06 July 2011, 17:00
Georgian Parliament awards legal status to religious organizations
The Georgian Parliament has unanimously adopted amendments to the Civil Code, which assume awarding the status of legal entities to religious organizations. The decision was supported by 70 MPs; and only oppositional Christian Democrats refused to vote in protest, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports from the Parliament.
The indignation of the oppositionists was caused by the fact that, in their opinion, awarding religious organizations with the status of legal entities was discriminatory to the Georgian Orthodox Church.
In his turn, Mikhail Machavariani, First Vice-Speaker, said that the amendments to the Code did not infringe the rights of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
"The adopted amendments entitle different churches to get registered as religious organizations. This law doesn't raise any property issues. These amendments were drafted by us last year, just not so openly; however, then, unfortunately, we couldn't adopt them," said Machavariani.
See earlier report: "Jehovah's Witnesses win the case against Georgia in Strasbourg", "Representatives of the opposition in Georgia are picketing a firing ground near David Garegi monastery", "Georgia: new structure launched to fight violations of human rights by authorities".
Author: Inna Kukudzhanova Source: CK correspondent
