Civil Society Organizations Present Documentation Report on Severe and Systemic Human Rights Violations Since November 2024
14 May, 2025
On 14 May 2025, civil society organizations presented a documentation report titled “Human Rights Crisis in Georgia Following the 2024 Parliamentary Elections.” The report covers the period from 28 November 2024 to 28 February 2025 and concerns severe and systemic human rights violations committed in an attempt to suppress peaceful and legitimate protest.
Read the full report
A total of 11 civil society organizations participated in the preparation of the documentation report. The documentation is based on both publicly available information and evidence provided by participants of the protests and victims of violence, including in-depth interviews conducted with them.
As part of the documentation process, interviews were conducted with 117 individuals, 77.7% (91 people) of whom reported being subjected to violence and ill-treatment by the police. The forms, intensity, consistency, and scale of police violence described in the report indicate the widespread and systemic nature of torture and ill-treatment.
The report also reviews instances of unlawful and disproportionate restrictions on the freedom of assembly. Alongside physical violence, police forces extensively used active special means, the use of which often posed threats to life and health.
Furthermore, the report analyzes actions taken against freedom of expression and the media. Notably, the media became a particular target of police violence, which was encouraged by the ruling party Georgian Dream through campaigns aimed at discrediting the media and the impunity of crimes committed against media representatives. The report documents 108 cases of violence against journalists.
The report also identifies the instrumentalization of administrative and criminal justice against the protests. Administrative justice mechanisms were systematically used—and continue to be used—to unjustifiably punish protest participants, including victims of police violence, by imposing unwarranted administrative liability.
It is noteworthy that numerous criminal cases related to the April–May and subsequent November–December 2024 protests are also actively being considered or were recently considered in court. The use of criminal prosecutions in relation to protest activities has, in effect, criminalized peaceful protest and restricted freedom of assembly. As of February 2025, more than 60 individuals face the threat of criminal prosecution. Of these, 10 are charged in connection with the spring 2024 protests, and 52 in relation to the November 2024 to February 2025 protests.
The documentation report also reviews other repressive methods: cases of enforced disappearances, unlawful searches of residential and workspaces and personal belongings, discriminatory dismissals of public servants, and the abusive use of legislative powers.
Additionally, the report analyzes the institutional and individual responsibility of specific agencies and high-ranking officials in the systemic repression. The lack of an effective response to serious human rights violations, ineffective investigations, a biased judiciary, the open and explicit encouragement or endorsement of violence by high-level officials, as well as new repressive legislative initiatives, all point to the systemic nature of human rights restrictions and violent suppression of protest—carried out with the involvement of all three branches of power captured by the ruling party Georgian Dream. Impunity at both the institutional and individual levels is further fueled by the ineffectiveness of investigations, which completely erodes public trust in Georgia’s justice system.
Signatory Organizations:
Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA)
Human Rights Center (HRC)
Democracy Research Institute (DRI)
Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI)
Partnership for Human Rights (PHR)
International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED)
Georgian Democracy Initiative (GDI)
Social Justice Center (SJC)
Rights Georgia (RG)
Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group (WISG)
Georgian Centre for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT)
