanation letter the witness [Teimuraz Giorgadze] noted that in order to secure the building of particular threat, their service automatically sends 10-11 fire-engines to the place; from that place 5-6 cars (water-tanks) returned back full. T. Giorgadze clarified that due to the scope and level of the fire, the incident could not threat the sustainability of the building,” Tamta Mikeladze said.

Head of the Emergency Situations Service at the Tbilisi City Hall Temur Giorgadze made a statement about the fire. “The fire broke up early in the morning; some remains were burning in the entrance of the sport palace; there is no serious damage; nobody was injured. The fire was liquidated soon. As for the causes, the investigation will estimate them.” 

In their clarifications to the EMC, the fire-workers said they localized the fire within nine minutes and they spent 5-6 tones of water (or even less). They said the water could not damage the building. “Mostly curtains and wooden materials were burning. I think this fire could not create any threats for the building; nor we used so much water that could damage the validity of the building,” fireman Aleksandre Gurgenidze wrote in his explanation letter.

Levan Samkharauli National Bureau of Expertise issued the conclusion on the fire impact on the sport palace 27 days later. In accordance to the conclusion dated by June 30, 2014 the fire in the 15th sector of the building could not damage the sustainability and validity of the iron-concrete constructions. 

According to the EMC, before this conclusion, on June 6, Levan Samkharauli National Bureau of Expertise issued so called interim conclusion which stated that due to the conditions of the sport palace constructions, it was necessary to conduct more detailed laboratory research and the exploitation of the building was to be suspended before the results of the detailed research were known. 

“The behavior of the sport palace administration was purposeful inactivity and negligence that due to the context of the festival causes well-grounded doubt that the defendant organization discriminated the festival organizers,” EMC wrote in their petition to the Ombudsman. 

Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center petitioned to the Public Defender on February 13, 2015.

Maka Gioshvili, head of Anti-Discrimination Department at the Public Defender’s Office, told humanrights.ge that their office is studying the case at the moment. She said they had requested different information and maybe they will also request repeated expertise. At the present, Maka Gioshvili refrained from making assessments about the fact without studying the case materials.