U.S. English Foundation Research

GEORGIA

Language Research

The Constitution, adopted on October 17, 1995

The Law on Culture (June 12, 1997) proclaims the right to equal participation in cultural activities for all citizens of Georgia, irrespective of their national, ethnic, religious and linguistic origin.

On June 27, 1997 the Law on Education was adopted. According to Article 4 of the law, the State, pursuant to the recommendations of local authorities, creates the necessary conditions to grant primary and secondary education in their respective native language to those citizens of Georgia for whom the Georgian language is not the native language.

The draft law on the State Language is being negotiated now. The law must solve many problems and also become a basis for language policy in Georgia. There is no special legislative base for the use of minority languages in official matters (in contact with authorities). Unfortunately the Law on Self-government (1997) did not pay proper attention to these issues.

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Updated (June 2002)

Despite the fact that the Georgian government has been working on the language bill since 1997, on May 17, 2002 the Parliament decided to stop the debate on its final approval for an indefinite period. Two amendments lately introduced have caused that deputies from the "Georgia first of all" group requested the suspension of the parliamentary debate. They considered those amendments to be against Georgian interests as well as unconstitutional.

The Organization for the Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE) also criticized the part of the bill with the requirement for government offices to use the Georgian language in their documentation. This is especially sensitive issue mainly in two regions where other languages are predominantly spoken (Armenian and Azerbaijani, apart from Russian).

Source: Mercator, http://www.troc.es/ciemen/mercator/index-gb.htm, June 2002

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Updated (April 2004)

THE 1991 GEORGIAN LAW ON THE PRESS AND MEDIA

The Georgian Law on the Press and Media contains several provisions regarding the language of the media and the protection and promotion of minority rights.

Article 3

The language of the press and media in Georgia is Georgian and in Abkhazia also Abkhazian.

The State of Georgia secures for every national minority the right to receive and impart information in their own language.

THE DRAFT LAW ON THE STATE LANGUAGE

According to the draft Law on the State Language which was discussed at the beginning of 2002, all citizens of Georgia should know the state language: Georgian or Abkhazian in Abkhazia (Article 11). However, critics claim that if the proposed policy was enforced, many members of national minorities would lose their citizenship by virtue of their inability to speak the state languages.

Article 32 of the draft law requires newspapers and magazines to be published in the state language. The same standard applies also to television and radio broadcasting. In case of necessity, up to 10 percent of total broadcasting time can be conducted in another language (this applies to official broadcasting facilities, but not to cable television).

THE DRAFT LAW ON PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING

A draft Law on Public Service Broadcasting was discussed last year. According to the plan, the law will provide for broadcasting that takes into consideration the interests of every social and minority group, regardless of their language.

Recently some non-governmental organizations working on minority issues and participating in elaboration of these draft laws have proposed to give minority languages the status of "non-state languages" rather than "foreign languages". The fact whether it is necessary to adopt a special Law on Ethnic Minorities Living in Georgia was also discussed.

Source: Minority-language Related Broadcasting and Legislation in the OSCE, Program in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP), Center for Socio-Legal Studies, Wolfson College, Oxford University & Institute for Information Law (IViR) (http://www.ivir.nl/index-english.html), Universiteit van Amsterdam (Study commissioned by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities), April 2003, edited by T. McGonagle (IViR), B. Davis Noll & M. Price (PCMLP), http://www.ivir.nl/publications/mcgonagle/Minority-language%20broadcasting.pdf

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Updated (March 2005)

GEORGIA SPLIT BY A NEW EDUCATION LAW

Even though students and teachers at the Tbilisi State University stopped their protest actions against a new draft law on education reforms, they have not ruled out further actions if the government does not take into account their views. They warned that demonstrations may resume if parliament, which is due to finish debating the draft law by the end of the year, does not consider a ten-point list of amendments they have sent in.

The draft bill, aimed at stamping out corruption in education system, is denounced by nationalists as anti-Georgian and also raises doubts amongst students, lecturers and ethnic minorities who see it as an attack on universities' autonomy.

However, Georgian authorities believe that the proposed root and branch reforms will give schools and universities greater control over their own finances. Schools and universities will be required to adopt a compulsory curriculum and those wishing to get higher education will have to sit a final school exam covering the Georgian language, one foreign language and general knowledge. The paper will be same in every school across the country.

Schools and higher education institutes will become legal units entitled to receive direct state funding according to their location and the number of pupils, while headmasters will be appointed by a council of trustees including teachers and parents, rather than by the Ministry of Education.

In spite of its apparent benefits, the draft law is being resisted by a wide range of critics. Some worry that scholarship will leave universities and their scholarly substance will be devalued. Others criticize the draft bill on the grounds that it does not privilege Georgian Orthodox religious studies in the curriculum. Meanwhile, students claim the government is trying to strip the universities of their powers.

Concerning Georgia's national minorities, they also oppose the bill because it downgrades the status of their native languages. It proposes that in non-Georgian schools teaching will be conducted in a native language only until the fourth year and then it will be switched to Georgian.

A piece of information that the Ministry of Education devises a multi-year state program for the gradual transfer of teaching in all schools to Georgian has caused an alarm in the Armenian-majority region of Javakheti in the south of the country.

Source: Minelres News, December 24, 2004, http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2004-December/003742.html, IWPR'S Caucasus Reporting Service, No. 266, December 16, 2004, by Dali Kuprava in Tbilisi, the newspaper "24 Hours"

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Updated (June 2006)

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF LAWS THAT REGULATE THE USE OF LANGUAGES IN STATE INSTITUTIONS

At first, Georgian is defined as the state language in Article 8 of the Georgian Constitution but for many years, there have been tendencies to introduce a Law on the Official Language to define its status more clearly. Although the Chamber of the State Language accepted this draft, it was rejected due to a lack of consensus. Therefore, no final draft has ever emerged.

The use of Georgian in public institutions is regulated by the 1998 Law on Public Service, in which Article 12 states that public service in Georgia is exercised using the Georgian language, except in Abkhazia, where the Abkhazian language can also be used. On the other hand, Article 98.1 of this law stipulates that a lack of knowledge of the state language can be grounds for dismissal and those applying for public posts (Article 15) and for posts in local administrative bodies (Article 16) must have command of the state language. The Article 16 is backed up in the Organic Law of Georgia on Local Self-Government (2005): "the working language and the office work of the local self-government bodies is implemented in the state language of Georgia" (Article 10). Self-government bodies here refer to elected councils, to their executive branches and to their control bodies.

Similarly, the Administrative Code, which entered into force in 2000, states that the official language of the proceedings shall be Georgian (Article 14) and the additional official language of administrative proceedings in Abkhazia shall be Abkhazian. According to Article 73.3, "an administrative proceeding shall be conducted in Georgian" except in Abkhazia where Abkhazian can be used as well, while Article 73.4 reads that if the application/statement or any other document presented by an interested party is not in the state language, the party shall present a notarized translation of the document within the term defined by an administrative agency.

The Law on Common Courts (1997) regulates the use of the state language in the judicial sphere. Article 10 of this law stipulates that adjudication must take place in the official language, only in Georgian outside Abkhazia. Furthermore, any individual involved in court proceedings who does not speak the official language shall be provided with an interpreter. This article corresponds almost exactly to Article 85 of the Constitution, which states: "Legal proceedings shall be conducted in the state language. An individual not having a command of the state language shall be provided with an interpreter." This provision is meant to apply to all the national courts as it is also repeated in the Criminal Procedures Code and the Civil Procedures Code.

Among the above-mentioned laws, legislation on general and higher education is also relevant to the official status of Georgian and other languages spoken on the territory of the Georgian state. The 2005 Law on General Education reads "the language of study at the general education institutions shall be Georgian, while in the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, it is Georgian or Abkhazian", although "citizens of Georgia, whose native language is not Georgian, have the right to receive complete general education in their native language". That means that schools providing education in language other than Georgian are permitted. On the other hand, the law stipulates that these schools must follow a new national curriculum, which requires Georgian language and literature, the history and geography of Georgia as well as other social sciences to be conducted in the state language by the academic year 2010/2011.

The sphere of higher education is regulated by the Law of Georgia on Higher Education (2004). It states the following: "The language of instruction at a higher education institution is Georgian; in Abkhazia – also Abkhazian. (Instruction in other languages, except for individual study courses, is permitted if this is envisaged by international agreement or is agreed with the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia.)"

Turning to electoral legislation, the Unified Election Code of Georgia (as amended in August 2003) makes provision for voters that do not understand the state language. Article 51.1 states that "a ballot paper shall be printed on the basis of the ordinance issued, and in accordance with the sample established by the Central Election Commission (CEC), in the Georgian language, and in Abkhazia – in the Abkhazian language, and if necessary – in any other language understandable for the local population." According to the same Code, however, those elected to the Georgian Parliament must "know the Georgian language" (Article 92.1), a provision that was due to come into force on 1 January 2005 and will therefore be effective in the next parliamentary elections scheduled for early 2008 (Article 129.1). Furthermore, amendment made to the Unified Election Code of Georgia in April 2005 states that all candidates for members of the Central and the District Election Commissions must also be fluent speakers of the state language.

Finally, in the sphere of broadcasting a new public television service was introduced in 2005 to replace the old state network. According to Article 16 of the 2004 Law on Broadcasting that regulates it, public television is obliged to broadcast in minority languages and to produce programmes for the benefit of national minorities.

Source: ECMI Working Paper No.26 - Wheatley, J.: The Status of Minority Languages in Georgia and the Relevance of Models from Other European States

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