The Georgian Government has submitted legislation to parliament to create a unified database of people with mental health conditions, alcoholism, or drug addiction, a move some argue could be weaponised against critics.
Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs submitted the legislative package to parliament on 23 July, though it only now came to light. The package involves 15 amendments to existing laws.
Critics of the bill told OC Media that such a database could be misused by the government to intimidate and control people. They also warned it could lead to further discrimination against those included and could discourage people with mental health issues or drug or alcohol problems from seeking treatment.
The legislation does not specify how many or which government agencies would have access to the database, which would be maintained by the Ministry of Health.
The legislative package’s explanatory note claimed the database was necessary because ‘in the absence of a timely and reliable source of information, the state cannot properly operate mechanisms aimed at ensuring public safety’.
The Interior Ministry cited as an example that the database was necessary for approving licences to drive or carry a weapon.
Ana Tavkhelidze, a human rights lawyer, cast doubts on the government’s true intentions.
She said that while a stricter procedure before issuing a driver’s license or gun license would be acceptable, the creation of this database ‘is absolutely not related to the issuance and monitoring of these permits’.
‘At first glance, someone might not consider this [legislation] a problem [and think] it’s good — security rules will be tightened, the issuing weapons and driver’s licenses will be more controlled. However, in my opinion, [creating this database] is absolutely not related to those goals’, Tavkhelidze told OC Media.
She said the timing of the legislation should be taken into account.
‘This was preceded by the adoption of the Russian law [the foreign agent law], now the adoption of a homophobic law — the adoption of a law that incites hatred in different groups of society — and in this context the state creates a database where it registers people according to their health status’.
‘This serves to collect as much personal information as possible about people, which will then be used as leverage by the state against them’, she concluded.
‘It automatically increases the stigma’
Olga Kalina, a disability rights and mental health awareness advocate warned that such a database would increase the stigma already associated with people with mental health conditions.
She warned that because of such stigma, information about those included in the database could be misused by the authorities against them or their families.
She said that such information being accessible to multiple government agencies — especially the Interior Ministry — was ‘a big problem because it automatically increases the stigma’.
‘People [included in the database] will be perceived as a source of potential problems, which already reinforces the stigma and is actually discriminatory’, Kalina told OC Media.
Kalina, who chairs the Georgian Network of Psychiatry Service Users and Survivors, said that data on people’s mental health, or misuse of drugs and alcohol, would also need to be constantly updated in order to be relevant.
‘If someone needed psychological [help] 10 years ago and that’s why they were registered in the database, that doesn’t mean that they still have this need 10 years later’, she said.
She said this could result in unfair discrimination.
‘How will they know what state a person is in now? For example, I am registered in a psycho-neurological dispensary, I have been fine for 11 years, but discrimination will spread freely to me too’, she said.
Both Kalina and Tavkhelidze also said the legislation was drafted without consulting those it would affect.
Tavkhelidze pointed out that the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities obliged Georgia to make an assessment of the impact of any legislation on people with disabilities.
‘Not a single such assessment has been made by the state’, she said.
Kalina also said the database would disproportionately affect those who were worse off, as those with money could seek private specialists or treatment abroad to avoid being included in the database.
The Personal Data Protection Service, which was set up to be an independent agency to protect the public’s personal information, told OC Media they had provided recommendations to the government regarding the legislation in April.
‘Data should be processed only to the extent necessary to achieve the relevant legitimate purpose’, they said.
‘In addition, data must be processed without prejudice to the dignity of the subject of the data.’
‘Personal data should be collected/obtained only for specific, clearly defined and legitimate purposes. Further data processing for other purposes incompatible with the original purpose of data processing is not permitted’.
They also said people had a right to know which state institution had access to their personal data. ‘Accordingly, it was recommended that information about the state institutions authorised to access the said databases should be specified in the subordinate normative acts’.
The Office of the Public Defender of Georgia did not respond to a request for comment.
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