Ombudsman Reacts to GD MPs Insult of Female MPs During Parliamentary Session

On April 3, the Public Defender of Georgia issued a statement reacting to the ruling Georgian Dream MP Beka Odisharia’s “obscene and insulting remarks addressed to female MPs”. “In all such cases, the internal mechanism should be activated and the issue should be discussed by the Parliament,” according to the statement.

“This is especially noteworthy in the political situation, when the Parliament is considering an initiative aimed at worsening the legal status of women, which the Public Defender evaluated negatively in a public statement yesterday, on April 2,” the Public Defender’s statement reads.

The Public Defender calls on the politicians and public figures “not to use expressions containing sexist or other discriminatory content and to observe the principle of equality when performing public activities.”

On April 3, Georgian Dream MP Beka Odisharia lashed out at female MPs who accused him of being corrupt during Parliamentary debates on abolishing women’s quotas. MP Odisharia used sexually explicit profanity against female colleagues.

Meanwhile, earlier the ruling Georgian Dream and the parliamentary opposition Girchi party struck a deal envisaging the support of the ruling GD to Girchi’s initiative on cancelation of women’s quotas from the party lists of the parliamentary elections. The current version of the Election Code provides that at least one in every four persons on any party list must be a woman.

The Public Defender of Georgia gave a negative assessment of the bill: “With the planned legislative changes, we are ignoring the results of the long struggle of women and worsening the existing mechanisms for achieving equality.”

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