The Republic of GeorgiaI. Social Facts

The Republic of Georgia is a predominantly urban, low-income, and Orthodox Christian society. The largest city in Georgia is the capital Tbilisi. Roughly twenty percent of the population resides in Tbilisi, and over half of the Georgian population lives in urban areas. The median income is approximately 6,100 USD, and approximately one-third of Georgians between ages 15 and 24 are unemployed.

The largest religious group in the Republic of Georgia is the Georgian Orthodox Church. Orthodox Christianity including the Armenian, Georgian, and Russian Orthodox Churches comprise approximately 90 percent of Georgian religious adherents. More than other Orthodox sects, however, the Georgian Orthodox Church occupies a distinct cultural and historic place in Georgian society. Georgia’s sizeable Azeri minority largely adheres to Islam, and there is a historic Roman Catholic presence. Smaller protestant groups also claim congregations in Georgia, although these groups comprise a small percentage of Georgian believers. Georgia has a small but historic Jewish community as well. Less than one percent of Georgians identify as atheists.

Since the early 1990s, the central government in Tbilisi has not administered de facto government over the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. During Georgia’s 2008 war with the Russian Federation these regions declared independence from Georgia. Abkhazian religious demography shows widespread adherence to the Abkhazian Orthodox Church, with sizeable Muslim, atheist, and neo-pagan minorities. South Ossetia is similar, with a large Orthodox Christian

majority and smaller Jewish and Muslim communities.

II. Historical BackgroundThroughout its history, Georgia acted as

a buffer state between larger powers. Neighboring Roman, Persian, Arab, and Russian empires influenced Georgia’s development throughout its history, but did not prevent Georgia from developing a distinct identity. With the exception of outside a few outside sources, Georgia’s internal chronicles provide much of its history until 1783. During much of antiquity, the current area the state of Georgia occupies was the home of smaller nations who spoke distinct but related dialects. During this time the cult of Mithras was likely the most widespread religion in ancient Georgia and the trans-Caucasus. While Orthodox Christianity eventually occupied an integral place in Georgian national identity, some historians link the iconic Georgian image of St. George on horseback to Georgia’s past association with the cult of Mithras.

While Georgia has a long history of religious diversity, Christianity in particular played an integral role in Georgia’s history, specifically in the form of the Georgian Orthodox Church. A Georgian tradition holds that devout Jewish Christians brought Christ’s robe from the Holy Land to Georgia shortly after Jesus Christ ascended into heaven. Officially, however, Christianity’s role as Georgia’s state religion began in the early fourth century when the Georgian Orthodox Church consecrated its archbishop in 335 A.D. Historians note that adopting Christianity, among other things, was likely a means of resistance against a resurgent Persian Empire and its official Zoroastrianism. The Georgian chronicles

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report miraculous healings and other events as convincing early Georgian kings to convert to Christianity. Georgia’s conversion was likely more gradual, however, but its rulers likely played an integral part in promoting the new religion throughout the nation.

Georgian Christianity developed independently from other branches of orthodox Christianity, especially in its early structure. Due to Georgia’s largely rural population, its Church did not develop along a governance structure focused in urban centers as was common in both eastern and western Christianity. Georgia’s early Christian period also saw the birth of its script and first written works as Christian monks translated religious works into Georgian, representing significant developments in early Georgian culture.

A strong Arab presence in the caucuses during the seventh century caused Georgian Orthodox Christianity to develop more independently from other Christian traditions, and began a period of cultural and political strength for the Orthodox Church in Georgia. By the eleventh century, it was the most politically powerful force in Georgia. A growing number of Orthodox clergyman from the Middle East left the Holy Land during this time, and further enriched Georgia's religious culture. From the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, Georgian Orthodox Christianity flourished as the predominant cultural influence in Georgia.

When the Mongol Empire conquered the modern territory of Georgia and the Ottoman Empire began to dominate the region, however, Catholic and Islamic influences began found room to expand in Georgian society. As the Byzantine Empire receded and the Ottoman Empire replaced it Islam made significant inroads into Georgian culture, although Georgian Orthodox Christianity remained the most

socially dominant faith during the period. As the Ottoman Empire's influence grew in the Caucuses, French Catholic missionary efforts expanded in the region as well. For two hundred years beginning in the mid seventeenth century, Catholicism built a sizeable religious minority in Georgia and provided a link to the rest of Europe. The first printed works in Georgian, for example, were Catholic missionary tracts.

During this period, traditionalist forces in Georgia began looking to the growing Russian Empire to strengthen Orthodoxy's position in Georgian society. Although Catholic missionaries were responsible for the first works printed in the Georgian language, a printing press in Moscow produced the first bible printed in Georgian. Georgia's links to Russia eventually led to Georgia's absorption into the Empire by 1801.

For the first three decades of its inclusion the Russian Empire, the Tsars hoped that the Georgian Orthodox Church would act as an intermediary between the Orthodox monarchy and a largely Orthodox population, much like the Russian Orthodox Church did at that time. The Georgian Orthodox hierarchy, however, traditionally occupied a more influential role in Georgian government and was less willing to accommodate Imperial directives than its Russian counterpart was. As a result, the Russian Orthodox Church absorbed the Georgian church in 1811. Thereafter, the Bishop responsible for the Church in Georgia was typically a Russian. During the Russian Imperial period, Georgian Orthodox Christianity became more like its Russian counterpart and religious trends in general followed those of the wider Russian Empire.

Although Georgian religious life moved along with Russian religious trends, it remained somewhat independent. When the Russian Empire collapsed after the First

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World War, the Georgian Orthodox Church regained its independent status. Although Georgian Orthodoxy became independent of the Russian Church at this time, public attitudes towards religion in Georgia reflected more apathy towards religion than at any other point in Georgia's prior history, weakening Georgian Orthodox Church's social and political influence. When the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic became a republic of the Soviet Union in the 1920s, however, religion in Georgia faced the same official persecution religious groups endured throughout the USSR. The Soviet government imprisoned much of Georgia's religious leadership during the 1920s and 1930s, and promulgated its official atheism throughout Georgia.

During the Second World War, however, the Soviet Union enlisted the aid of several traditional religious groups, including the Georgian Orthodox Church, to strengthen national resolve. As a result, religious life in Georgia became more open during the post-war Soviet period. Like many institutions in the post-war Soviet Union, however, the Georgian Orthodox Church succumb to pervasive corruption. The post-war Soviet period also saw an increased focus on the Church’s status in the world from a growing Georgian diaspora.

After the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, the Georgian Orthodox Church asserted itself in Georgian society by linking itself to renewed Georgian nationalism. While the first decade of post-Soviet independence began with weak public institutions throughout Georgian society, the Georgian Orthodox Church presented a pre-Soviet and even pre-Russian link to a unique Georgian identity. Eduard Shevardnadze’s election 1995 began a period of increased isolationism and Georgian nationalism, and the Georgian Orthodox Church became a component of the new nationalism. During

this time, the Georgian government signed a concordant agreement granting the Georgian Orthodox Church special legal privileges, and the Church adopted a more anti-western, isolationist perspective.

Georgia’s 2003 rose revolution occurred out of popular frustration with ineffective and corrupt institutions, and reversed the country’s previous anti-western, anti-global perspective. Despite the value and policy shifts of the Rose Revolution, the Georgian Orthodox Church retained its post-Soviet isolationist position and remains a principle conservative force in Georgian society. During the early twenty-first century, the Church also maintained close relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, even as Georgian Society became more western. Even after the 2008 war with the Russian Federation, the Georgian Orthodox Church maintained ties with the Russian Orthodox Church and continues to have a presence in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

III. Legal Sources and Basic Approaches to Religion and Belief

The Republic of Georgia articulates separation between religion and the State in the text of its Constitution, but this separation is more often honored in the breach. It also establishes a privileged space for the Georgian Orthodox Church. Article 9, clause 1 of the Georgian Constitution declares “complete freedom of belief and religion.” It also recognizes the “special role of the Apostle Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia in the history of its independence from the state.” Clause 2 states a “constitutional agreement” will determine the relationship between the Georgian Orthodox Church and the Georgian Government. Article 73, clause 1, section a states that the President of Georgia shall “conclude a constitutional agreement”

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with the Georgian Orthodox Church. This agreement gives the Georgian Orthodox Church favorable tax and legal privileges such as immunity for the Patriarch, exemptions for clergy from military service, and government subsidies. No other religious group enjoys a legal status on par with the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Georgian statutory law also expresses freedom of religion. Georgia’s criminal code, for example, prohibits religious discrimination and hate crime in a variety of ways. Article 109 punishes homicide motivated by religious or ethnic intolerance by a prison term of up to fifteen years. Intentional damage to another’s health for the same motivation warrants a sentence of twelve years, and Article 126 punishes torture committed with the same motivation. Chapter XIII begins with Article 142’s prohibition on violating another individual’s human rights and freedoms as well.

Articles 155 and 156 in particular address criminal prohibitions on interfering in a religious right and religious persecution. Violently interfering in religious rites or insulting religious sensitivities. Persecuting others for their religious beliefs is also punishable with imprisonment and fines. Other provisions prohibit preventing the creation of religious organizations or unions, desecrating religious burial sites, and committing terrorism or genocide for religious motivations.

The combination of Georgia’s constitutional provisions on religion and related legislation creates a tired system of religious organizations. Religious organizations can incorporate themselves as “legal entities of public law” or “legal entities of private law.” While both statuses give religious organizations legal rights and privileges, legal entities of public law enjoy a higher legal status than legal entities of private law. The Georgian Orthodox

Church, for example, is a legal entity of public law.

While the Georgian Orthodox Church enjoys a uniquely privileged status, the Georgian Constitution articulates values consistent with religious freedom. Article 14 of the constitution guarantees that all citizens are free and equal before the law regardless of numerous characteristics, including religion. Article 19 further protects religious freedom. Clause 1 states that everyone has the right to freedom of speech, thought, conscience, religion, and belief. Clause 2 prohibits religious persecution, and Clause 3 limits the protection of religious freedom so that they do not infringe “upon the rights of others.”

Georgian administrative law provides unequal protection and opportunities for Georgia’s religious minorities. Until 2011, for example, only the Georgian Orthodox Church could access prisoners in the Georgian corrections system. However, the Minster of Corrections now allows minority religions to access their adherents in prison.

Minority religious groups also face administrative obstacles in the course of conducting their activities. Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, often face procedural difficulties in obtaining permission to construct new buildings. A Muslim congregation recently faced similar problems when Georgian customs officials temporarily blocked the delivery of a minaret skeleton manufactured in Turkey. Georgian customs officials detained it for alleged customs irregularities.

Education policy also reflects administrative difficulties for minority religious groups. The Georgian Ministry of Education operates under conflicting laws, creating an administrative dilemma within Georgia’s public school system. While Georgian classes traditionally began with

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prayer, Parliament passed a law secularizing the education system. The Georgian Orthodox Church’s elevated status, however, may trump parliamentary actions or administrative decisions. Regardless, school prayer remains common in Georgia and minority religious receive little to no accommodation.

As a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Court on Human Rights’ jurisprudence binds Georgia as well, and its jurisprudence speaks to religious freedom in Georgia specifically. Begheluri and others v. Georgia, for example, arose out of thirty cases of persecution against Jehovah’s Witnesses in Georgia. Much of this persecution resulted from the work of a fundamentalist Georgian Orthodox group led by a priest named Father Basil. These episodes of persecution fall into three categories; incidents involving Georgian authorities’ participation, incidents in which Georgian authorities failed to protect Jehovah’s Witnesses from violence, and incidents where Georgian authorities had little or no involvement. The plaintiffs alleged that this treatment amounted to violations of Article 3 (prohibition on torture, inhuman, or degrading treatment and punishment), Article 9 (protection of religious freedom and thought), Article 13 (right to a remedy), and Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination based on race, religion, sex, or other immutable characteristics) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Georgian government argued that the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ claims were highly exaggerated and that the Georgian criminal justice system provided adequate remedies to any actual offenses. The Court held, however, that the Jehovah’s Witnesses suffered a violation of Article 3 because of the authorities’ “systematic practice” of

participation and compliance with persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses. These actions also prevented the Jehovah’s Witnesses from exercising their rights under Article 9, and constituted a violation of Article 14.

IV. Individual Freedom of Religion or Belief

Georgian statutory law enshrines equality before the law regardless of, among other things, religious belief. The law does not, however, provide many exceptions for religious objectors. Clause 3 of Article 14 of the Constitution limits religious freedom so that they do not infringe “upon the rights of others.”

Conscientious objection to military service is a primary source of important constitutional rulings on individual freedom of religion. In 2011, the Georgian Constitutional Court heard five cases from Jehovah’s Witnesses who objected to compulsory military service. In two of the cases, the Court found in favor of the objectors. While the plain text of Georgia’s law on Military Reserve Service does not discriminate against religious pacifists, Georgian state prosecutors often used it to compel conscientious objectors into military service or used to impose criminal sanctions against them. Within Georgia’s military service statute, the only state religious exemption belongs to Georgian Orthodox clergy. The Constitutional Court found that sections of the law on Military Reserve Service conflicted with Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution, and therefore unconstitutional.

V. The Legal Status of Religious Communities

The Georgian Orthodox Church’s concordant agreement with the Georgian government. Modeled after the concordant

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agreements between the Catholic Church and governments around the world. In some senses, it resembles an arrangement between two sovereigns rather than an agreement between a government and a domestic entity because of its superiority to other legislation should a conflict between the concordant agreement and other domestic law arise. The Georgian Orthodox Church enjoys unique privileges like the power to perform legally recognized marriages, an exemption for its clergy from military service, immunity for the Georgian Orthodox Patriarch, and a tendency towards affirming the Orthodox Church’s property rights.

The Roman Catholic Church attempted to reach a similar agreement with the Georgian government in 2003, but failed to do so. Although the Catholic Church claimed 50,000 members in Georgia at the time, only the Georgian Orthodox Church enjoyed legal personality. While President Shevardnadze expressed his support at the time, a popular campaign the Orthodox Church organized against recognizing the Catholic Church is the likely reason the agreement failed.

Despite the Orthodox Church’s opposition, the Georgian civil code now allows religious groups to become legal entities. Article 1506 provided the first avenue of legal incorporation by allowing religious organizations to organize themselves as funds or unions. While religious organizations had some avenue of legal incorporation, Article 1506 presented only a narrow range of options for Georgia’s religious organizations.

Georgia’s Parliament later amended civil code article 1509 to allow religious groups to organize themselves as legal persons of public law or private law, as discussed above. This allows religious groups to own property, open their own bank accounts, and go to court in their own names. Article 1153

prohibits religious discrimination in “domestic relation” as well. Although Article 1509 gives religious organizations the ability to organize as legal entities, specific issues like financing, when religious entities and the government may cooperate, and military exemptions for clergymen remain unresolved in Georgia’s statutory law.

Only registered entities may own property, open bank accounts, or bring matters before a court in their own names. While the Georgian Orthodox Church is incorporated as an entity of public law, other religious organizations only have the option of incorporating themselves as legal entities of private law. This groups them with entities such as secular non-governmental entities, and may create difficulties for them as they register for legal status. One requirement to register as an entity of private law, for example, is to list the organizations founding members in Georgia. For religious groups with a long history in Georgia like the Catholic Church or Georgian Muslim congregations this can create an awkward situation. Membership criteria is also a requirement for registration, and can create similarly difficult situations for some groups.

VI. Religious Autonomy After Georgian religious groups

achieve legal entity status it is unclear the amount of autonomy the law grants them. In one respect, the law does not specifically address how much autonomy religious groups enjoy. With the exception of the Orthodox Church’s unique legal status, religious groups exist in the legal space also reserved for non-profit, non-governmental organizations who are largely autonomous to pursue their aims within the greater confines of Georgian law.

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In another respect, however, minority religious groups face extra-legal threats to their autonomy. As was the case in Begheluri and others v. Georgia, Jehovah’s Witnesses were unable fully exercise their religious rights in part because of government complacency with popular persecution. The traditionally Muslim region of Ajaria near the Georgia-Turkey border experienced a wave of conversions to Orthodox Christianity in part because membership in the Georgian Orthodox Church is considered a necessary component of Georgian identity. This social trend towards linking Georgian identity with the Orthodox Church restricts the power religious groups have to, in the case of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, conduct their own business or, in the case of Ajairan Muslims, ensure the survival of their religious community.

VII. EducationThe role of Georgian Orthodox

Christianity in Georgia’s public school system, as previously mentioned, is a legal controversy. The traditional practice, however, is to include Orthodox doctrine into the public school curriculum. Minority religious do not enjoy this same privilege. Despite this tradition, the Ministry of Education is statutorily obligated to provide a secular education.

Georgia’s law on freedom of conscience leaves religious instruction to religious organizations, and protects the ability of parents to pass their faith to their children. The law also protects religious groups’ ability to establish schools of religious instruction. The Georgian Orthodox Church, however, operates Tbel Abuseridze State University and Saint Andrews University while other religious groups do not operate educational intuitions on a similar scale.

VIII. Religion and Personnel Matters

The Georgian Constitution forbids religious discrimination in Article 14. The increasingly public role of the Georgian Orthodox Church and what scholar Ayşegül Aydıngün calls the “depriviatization” of religion, however, questions the amount of actual protection religious minorities enjoy.

Georgian statutory law, however, forbids religious discrimination in the workplace. Section 17 forbids religious preferences in hiring practices, and section 75 prohibits religious preferences in compensating employees. As is the case throughout Georgian statutory law, the law does not contain many religious exceptions, and Georgian labor law does not provide special provisions to accommodate religious practices or beliefs outside the social mainstream.

IX. FinanceThe tax code defines religious

organizations as conducting charitable activities. Article 9 exempts both religious and charitable activities from taxation as “economic activities.” Article 10 also includes religious organizations as charitable activities. This only applies to recognized religious organizations, however. Article 99(d) exempts any profits made from the sale of religious paraphernalia by the Georgian Orthodox Church. In practice, the tax code applies religious exemptions unequally. All religious groups but the Georgian Orthodox Church pay taxes on religious items, value added taxes, import taxes, and taxes related construction and restoration.

As is the case throughout Georgia’s law regarding religion, the Georgian Orthodox Church enjoys unique privileges.

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The Tax Inspectorate of the Ministry of Finance grants legal entities of private law a “basic level” status while legal entities of public law (i.e. the Georgian Orthodox Church) enjoys special tax exemptions.

Although Article IX of the Constitution articulates a separation between the state and religion, the Republic of Georgia provides significant financial assistance to the Georgian Orthodox Church. Much of this funding comes in the form of financial assistance to the Orthodox Church’s Tbel Abuseridze State University and in-kind donations from the government to the Orthodox Church. Observes estimate that the government provided approximately 13.6 million USD in 2012. Other religious groups do not enjoy such financial support.

X. Religious Assistance in and Access to Public Institutions

Per a separate agreement between the Ministry of Justice and the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate, the Orthodox Church enjoys special access to Georgia’s prisons. Only clergy from the Georgian Orthodox Church, for example, serve as prison chaplains. While other religious groups may access their adherents in prison, the Orthodox clergy within the prison typically supervise all interactions between prisoners and religious personnel.

Religious organizations occupy contradictory legal space within the Georgian education system. On one hand, the 2005 General Education law recognized the independence of public education from religious education. This is a large step away from the prior practice of beginning class with mandatory prayer in the Georgian Orthodox tradition. On the other hand, the Orthodox Church’s concordant agreement is legally superior to normal legislation and may therefore render such measures unconstitutional. Three months before the

Georgian Parliament passed the General Education Law, the Ministry of Education agreed with the Orthodox Patriarch that the Orthodox Church’s would retain an important role in public education. This created a contradictory situation in which the rights of students belonging to minority religions and the Orthodox Church are both unclear.

XI. Religion and Family MattersThe Georgian Orthodox Church is

unique in that it is the only religious organization with the ability to legal ability to perform civilly binding marriages. Civil registrars must perform all other legal marriages.

Other church positions on family law issues do not have the same legal effect. Abortion is legal and widely utilized in Georgia despite the Orthodox Church’s opposition. Divorce is also widely acceptable in Georgia despite the Orthodox Church’s doctrine against opposing divorce and no provision within the Orthodox Church’s doctrine for divorce. Georgia’s Muslim community employs arranged marriages, but this is only a social convention.

Regardless of religion, Georgian society is predominately patriarchal. This creates gender imbalances within Georgia across all religious groups. Other trends transcend religious divides as well. Contraception, for example, is prohibitively expensive for most Georgian families. This makes abortion the most common form of birth control despite the opposition of Georgia’s largest religious groups.

XII. Religion and Criminal Law and Other Public Regulations

Other than the Georgian Orthodox Church’s power to conduct legally binding

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marriage ceremonies, religious ceremonies do not carry legal force in Georgia. The Georgian government’s efforts to return properties taken during the Soviet period represent largest area in which public regulations affect religious organizations. In this effort, the government shows favoritism toward the Georgian Orthodox Church in addressing its claims. For example, the Georgian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church contest ownership over five properties. Despite the conflicting claims, the Georgian Orthodox Church legally controls those properties. While the government typically acts promptly to secure the Orthodox Church’s property claims, the Armenian Orthodox Church and Georgian Muslim congregations find more delays in enforcing their claims.

Select Bibliography and Leading Documents

PeriodicalsAydıngün, Ayşegül. "The ethnification and nationalisation of religion in the post-Soviet Georgian nation-state building process: a source of discrimination and minority rights violations?." The International Journal of Human Rights 17, no. 7-8 (2013): 810-828.

"Bad Location." The Economist, May 24, 2012.

Liles, Thomas. "Islam and Religious Transformation in Adjara." (2012).

Seminar, UniDem. "European Commission for Democracy through law (Venice commission)." PhD diss., Universidade de Coimbra, 2005.

Tsintsadze, Khatuna. "Legal Aspects of Church-State Relations in Post-Revolutionary Georgia." BYU L. Rev. (2007): 751.

Legislative DocumentsLaw of the Republic of Georgia on Citizenship of Georgia, as amended 24.06.2004

International AgreementsCouncil of Europe, European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as amended by Protocols Nos. 11 and 14, 4 November 1950

CasesBegheluri and others v. Georgia (App. No. 28490/02) (2014)

Internet SourcesEmery, Robert E. Cultural Sociology of Divorce: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1, pages 492-495, 2013.

"Georgia." CIA: The Word Factbook. Accessed June 1, 2015.

"Georgia's Mighty Orthodox Church." BBC News, July 2, 2013.

Kyrlov, Aleksandr. "The Religious Situation in Abkhazia." Abkhaz World. February 25, 1998. Accessed June 1, 2015.