LGBT rally, injured person

One of the injured in the anti-gay rally on May 17, 2013. (DF Watch.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–63 percent of Georgians think it is important to protect the rights of minorities, but they don’t want such protection extended to sexual minorities.

National Democratic Institute (NDI) on Monday published the results of its newest survey of public attitudes in Georgia.

One of the questions was: ‘How important is protection of minority rights to Georgia’s democratic development?’ 16 percent says it is very important, 47 percent says it is important, 19 percent think neutral, while four percent thinks it is not important, 2 percent say not important at all. The rest either said they don’t know or didn’t answer.

The answers haven’t significantly changed from the previous survey, as in April 2014, 11 percent thought it was very important to protect minority rights, 51 percent said it was important, 18 percent were neutral, 9 percent said not important and the rest didn’t answer or didn’t know.

In the latest survey, 14 percent said they think it is very important to protect the rights of ethnic minorities, 66 percent think it is important, 18 percent are neutral, 2 percent said it is not important.

47 percent think it is very important to protect people with disabilities, 47 percent think it is important, 5 percent are neutral and two percent think it is not important.

16 percent say it is very important to the protect rights of religious minorities, 57 percent say it is important, 16 percent are neutral, 10 percent think it is not important.


50 percent it is very important to protect the rights of IDPs, 46 percent say it is important, 4 percent are neutral.

But when it comes to sexual minorities, only four percent say it is very important to protect their rights. 23 percent says it is important. 27 percent are neutral about this issue, 15 percent say it is not important and 29 percent say it is not important at all. Two percent do not know.

19 percent of the questioned think it is very important to protect the rights of prisoners, 64 percent think it is important, 13 percent are neutral.

17 percent think it is very important to protect the rights of women, 68 percent say it is important, 15 percent are neutral.

The survey was conducted from July 23 to August 7. 3,338 people were interviewed. The average margin of error is +/- 2.9 percent. Funding was provided by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).