“Constitutional amendments provide our attitude towards society’s coexistence rule, social peace and public-cultural values. The purpose of today’s meeting is to hear your stances, ideas and remarks as well as your support for this issue,” said Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili in Ozurgeti at the meeting on Public Discussions on Constitutional amendments on Family Values and Protection of Minors.

According to the Speaker, the parliamentary majority has recently initiated a project concerning marriage rights and the rights of mothers and children and a separate constitutional law project on family values.

“Power comes from people in any democratic state. As a rule, people assign the mandate to the representative body through elections, and then, as in the case of Georgia, the parliament adopts rules for four years,” he said.

However, as Papuashvili remarked, some issues require public engagement before approving constitutional amendments to the regulations, which “represent the foundation of our society’s overall agreement.”

“Constitution is an agreement of people about what kind of a state we want to have, which ruling system and what values it should be based on. This should be agreed upon. Therefore, the most difficult procedural amendments require long discussions and a high quorum, 1/3, i.e. 113 support from 150 lawmakers to be enacted,” he said.

The ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party proposed constitutional amendments concerning family values and the protection of minors. Public discussions on Family Values and Minor Protection amendments kicked off on April 22 and will end on May 17.