Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of Georgia

Introduction

1. Human Rights Watch (HRW) submits the following information ahead of Georgia’s fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Georgia’s human rights record has dramatically deteriorated since its last UPR review in 2021. Since spring 2024, the Georgian authorities have adopted an arsenal of laws incompatible with the country’s commitments on the rights to freedoms of expression, assembly and association, as well as to non-discrimination and equality. The authorities have also excessively interfered with largely peaceful assemblies and failed to respond adequately to police violence against peaceful protesters. The raft of legislative changes seek to criminally penalize and erase all dissent and nonconformity in the country, and go against most of the recommendations made to, and supported by Georgia, during the previous UPR cycle.

Freedom of Association and Human Rights Defenders

2. Although the government supported UPR recommendations to “ensure that the right to freedom of association [...] is protected, ”[1]and “further develop measures to ensure a safe environment for human rights defenders,”[2]they have adopted several legislative initiatives that undermine these rights, aim to intimidate human rights defenders, and threaten to eradicate Georgia’s independent civil society.
3. In March 2025, Georgia’s ruling party adopted a “foreign agents“ law, requiring individuals or 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.[3]It also obliges them to submit to the authorities’ onerous annual financial declarations, with excessive required details, and two copies of any public statement within 48 hours of publication. Registered individuals and groups must also mark their public statements with the “foreign agent” label.
4. Failure to register as a foreign agent or to provide the required information would lead to up to 10,000 GEL (about US$3,600) in criminal fines and/or to a maximum five-year prison sentence. Failure to file financial reports or comply with the “foreign agent” labeling requirements would trigger a 5,000 GEL (about US$1,800) criminal fine or deprivation of liberty for up to six months. The vague definition of “political activity” and “foreign influence”, and immediate criminal liability for non-compliance, impacts any individual or group that is critical of the authorities and represents an existential threat to Georgia’s civil society. The government’s claims that the 2025 law merely replicates the US Foreign Agents Registration Act are misleading and untrue. [4]
5. This law represents an escalation from similar legislation adopted in May 2024—the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence. That law, which remains in force, requires nongovernmental groups and media receiving 20 percent or more of their funding from abroad to register as “organizations serving the interests of a foreign power.” It imposes onerous, intrusive, and duplicative reporting requirements, allows the authorities to demand sensitive personal data from organizations and individuals, and envisages crippling administrative fines for noncompliance.[5]
6. In April 2025, the ruling party amended the Law on Grants, requiring foreign donors to obtain official governmental approval prior to disbursing grants to local organizations. Receiving a grant without official approval results in a fine equal to twice the amount of the grant. The authorities further amended the law in June to expand the requirement for official consent to include “technical assistance” and “knowledge sharing.”
7. In June 2025, at least eight leading civil society organizations received a court order requesting an inordinate amount of documents pertaining to their work, including sensitive and confidential information on survivors of human rights violations for whom the groups are providing pro bono legal services. The groups challenged the decision. It was not clear at this writing, how authorities intend to pursue obtaining the data or respond to noncompliance.
8. In the weeks before the adoption of the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence in May 2024, civic and political activists became targets of an apparently coordinated campaign of harassment and intimidation. Hundreds of activists and their family members, including children, received repeated, anonymous threatening phone calls. Smear campaigns of posters in several cities featured the images of nongovernmental group leaders and critical journalists, calling them traitors and enemies.
9. From late April through June 2024, unidentified assailants violently attacked over a dozen activists, leading, in many cases, to head and other injuries requiring hospitalization. Most attacks were committed by small groups of assailants in public places with witnesses and CCTV cameras nearby. While the police opened investigations, they failed to identify or arrest any suspects, raising concerns about the investigations.[6] In her September 2024 statement, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders observed that some attacks might have been incited by senior government officials’ statements.[7]

Recommendations:

• Repeal the “foreign agents” and “foreign influence” laws.
• Amend the law on grants to limit undue government interference in the activities of nongovernmental groups.
• Ensure a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders and civil society organizations.
• Ensure that attacks on civil society activists and human rights defenders are promptly, thoroughly and effectively investigated. Those responsible should be held to account.

Freedom of Assembly and Police Violence against Peaceful Protesters

10. During its 2021 UPR, Georgia supported several recommendations to protect freedom of assembly[8] and to “ensure prompt and impartial investigations into all incidents of excessive use of force by law-enforcement authorities against protesters and journalists.”[9] Since then, however, Georgian police have repeatedly used force against largely peaceful protesters with impunity, and authorities adopted several legislative amendments restricting freedom of assembly.
11. Massive, nationwide protests erupted in Georgia following the ruling party’s November 2024 decision to abandon Georgia’s EU accession process. The decision came one month after disputed October 26 parliamentary elections that kept the country’s ruling party in power. Although there were sporadic and isolated instances of protesters throwing water bottles and fireworks at police in response to police violence, the protests remained largely peaceful.
12. Police and other security forces have repeatedly used brutal violence against largely peaceful protesters.[10] In widespread and apparently punitive acts, security forces chased down, encircled, attacked, violently detained, and beat protesters. Police also tortured and otherwise ill-treated protesters in police vans and police stations. Riot police and informal violent groups associated with the authorities have also beaten opposition and independent journalists and interfered with their work with impunity. Survivors of police violence sustained head traumas, including multiple fractures to their noses, facial bones, concussions, fractures to ribs and limbs, and scratches and bruises all over their bodies.
13. During the use of force, police wore riot gear or full-face black masks, with no identifiable insignia, creating nearly insurmountable obstacles to holding abusers accountable. Although authorities launched some investigations into allegations of police abuse, they have not identified or prosecuted any law enforcement officials responsible.
14. While failing to take effective steps to address serious allegations of ill-treatment, the authorities charged hundreds of protesters with the misdemeanor offense of police disobedience, and prosecuted them in perfunctory trials.[11] Authorities have been prosecuting dozens of protest participants on spurious charges of using violence against law enforcement, sentencing at least six to lengthy prison terms. The Public Defender’s office, which interviewed many of detained protesters in custody, also expressed concern that an “alarming number of detainees indicate beating and ill-treatment.”[12]
15. In June 2025, the authorities moved to dismantle Special Investigation Service, an independent investigative body created in 2022 and tasked with independently probing crimes committed by law enforcement officials.[13] It is set to be dissolved and its functions absorbed by the prosecutor’s office. The move goes against the recommendation to “strengthen mechanisms for accountability of law-enforcement abuses” that Georgia supported during the previous UPR cycle.[14]
16. In February 2025, the parliament also passed several restrictive amendments to the administrative and criminal codes, apparently aimed at stifling peaceful protests. These include a four-fold increase in the detention period for administrative offences from 15 to 60 days, a measure commonly used against protesters, as well as steep fines and jail time for “verbally insulting” public officials. Other amendments make resisting law enforcement and public calls to civil disobedience into felonies, punishable by prison terms.
17. In June, based on complaints made by ruling party members of parliament (MP)s, the Tbilisi City Court fined over a dozen activists for critical social media posts, some of which included profanity. The court deemed them to constitute “insult” and issued fines ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 GEL (US$ 1,100 – 1,500). Several weeks later, parliament amended the Code of Administrative Offenses to include detention as a penalty for individuals who fail to pay fines imposed for administrative offenses of insulting a public official, petty hooliganism, disobeying police orders, and violating protest rules.
18. In December 2024, parliament adopted amendments that authorized police to “preventively” detain a person for 48 hours if they had been previously implicated in an administrative offense and police believe they could commit another.  

Recommendations:

• Promptly, thoroughly, and effectively investigate all use of excessive police force.
• Ensure that the riot police and all other law enforcemnt offials wear some insignia that allows for their identification.
• Re-establish and empower an independent investigative mechanism for investigating abuses commited by law enforcement officials.
• Repeal legislative amendments that allow for undue interference into the right of freedom of assembly. Respect and protect the right to freedom of assembly.
• Amend the code of administative offences to allow for full due process rights for anyone facing an offence entailing a punitive sanction, including any custodial time or heavy fine, in line with Georgia’s international obligations.
• Demand the release of all unjustly detained for exercising their freedom of assembly.

Freedom of Expression and Media

19. Although Georgia accepted a number of recommendations during the previous UPR to ensure freedom of the media[15] and promote editorial independence,[16] it adopted several regressive legislative amendments undermining these rights.
20. In April 2025, the ruling party adopted amendments to the Broadcasting Law, banning any 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. Georgian civil society groups criticized the changes emphasizing that they would stifle critical media.
21. In June 2025, the ruling party filed complaints with the Communications Commission against the two largest 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 terminology as “illegitimate government,” “regime,” and “state capture.” For any violation of the Broadcasting Law that the Commission finds, it can apply sanctions against the outlet ranging from a warning and corrective actions to suspension or revocation of the outlet’s broadcasting license.[17]
22. Another set of legislative amendments narrows protections for individuals and media facing defamation lawsuits. Among other things, the amendments reverse the burden of proof in such cases to the defendant, removes the presumption in favor of free speech, eliminates source protection, limits public interest exceptions, and increases liability for defamation. In violation of international norms, defendants, including journalists, will be required to prove the truth of their statements, rather than plaintiffs proving that the statement is false.
23. In February 2023, the parliament passed new, restrictive regulations on media accreditation, which, among other things, allow the authorities to ban journalists from parliament for asking MPs questions after they refuse to be interviewed. Officials cited alleged harassment of MPs by the media to justify the amendments. The Public Defender’s Office criticized the rules for restricting media freedom and lacking an effective appeals mechanism.[18]
24. On January 12, 2025, police arrested Mzia Amaghlobeli, a founder and director of the independent newspaper Batumelebi, and the online outlet Netgazeti, on criminal charges of assaulting a police officer, punishable by a maximum seven-year prison term. She was first detained briefly for placing a sticker about an upcoming general strike on the wall of a police station and then rearrested following an altercation with the local police chief. A court placed Amaghlobeli in pretrial detention and her trial was ongoing at the time of this writing.[19]

Recommendations:

• Repeal regressive amendments that unduly interfere with freedom of expression and media.
• Protect freedom of expression and media.
• Release Mzia Amaghlobeli, pending independent judicial review of her case.
• Promptly, thoroughly and effectively investigate violence against journalists.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

25. Despite Georgia’s support of several recommendations to combat violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and to guarantee the protection of the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community,[20] the authorities adopted legislative changes that restricted those rights. They also failed to effectively investigate violence against LGBT activists and their supporters.
26. In September 2024, the parliament adopted anti-LGBT amendments imposing discriminatory restrictions on rights to education, health, freedom of expression, and peaceful assembly. The amendments ban gender-affirming medical care for trans people, same-sex marriage, and adoption by same-sex couples. They also prohibit positive references to LGBT people in literature, film, and media, as well as in schools and at public gatherings. Parliament adopted the amendments despite a recommendation by the Council of Europe’s advisory body, the Venice Commission, not to do so. The Venice Commission warned that amendments jeopardized Georgia’s compliance with “European and international standards” and that the mere introduction of those changes could deepen the already “hostile and stigmatizing atmosphere against LGBT individuals in Georgia.”[21]
27. The Tbilisi Pride Festival, planned for July 8, 2023, was abruptly canceled after far-right hate groups violently stormed the venue. They looted and vandalized festival property in the presence of police and journalists. Although hate groups had called for anti-LGBT protests at the festival ahead of time, authorities failed to stop violent groups from entering the venue. The authorities launched an investigation but did not arrest anyone in connection with the attack.

Recommendations:

• Repeal regressive anti-LGBT rights amendments.
• Ensure prompt, thorough, and effective investigations into all cases of violence against LGBT people.

Equality for Women

28. In April 2023, the parliament abolished mandatory parliamentary and municipal council quotas for women. The quotas required that at least one in every four individuals on a political party list be of a different gender than the majority. The Venice Commission and OSCE criticized the move, calling on the authorities to increase women’s political representation. Women’s political representation in Georgia remains well under the recommended European standard of 40 percent. Only 3 of Georgia’s 64 municipalities have female mayors, and women comprised less than 19 percent of MPs elected in 2020.
29. Among the raft of legislative amendments passed in April 2025, the ruling party approved the removal of the term “gender” and “gender equality” from all Georgian laws, and abolished the parliament’s Gender Equality Council.

Recommendations:

• Ensure equal representation of women in politics and in public life.