A/HRC/41/45/Add.1 C. Access to justice 22. Throughout his visit, the Independent Expert met with representatives of the judiciary, including from the Supreme Court, Kutaisi City Court and the Batumi city courts. 23. Discussions with judges revealed deeply entrenched prejudice within the justice system and led the Independent Expert to believe that negative perceptions towards diverse sexual orientations and gender identities might be one of the key elements that could explain the virtual absence of jurisprudence related to discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression and the fact that judges had never considered such discrimination to constitute aggravating circumstances when sentencing perpetrators of hate crimes committed against lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse persons. The application of article 531 of the Criminal Code is indeed left to the discretion of judges and, in one court, when discussing a specific case, the Independent Expert was told that, in retrospect, all elements for the application of article 531 appeared to be present and the judge could not remember why it had not been applied. The Legal Aid Bureau concurred, stating that it was perplexed as to why, in many cases in which a homophobic or transphobic motive had been a clear line of investigation, it had not been pursued. 24. The Independent Expert was also struck by the fact that none of the judges he met could identify a colleague who was lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or gender diverse and he was even told that if any such judges openly came out, they would face a lack of credibility and be challenged by lawyers. 25. Such examples illustrate the urgent need to incorporate non-discrimination as a mandatory subject in the training curricula for all justice personnel and to raise awareness about sexual orientations and gender identities. IV. Lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse persons in Georgia 26. During his visit, the Independent Expert developed the conviction that systemic factors deny lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse persons the right to live free and equal in Georgia. 27. He encountered the pervasive notion that the aspects inherent to the sexual orientation or gender identity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse persons living in Georgia were sinful, shameful or pathologic. The societal goal appears to perpetuate a vision of Georgia as a country composed exclusively of heterosexual, cisgender persons. As a result, the majority view is that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse persons must conceal their identity if they want to be recognized as citizens respectful of mores and values qualified as “good”. Those convictions are fuelled and reinforced by agents of the church, tolerated and at times sponsored by politicians, governmental and law enforcement agents, and replicated by mass and social media. 28. The consequences of this concerted attack are real. They include the threat for members of the community of exposure to violence and exclusion from health, housing, work and economic opportunities, and indeed all other basic elements fundamental to a person’s quest for happiness, through mechanisms of social exclusion and ostracism. 29. The Independent Expert had the opportunity to dialogue with many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in Georgia. Many of them described intricate networks and communities, the manner in which thousands of them learned to recognize each other, maintained contact and provided and sought support. He was informed that, at a rough estimate, the trans community in Batumi could be as high as 100 persons and that thousands of gay men or men who had sex with men, as well as lesbian and bisexual persons, were active members of social networks. 30. Each lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or gender diverse person in Georgia puts in place some sort of survival strategy. Very few are protected by status or wealth; others leave the country and break their family bonds to seek asylum elsewhere. Those who remain face the 6