Georgia

Political tensions and sustained protests over electoral reforms marked 2019 in Georgia. Police used excessive force to disperse a largely nonviolent protest in June, detaining and injuring scores, while authorities failed to pursue meaningful accountability for police abuse. Afterwards, the chairman of the parliament resigned and the Georgian Dream majority initially conceded to holding the 2020 parliamentary vote by a fully proportional election system, but later voted down the initiative, sparking further protests. Other areas of concern include lax labor regulations resulting in labor practices that undermine workers’ safety, threats to media pluralism, unjustifiably harsh drug laws, and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.