HRW 2026 Report: Human rights situation in Georgia has deteriorated sh...
“Georgia’s human rights record sharply deteriorated in 2025 as the
ruling Georgian Dream party adopted sweeping laws aimed at decimating
the country’s vibrant civil society and silencing critical media.
Authorities also excessively interfered with largely peaceful
protests. The measures go against Georgia’s human rights commitments
on freedoms of expression, assembly, and association, as well as on
equality and non-discrimination. New “foreign agents” legislation,
adopted in March, requires organizations and individuals receiving
foreign funding to register in the state registry and imposes onerous
reporting obligations under threat of criminal prosecution. Other
repressive amendments require governmental approval for all foreign
grants and further curtail peaceful protests, independent media, and
free speech. Authorities also approved the removal of the term
“gender” and “gender equality” from all laws and abolished the
parliament’s Gender Equality Council.The October municipal elections
were held amid a sweeping crackdown on dissent and a partial
opposition boycott. On election day, tens of thousands of people
rallied to protest the government’s repressive policies. The
demonstration escalated into unrest when some protesters attempted to
storm the presidential palace. Police arrested over 60 people on
charges of inciting violent overthrow and attempting to change the
constitutional order.The European Union and its member states
denounced the backsliding as an “assault on fundamental rights,”
recalling that Georgia’s accession process remains “de facto
halted.” They called on Georgia to reverse the crackdown and repeal
the repressive laws. In January, the EU suspended visa-free travel for
holders of Georgian diplomatic and service passports. Several EU
countries also imposed travel bans on senior government officials. In
July, Brussels warned about possible suspension of visa-free travel
for Georgian citizens if the country failed to fulfill key human
rights-related obligations. In its enlargement report published in
November, the European Commission said Georgia “further derailed
from the EU path,” and described it as a “candidate country in
name only.”Freedom of AssociationIn March, parliament adopted a
“foreign agents“ law, requiring individuals and entities to
register as “foreign agents” if they operate under the vaguely
defined “influence” of, or receive funding from, a foreign
principal and engage in “political activities” in the interests of
this principal. It also obliges them to file onerous annual financial
declarations with excessive details, submit two copies of any public
statement within 48 hours of publication, and mark all such statements
with the “foreign agent” label. Failure to register carries
criminal fines up to 10,000 GEL (about US$3,700) and/or a maximum five
years in prison, while noncompliance with reporting or labeling
requirements can result in fines up to 5,000 GEL (about US$1,850) or
six months’ imprisonment. The law poses an existential threat to
Georgia’s civil society. It is an escalation from similar
legislation adopted in May 2024—the Law on Transparency of Foreign
Influence—which remains in force but envisages mostly administrative
sanctions for noncompliance.In April, the ruling party amended the Law
on Grants to require governmental approval for any foreign donor
funding to local organizations. Receiving a grant without official
approval results in a fine equal to twice the amount of the grant. In
June, amendments extended the approval requirements to “technical
assistance” and “knowledge sharing.”In June, at least eight
leading civil society organizations received court orders demanding
that they file an inordinate number of documents, including sensitive
and confidential information about survivors of human rights
violations who had received pro bono legal aid.In August, the
Anti-Corruption Bureau, the state agency responsible for enforcing the
“foreign agents” law, sent notices to seven out of the eight NGOs,
demanding explanation for not registering as foreign agents and
warning of criminal liability. The bureau sent inspection
notifications to dozens of other NGOs following the amendments to the
Law on Grants in April.In March, authorities froze the bank accounts
of five civil society groups, including Human Rights House Tbilisi and
Shame Movement, on spurious allegations that they had used donor funds
to support protesters during the 2024 demonstrations. In August,
authorities also froze the accounts of seven prominent NGOs—the
International Society of Fair Elections and Democracy, Institute for
Development of Freedom of Information, Georgian Democracy Initiative,
Union Sapari, Social Justice Center, Civil Society Foundation, and
Democracy Defenders—as part of a criminal investigation for alleged
“sabotage.” Officials claimed that the groups used their project
funds to support demonstrators who committed “violent acts”
against police. The prosecutor’s office also summoned several heads
of those NGOs to testify in the same probe.Freedom of Assembly and
Excessive Use of Police ForceMassive, nationwide protests erupted
after the ruling party’s November 2024 decision to abandon
Georgia’s EU accession process. Police and other security forces
repeatedly used brutal and excessive force against largely peaceful
demonstrators, chasing down, encircling, and beating protesters, and
subjecting many to torture and ill-treatment in police custody. Riot
police and informal violent groups associated with the authorities
harassed and attacked opposition activists and independent
journalists. Survivors reported head trauma, broken noses and facial
bones, concussions, rib and limb fractures, and scratches and bruises
all over their bodies. Some women protesters reported that police had
threatened them with sexual violence.Police wore riot gear or
full-face masks, with no visible insignia, hindering accountability
for excessive use of force. Although authorities launched some
investigations into allegations of police abuse, at the time of
writing, they had not identified or prosecuted any officers
responsible.In contrast, the authorities charged hundreds of
protesters with the administrative or misdemeanor offense of police
disobedience and prosecuted them in perfunctory trials. Authorities
also prosecuted dozens of protesters on spurious criminal charges,
including for alleged use of violence against law enforcement,
sentencing at least 35 protesters to lengthy prison terms.In June,
authorities dismantled Special Investigation Service, an independent
agency established in 2022 to investigate crimes committed by law
enforcement officials, and transferred its functions to the
prosecutor’s office, further eroding accountability.In February, the
parliament passed several restrictive amendments to the administrative
and criminal codes, raising maximum administrative detention from 15
to 60 days, introducing fines and jail time for “verbally
insulting” public officials, and criminalizing “resisting law
enforcement” and public calls to civil disobedience.In June, based
on complaints made by ruling party members, a court fined over a dozen
activists for critical social media posts, some of which included
offensive language against ruling party members. The court deemed them
to constitute “insult” and issued fines ranging from 3,000 to
4,000 GEL (US$1,100 – 1,500). Parliament later added detention as a
penalty for failure to pay fines imposed for the administrative
offenses of insulting a public official, petty hooliganism, disobeying
police orders, and violating protest rules.In October, authorities
further increased penalties for protest-related offenses, introducing
administrative detention of up to 60 days and criminal liability of up
to 4 years’ imprisonment for repeat violations.In December 2024,
parliament adopted amendments that authorized police to
“preventively” detain individuals for 48 hours if they had
previously been implicated in an administrative offense and were
deemed likely to reoffend.Jailing of Political OppositionCourts
convicted eight opposition politicians, including six opposition party
leaders, sentencing them to months in jail for boycotting the ruling
party’s parliamentary investigative commission tasked with probing
alleged crimes by the former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s
government. Two of them were released under a presidential pardon in
September.In September, authorities arrested another opposition
leader, Levan Khabeishvili, on bribery charges over his public
promises to pay money to riot police if they refused to disperse
protesters. Prosecutors later added an “inciting coup”
charge.Freedom of Expression and MediaIn April, parliament adopted
amendments to the Broadcasting Law, banning all foreign funding and
in-kind assistance to broadcast media and expanding the power of the
Communications Commission, a body dominated by ruling party
appointees, to regulate broadcasters’ content. Local groups warned
the changes would stifle critical and independent media.In June, the
ruling party filed complaints with the Communications Commission
against two major opposition-leaning channels, Formula and TV Pirveli,
for, among other things, questioning the government’s legitimacy in
their reporting language. The complaint challenges the use of such
language as “illegitimate government,” “regime,” and “state
capture.” The commission has the authority to impose sanctions,
ranging from warning and corrective actions to suspension or
revocation of a broadcasting license.Another set of legislative
amendments narrowed protections for individuals and media facing
defamation lawsuits. The amendments reverse the burden of proof to the
defendant, remove the presumption in favor of free speech, eliminate
source protection, limit public interest exceptions, and increase
liability for defamation. Defendants, including journalists, will be
required to prove the truth of their statements, rather than
plaintiffs proving that their statements are false.In August, a court
sentenced Mzia Amaghlobeli, a well-known journalist and founder of the
independent newspaper Batumelebi and online outlet Netgazeti, to two
years in prison on politically motivated charges of “resistance,
threat, or violence against a public official” over slapping a local
police chief during a tense night of protests in January.
International organizations and diplomatic missions condemned the
conviction as “politicized and disproportionate””, - the report
reads.
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