On May 14, 2025, civil society organizations submitted a documentation report titled “ Human Rights Crisis in Georgia Following the 2024 Parliamentary Elections.” The report concerns the serious and systematic violations of human rights that occurred between November 28, 2024, and February 28, 2025, carried out with the aim of suppressing peaceful and legitimate protests.

Eleven civil society organizations participated in the preparation of the documentation report. The documentation is based on both public information and evidence provided by protest participants and victims of violence, as well as in-depth interviews with them.

As part of the documentation, interviews were conducted with 117 individuals, 77.7% (91) of whom indicated that they were subjected to violence and ill-treatment by the police. The forms of police violence described in the report—their intensity, consistency, and scale—indicate the widespread and systematic nature of torture and ill-treatment.

In addition, the report reviews cases of unlawful and disproportionate violations of freedom of assembly. Beyond physical violence, police forces intensively used active special means, the use of which was often life-threatening.

The report also analyzes actions against freedom of expression and the media. It is noteworthy that the media has become a particular target of police violence, which is fueled by the Georgian Dream’s discrediting campaigns against the media and impunity for crimes committed against media representatives. The report documents 108 cases of violence against media representatives.

The report further identifies the practice of instrumentalizing administrative and criminal justice against protests. Administrative offense justice has been systematically used to unjustifiably punish protest participants, including, often, victims of police violence, by unreasonably imposing administrative liability on them.

It is noteworthy that the courts are also actively considering a number of criminal cases related to activists detained during the April–May and later November–December 2024 protests. The use of criminal detentions in connection with protest activities has effectively criminalized peaceful protest and restricted free assembly. As of February 2025, more than 60 people face criminal prosecution—10 in connection with the spring 2024 protests and 52 in connection with the November–February 2024–2025 protests.

The documentation report also examines other methods of repression: cases of enforced disappearances, illegal searches of residential and work spaces and personal searches, discriminatory dismissals of public servants, and abuse of legislative powers.

In addition, the report analyzes the responsibility of specific agencies and high-ranking officials in systemic repression. The lack of effective response to grave human rights violations, ineffective investigations, a biased judiciary, the clear and open support or incitement of violence by high-ranking officials, as well as new repressive legislative initiatives, indicate that the methods of restricting human rights and violently suppressing protests are systemic and involve all three branches of government seized by the Georgian Dream. Impunity at both the institutional and individual levels is further fueled by the ineffectiveness of investigations and is completely destroying trust in the Georgian justice system.

See the report