The Criminal Elements of Racial Discrimination
The Criminal Code of Georgia establishes racial discrimination as a separate norm and describes it in two directions: an act committed with the aim of inciting national or racial enmity or division, or humiliating national honour and dignity, and also the direct or indirect restriction of a person's rights on the ground of race, skin colour, national or ethnic origin, or the granting of an advantage to a person on the same ground, which substantially violated that person's right. The state thereby protects not only individual dignity but also equality in society along ethnic and racial lines.
The Basic Elements and the Sanction
For the basic composition, the offender is punished by imprisonment for a term of up to 3 years. It is significant that the norm covers purpose as well: only an act committed with the aim of inciting enmity or humiliating honour and dignity, or one that substantially violates rights, is punishable. This means that the central issues of the dispute are the fact of substantial violation and the discriminatory purpose — without them the act does not fall under this norm.
Aggravated Elements and Harsher Sanctions
The law distinguishes two aggravated compositions. First: the same act committed by violence dangerous to life or health, or by the threat of such violence, or through the use of an official position, is punished by imprisonment for a term from 2 to 5 years. Second: an act under this norm committed by a group of persons, or one that caused the death of a person or another grave consequence, is punished by imprisonment for a term from 4 to 7 years. The severity of these sanctions demands precise establishment: group commission implies several persons acting in concert, and a grave consequence must be proven with a causal link.
The liability of a legal person deserves separate mention: for an act provided by this norm, a legal person is punished by liquidation or deprivation of the right to carry out an activity, or both, together with a fine. In practice this means that discriminatory practice may put an end to the very existence of the organization — one of the gravest consequences for any business.
It is worth recognizing that this norm is also an instrument for protecting public peace: incitement of enmity and confrontation on ethnic ground does not stop with a single victim, and precisely therefore the law attaches strict liability to group commission and to grave consequences. The experience of other countries in this direction is similar — racially motivated acts are everywhere treated separately and with particular severity — yet the rules explained on this page are determined by the Georgian Code, and it is these norms that apply before Georgian courts. The outcome of such cases often rests on the precision of comparative analysis: whether a party proves that another person in a comparable situation was treated differently precisely because of the prohibited ground.