New Political Center — Girchi

In the beginning of November 2016, Girchi put forward an ultimatum to the Georgian authorities threatening to plant, along with of-age supporters, cannabis seeds on Girchi party premises if the Government refused to change the existing drug policy, including the legalisation of cannabis and cannabis related products.[20][21][22] On December 31, Girchi and volunteer supporters (totalling 84 individuals) publicly planted cannabis seeds.[23][24] The process was aired live by the Georgian TV networks and live-streamed on Facebook by Girchi and social media channels. Although the planting/cultivation of cannabis is punishable under the current Criminal Code of Georgia and stipulates a maximum penalty of 12-years imprisonment the Government made the decision not to charge the participants of this act of civil disobedience. An investigation on the matter was conducted and the police confiscated 84 plant pots containing cannabis seeds for laboratory tests. Citing a low level of THC in the plants, the police closed the investigation. One of the leaders of the party, Zurab Girchi Japaridze, was presented with administrative charges and fined as an organiser.

Planting of Cannabis seeds at the Girchi Party HQ

On November 30, 2017, the Constitutional Court of Georgia decriminalised the personal consumption of cannabis and other cannabis-based products. The decision came in a case brought by a citizen, Givi Shanidze, who wished to have his criminal record for repeated cannabis use erased. The plaintiff was represented by the Chairman of Girchi, Iago Khvichia. While affirming the right to consume cannabis, the Court's decision stated its potential health risks and did not legalise the sale, distribution, or production of cannabis.[25] With the Court's decision, criminal charges for cannabis use were deemed to be in violation of Article 16 of the previous redaction of the Constitution of Georgia (Article 12 of the 2017 Constitution) which enshrines every individual's right to free development of their personality.[26] However, the decision only applied to criminal penalties and did not end the possibility of a fine or other administrative sanctions for consumption of cannabis.

On July 30, 2018, the Constitutional Court of Georgia released the second decision[27] on the matter of cannabis consumption which was prompted by a lawsuit filed by the leaders of the Girchi party, Vakhtang Megrelishvili and Zurab Girchi Japaridze, effectively abolishing administrative punishment for the use of the drug. According to the applicants:

The consumption of cannabis is not an act that threatens society. In particular, it can only harm the users' health, making that user him/herself responsible for the outcome. The responsibility for such actions does not cause dangerous consequences for the public.

The Constitutional Court of Georgia noted that giving legal permission to consume cannabis protects an individual's right to free development of his/her personality, and while prohibition of the consumption of cannabis is an action directed against its turnover and therefore serves the aim of consumer protection of health, according to the Court, the role of an individual user in the support of cannabis circulation is very small, and consequently the threats from individual consumption are likewise small. Due to the above-mentioned, the court ruled the punishment for consumption of cannabis to be disproportionate. The court took into account certain exceptions in cases when the use of cannabis might create threats to third parties and stated:

In addition, the Constitutional Court highlights the imposition of responsibility of cannabis consumption when it creates a threat to third parties. For instance, the Court will justify responsibility when cannabis is consumed in educational institutions, public places, such as on public transport, and in the presence of children.

Georgia is the first former soviet country where the consumption of cannabis is legal, hence, does not entail any criminal or administrative penalties.

Levan Jgerenaia, the archbishop of Biblical Freedom

In March 2017, the Public Registry of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia officially registered Girchi's church, the Christian Evangelical Protestant Biblical Freedom Church of Georgia.[28] Georgian legislation provides special privileges and exemptions for the clergy and students at theological schools, including the deferment of compulsory military service. Biblical Freedom used the provision, the so-called legislative loophole, for the benefit of young men and issues state-recognised documents to those who do not wish to join the army, certifying that they are priests. It serves to effectively exempt them from mandatory military service, so that they can lead their lives according to their own free will, values and opinions. The consecration process takes ten minutes.

Girchi fights for individual liberty and considers the mandatory one-year term of military service for youngsters to be a manifestation of state violence against its citizens and constitutes a contemporary form of slavery. Girchi established Biblical Freedom for the sole purpose of helping young men to avoid military service and, to date, has helped approximately 25 000 men from having to either undertake the term or having to pay 2 000 GEL for postponing it for one year. Girchi believes that this is an immoral legal mechanism, extorting money from the citizenry for the benefit of the state. People of various backgrounds have approached Biblical Freedom for help. Congregants of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Muslims, Protestants, Catholics and even atheists are among them.

According to Girchi whether a human being is trained in combat or undergoes any other type of non-military service is not of principal importance. For the party members any form of labour or service is unacceptable if it occurs through use of force by the State. This sentiment underpinned a concerted protest action directed against the draft law proposed by the Chairman of the Defence and Security Committee, Irakli Sesiashvili on 13 March 2019 within the framework of which he asked the Parliament to abolish the law allowing priests of any religious denomination to postpone their compulsory term of military service. The amendment would not affect priests of the Georgian Orthodox Church, due to a Constitutional Agreement between the Church and the Georgian state, creating an alternate legal regime. It was obviously directed against Biblical Freedom. According to the bill introduced by Irakli Sesiashvili, young men who refuse to complete Mandatory Military Service on the basis of their religious beliefs, personal endeavours or conscience will have to undertake a term of non-military service.

Logo for Girchi's Shmaxi initiative, established to in opposition to legislation passed on Taxis in Georgia

The initiative was proposed despite the fact that the Constitutional Court of Georgia has already noted in its decision that:

The recognition of the special role of the Church (the Georgian Christian Orthodox Church) is related to its historical merits and does not serve as means for creating privileged legal conditions for the Orthodox Christianity in the future. The historical merits shall not be considered as a legitimate source of privilege. The differentiation and creation of privileged legal conditions are not and shall not be the objective of the Constitution.[29]

The said initiative was supported by the most influential religious institution in Georgia, the patriarchate of Georgia. The statement was made on the official website of the Georgian Orthodox Church that referred to Biblical Freedom as constituting a pseudo-religion that is engaged in anti-state actions:

Exemption from the compulsory military service is a commonly accepted practice and we support it. A non-military alternative service should also be guaranteed by the state. However, all the necessary measures must be taken to prevent pseudo-religious organisations from abusing this practice for the purposes of implementing their mercantile interests which is a manipulation of religion and an obvious case of anti-state action.[30][31]

Girchi's and its supporters' public outrage against the bill that included press briefings and public statements turned out successful since the legislative was not registered with the Parliament. The party was conspicuous in its fight against the bill. The members ordered the face of Irakli Sesiashvili to be printed on condoms and a poster of that condom was sent to the National Library of Georgia so that it would be kept for generations in order to let them know who was one of the main villains of freedom in Georgia.[32]

The Church has its unique and simple set of rules (seven commandments of Biblical Freedom),[33] fitting into the ideology of classical liberalism that places the individual at the top of the value system:

1. You have one life and it completely belongs to you.
2. To live is to be free and to be free is to live.
3. A deprivation of property is a deprivation of life.
4. The body is your sacred form of property, it fully belongs to you.
5. Homicide deprives you of life, theft of your property, slavery of both; these are immoral.
6. Only the existence of violence entitles governments to interfere; taxation and paternalism are morally the same as robbery and theft, hence a deprivation of life.
7. Freedom is the product of constant struggle; if someone takes it, one must fight to seize it back.

On October 1, 2019, new taxi market regulations entered into force in Tbilisi, Georgia. According to the new laws, the holders of a "category A license" have the legal right to pick-up passengers as long as their cars are white, have 4 doors, a trunk and are left-hand drive vehicles. Additionally, the vehicles must have undergone and passed mandatory technical inspections and have a sign stating "Taxi Tbilisi".[34]

Girchi founded a new educational initiative and registered a company "Shmaxi"[35] with the Ministry of Justice of Georgia. Shmaxi employs those who have recently lost their jobs as a result of the new regulations and any interested individuals.

To circumvent the law, Shmaxi will hire these former taxi drivers as not drivers but as teachers called shmaxists.  Their role will be to educate their passengers on the ideals of freedom and liberty and will provide for viewing relevant video/audio content, including lectures of Milton Friedman, during the journey. This is the service passengers are going to be charged for. The price will be calculated according to the length of lectures, not the distance covered by the Shmaxi.

As of October 2019, Shmaxi employs more than 500 shmaxists.

Girchi became the first political party in Georgia to organise the public collection of signatures in order to register for the 2017 local elections through a special on-line application platform.

Political parties functioning in Georgia have been pretending to collect the 25,000 genuine signatures[36] necessary to register for participation in the elections. In reality, they have been copying data from the Central Election Commission/CEC database into the application forms designated by the commission. This documentation is then presented to the CEC, which registers a political party for elections.

Girchi rejected this tradition of forging supporters’ signatures and announced that it would participate in the elections only if it collected 25,000 on-line signatures of exclusively genuine supporters. In less than one month, Girchi managed to collect 7,200 signatures, which was not enough to take part in the elections.

Since 2009, according to Georgian legislation, conducting lottery activities in Georgia is the sole domain of one company - Georgian National Lottery - lotto.ge.[37] According to Girchi, giving a monopoly to one company is unfair, immoral, economically unjustified and poses questions related to the existence of corruption. To protest this state of affairs, in July 2018 Girchi members carried out an act of civil disobedience on the party's premises and, in breach of existing legislation, played lotto for money. This was accompanied by live coverage. There was no reaction from law-enforcement agencies, which proved once again how absurd the legislation prohibiting citizens to play lotto or organise a lottery is.

On 20 October 2018, one week before the presidential election, Girchi and its activists held the Cannabis Legalisation Festival[38] in Tbilisi, protesting the new aim of Parliament to pass a bill restricting the consumption of cannabis. The event was not green-lighted by the authorities, and police prevented organisers from actually holding the festival. Nevertheless, Zurab Girchi Japaridze publicly handed out cannabis joints to certain individuals, hence, committed another act of civil disobedience by breaking Article 273(1) of the Criminal Code of Georgia.[39] Zurab Girchi Japaridze was eventually detained along with several other participants who protested for the legalisation of Cannabis consumption at the festival.

Based on Girchi's statements, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia launched an investigation under the 2nd and 8th Paragraphs of Article 273 (1) of the Criminal Code of Georgia on the illegal possession, use and trade of cannabis or cannabis-related products . However, no formal charges were presented and Zurab Girchi Japaridze and the other detainees were released the same day.[40]

Girchi TV Logo

Girchi TV started broadcasting on August 21, 2019. One of the leaders of the party Zurab Girchi Japaridze, explained that they want to reach a segment of the Georgian population that still receives political information from television and not from the Internet.[41]

According to the representatives of the party, their new channel will not pay taxes until their debt reaches 24,984,000 GEL since other leading Channels had the debt of somewhat similar amount annulled by the Government of Georgia.[42] According to the party Georgian Broadcasters use two different methods in order to avoid taxes: either working for the Government, in which case they are simply exempt from their obligations, or the opposition, so that when the State attacks the latter the society perceives it as a fight against the freedom of speech.

In 2019, just one week before the mid-term parliamentary elections which Girchi participated in, Girchi opened a brothel in its headquarters.[43]

With this act of civil disobedience Girchi addressed[44] the arrest of 3 individuals on charges of promoting prostitution[45] and opposed relevant Georgian criminal legislation, that has become a source of arbitrary justice on many occasions in Georgia. As a result of such Government actions people who support themselves and their families through selling sexual services and who have not harmed anyone, are left without any financial means. They additionally suffer public reproach, since the social stigma associated with being a sex service provider is deeply rooted in Georgian society.

Girchi believes that, whether to engage in any job/activity that does not involve elements of physical or psychological violence should be subject to the discretion of freely consenting adults. Following this line of reasoning, Girchi believes that prostitution is a fair and acceptable occupation.

Girchi states that the only path towards ending this situation and, consequently, protecting people involved in the sex-industry from violence and abuse, coming mainly from the law enforcement agencies, is the legalisation of prostitution. According to Girchi, the full legalisation would also benefit society at large through preventing the spread of AIDS/HIV among other sexually transmitted diseases.

With this act of civil disobedience Girchi staff violated paragraph 3 of Article 254 of the Criminal Code of Georgia (Promotion of Prostitution) which states that:

Making available an area or dwelling place for prostitution committed jointly by more than one person shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of three to six years.

Throughout years, Girchi has protested against current drug policies. One of the issues that Girchi continuously underlines is that existing prohibitions and punishments prescribed by legislation for drug-related offences are of financial interest for some individuals. While it is very difficult to obtain cannabis which grows wildly in almost all regions of Georgia, it is very easy to purchase other drugs of dubious origin and composition. These reach Georgia from abroad, having had to cross customs borders.

To illustrate this state of affairs, on February 24, 2017 Girchi undertook a so-called bio-drug purchase,[46] shooting a video depicting all details of the process. It was completed in under an hour. The documentary was distributed to the public as well as media companies. The drugs obtained were then submitted to the police in accordance with relevant procedures. Through this act, Girchi intended to demonstrate how accessible bio-drugs are in Georgia, including for under-age citizens, and how false were the claims by the Ministry of Internal Affairs that the current repressive regime on narcotics has any positive effect.