MP Gorduladze: Party that created system of torture and still fails to condemn human rights violations fuels fears of repeating them

“ I have never said that the state is equivalent to any political party. There is a clear line between the state and a party,” Archil Gorduladze, Chair of the Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee, said in response to a question from Judge Vasil Roinishvili, who asked whether, in his view, Georgian Dream was equivalent to the state.

According to Gorduladze, Georgia’s Constitution was adopted by Parliament, but responsibility for a law adopted by Parliament rests with representatives of the party who prepared the working draft, then submitted it for public discussion, took comments into consideration, and ultimately secured its adoption by Parliament through that party’s nomination and support.

In Gorduladze’s assessment, a party that does not distance itself from its own crimes leaves the impression that it will do the same in the future.

“Let us make a hypothetical assumption: if Party X were to write into the Constitution of Georgia that torture of a human being is permissible, and this were adopted as a law by Parliament, then everyone who supported that provision would violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

From 1999 to the present day, approximately 300 applications have been lodged with the Strasbourg Court. Of these, 80%, or approximately 227 cases, concern actions committed between 2004 and 2012.

There are judgments delivered by the Strasbourg Court that have established violations of the right to life and the prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment. It has been stated that the right to the protection of property could not be exercised in this country. It has also been established that torture of people in penitentiary institutions was systemic and systematic. Furthermore, one of the cases explicitly states that the branches of government, including the President, did everything possible to prevent a court judgment from being enforced and to avoid accountability.

In one case, the state took no action whatsoever, while in a number of other cases, individuals who tortured people received Orders of Honour from the former President. People have been convicted of extremely serious crimes, such as torture and unlawful deprivation of liberty. A party that does not distance itself from these actions and creates a system based on torture is, of course, fully responsible for the actions committed by that system.

One thing is the actions committed in the past. But even today, when they claim that such incidents never took place, refuse to distance themselves from human rights violations, deny the facts and speak as though a parallel universe exists, the party that created this system and bears responsibility for it creates the impression that it will do the same in the future by continuing to refuse to disassociate itself from these actions,” Archil Gorduladze said.

The Constitutional Court of Georgia today has resumed hearing the lawsuit seeking to declare the activities of five political parties unconstitutional and ban them.