On November 7, 2025, the Public Defender of Georgia filed a general amicus curiae brief with Tbilisi City Court, in which he discusses the legal standard relating to face covering by participants in assemblies.

Based on publicly available information, the Public Defender's Office has learned that recently, common courts have been considering a large number of cases based on part 10 of Article 174¹ of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which is related to face covering by participants in assemblies with a mask or any other means. The Public Defender criticized such an unconditional legislative ban on face covering by participants in assemblies in his last parliamentary report and demanded its repeal. Periodically, the liability for the violation of the above-mentioned prohibition has been tightened, including by the imposition of criminal liability for the same act by a person subject to the penalty.

As a result of examining legislation and relevant decrees, the Office found out that when considering such cases, Tbilisi City Court has to consider many aspects of freedom of assembly, which are related to the sphere protected by the right and the scope of the restriction of the right. Since a number of similar cases may also become the subject of consideration by Tbilisi City Court in the future and the relevant practice is being established by the decisions currently adopted, the Public Defender decided to submit a general amicus curiae brief to Tbilisi City Court. The document serves to facilitate the establishment of an appropriate legal standard and is addressed to all cases within the framework of which the court will have to consider similar factual circumstances.

In order to interpret the provision of the Code in question in accordance with the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the amicus curiae brief, among other things, reviews the relevant standard established by the European Court of Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Committee and the OSCE/ODIHR. According to this standard, it is not permissible to hold participants of an assembly liable for covering their faces when their behavior is peaceful and they do not conceal their identity for committing a violent act or substantially disturbing public order.