Shame Movement

Shame Movement (სირცხვილია)

Formation	2019 (2019)
Type	Social-Political movement, Protest movement, Pro-Western movement, Civil society, Anti-corruption, Anti-Electoral fraud
Purpose	Promoting European integration, democratization, rule of law and deoccupation of Georgia. Combating democratic backsliding, abuse of power, pro-Russian political agenda and propaganda in Georgia.
Location	Tbilisi, Georgia
Region served	Georgia
Leader	Shota Dighmelashvili
Chairwoman of the Board	Mariam Dolidze
Director	Giorgi Mjavanadze
Key people	Nodar Rukhadze, Salome Barker
Main organ	Board of Founders
Website	shame.ge

Shame Movement (Georgian: სირცხვილია, translit.: sirtskhvilia) is a Georgian civic protest movement founded in 2019, described as "a group of young, upper-middle-class intellectuals and professionals, who shun populist slogans and try to start cerebral conversations about Georgia’s future".

Background

Shame Movement was formed spontaneously, as independent like-minded Georgian civil activists joined forces in protest of what they regarded as pro-Russian policies of the Georgian Dream single-party government. The initial protests organized by Shame Movement were a direct consequence of the visit by Sergei Gavrilov in June 2019, a Communist Party member of the Russian Duma, who, during one of the sessions, sat in the chair reserved by the protocol for the Head of the Georgian Parliament. It must be noted that earlier that week Gavrilov had voted in favor of the independence of Abkhazia, which is a de-jure part of Georgia, but de-facto finds itself under Russian occupation. As Russia currently occupies 20% of Georgia and is actively pursuing the policy of borderization, this was considered an intolerable act against the national self-interest and pride by the activists, who organized protests, which received both national and international coverage. These protests drew approximately 10,000 people, a significant amount for a nascent movement. Ultimately, the demonstrators succeeded in forcing the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Irakli Kobakhidze to resign, and after a targeted campaign against the country's informal ruler Bidzina Ivanishvili, secured a promise about a fully representative electoral system in place for the 2020 election. After Ivanishvili backtracked on that promise, the protests continued. Ultimately, the electoral reform was passed through the Georgian Parliament on June 29, 2020. Leading up to the elections, Shame Movement focused on combating possible vote fraud and organized the "Get Out the Vote" campaign.

Purpose and goals

The organization has gradually been consolidated as a non-party affiliated social-political movement with a number of goals, such as promoting pro-Western policies, human rights, decentralization and electoral reform, while combating perceived corruption, abuse of power and subservience to or appeasement of Russia.

Shame Movement has been particularly active in combating pro-Russian rhetoric and propaganda. The organization also wishes to counteract what they regard as increasing anti-Western tendencies from the Georgian Dream party politicians. The Movement is opposed to deepening economic ties to and thus dependency on Russia. Before and during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Shame Movement has taken on a watchdog role of the Georgian Government response to the war, criticizing perceived appeasement towards Russia, such as refusal to impose any country-specific sanctions on Russia.

History

Shame Movement office was subject to an 2021 attack on Tbilisi Pride by a homophobic mob on July 5, 2021, along with the offices of Tbilisi Pride and Human Rights House Tbilisi. Shame Movement was forced to evacuate its office to safeguard the lives of its members. While the mob failed to locate and breach the office, they physically assaulted cameraman Lekso Lashkarava on the stairs of the building, who died a few days later of his severe injuries, causing large-scale protests by citizens, journalists and politicians alike. Twenty far-right activists were eventually convicted of their crimes, however that excludes the organizers behind this violent mob's actions.

After Russia’s decision to deploy by then over 150,000 soldiers and heavy weaponry along Ukrainian borders that heavily hinted at a future war, Shame Movement organized rallies in support of Ukraine in front of the Ukrainian Embassy in Tbilisi. The protesters demanded that the Georgian government actively support Ukraine.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, severe sanctions were imposed on Russia by the West. Shame Movement representatives, along with certain opposition parties and NGOs from the Georgian civil society, called on the Georgian government to also introduce some limited sanctions on Russia, such as shutting Georgian airspace for Russian aircraft and banning Pro-Kremlin media from spreading their dangerous propaganda and disinformation in Georgia.

An anti-Government protest was held on March 7, 2022, which was triggered by the Georgian government stance regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine considered unacceptable by the protesters. As the concluding act, the demonstrators threw toilet paper rolls toward the Administration of the Government of Georgia building (also known as Government Chancellery). This led to the arrests of the majority of the organizers, as well as some of the participants. Fifteen people were arrested in total. Heavy fines were imposed on them and they were forced to spend several days in jail. The leader of Shame Movement appeared at the Government Administration building, recording a video. He threw eggs towards the Georgian Government Chancellery to express his disgust with the government crackdown on freedom of assembly and expression and to protest the detention of fellow Shame Movement members the previous day. He was subsequently taken in by the Police as well and sentenced to four days of administrative detention, after being charged with disobeying police and petty hooliganism. Various civil society organizations, such as Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association and Transparency International Georgia took issue with what they called "disproportionate", "selective" and potentially unlawful arrests, as well as expressed concerns that the Police were used as a "punitive institution".

Following these events, State Inspector Service of Georgia opened a probe about possible abuse of power by police officers, after several Shame Movement activists were arrested on the charges of police disobedience and petty hooliganism on the night of April 3, 2021. According to reports from multiple Georgian media sources, the crackdown on the Shame Movement and its representatives has not been limited to only arrests and fines. On May 17, 2022, the Police arrested, beat and verbally abused the director of Shame Movement, Giorgi Mjavanadze. Mjavanadze arrived at the police station in order to pick up a notice, in order to pay a previously imposed fine. Mjavanadze, a married man who is a father, later provided a detailed account of what he had to endure, including being repeatedly slapped in the face and called a faggot. For this kind of treatment no police officer was brought to justice or removed from their positions. On the contrary, Mjavanadze himself was found guilty by the Tbilisi City court under Article 173(1) of the Code of Administrative Offense (police disobedience) and fined ₾2000.

After Russia launched a full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine, the main goal of the Shame Movement has been to showcase the pro-Ukrainian and pro-Western credentials of the Georgian people at large, in order to make a stark contrast to what they described as "shameful actions" of the current Georgian government. "We are not our government" and "Sorry for our government" was one of the messages seen and heard at rallies organized by Shame Movement. One of the co-founders, Nodar Rukhadze, expressed exasperation with this non-irritation policy of the Georgian government, which according to him tries to silence the Georgian people with fears of another war with Russia and leaves it in an even more vulnerable position. The peak of the "Home to Europe" rallies was the occasion of showing mass support for the EU membership candidacy status of Georgia, which drew up to 120,000 people in the center of Tbilisi. According to the organizers, Euro-Atlantic integration is the main unifying force of Georgians, which transcends party lines and loyalties of the vast majority of citizens.

After it became known that the European Union granted membership candidacy status to only two members of the so-called Eastern Partnership trio, Ukraine and Moldova, but not to Georgia, Shame Movement organized additional protests. They called on the Georgian Government to resign in order for "technical interim government of national accord" to take its place to fulfill the 12 demands of the European Commission, in order for Georgia to be granted membership candidacy status.

Other areas of intense criticism include handling of Ukrainian refugees in Georgia and the visa policy of Georgia, which allows Russian tourists to enter the country unimpeded. After international sanctions have been imposed on Russia, many Russian citizens have fled their country, raising fears that Putin could invade Georgia to "protect the rights of Russian citizens" as the influx continues and more and more Russians choose to settle in Georgia. On the other hand, Georgian government have denied entry to a handful of opposition journalists and activists trying to leave Russia, allegedly per request of Russia, which Shame Movement claim have exposed a double standard.

Georgian Dream categorically opposes making the visa regime with Russia more strict, accusing Shame Movement and other civil society organizations, as well as opposition parties of "xenophobia" and "discrimination" and claiming that they are purposefully brewing hysteria in the Georgian society. Current majority leader of the Georgian Parliament, Mamuka Mdinaradze called them to be "worse than the occupier". They went as far as to become advocates of Russian tourism and its alleged economic benefits for Georgia.

See also

• Russo-Georgian war
• Russo-Georgian relations
• International recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia
• 2019–2020 Georgian protests
• 2020–2021 Georgian political crisis
• 2021 attack on Tbilisi Pride

References

This article "Shame Movement" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Shame Movement. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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