NEWS
On 10 December 2025, GYLA published a report summarising the human rights situation in Georgia in 2025.
Every year on 10 December, Human Rights Day is celebrated. This is connected to the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948.
Each year, on 10 December, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association assessed the human rights situation of the year in a responsive format, however, the developments that unfolded in Georgia in 2025 require a detailed description of the tendencies, patterns of actions, and aspirations that are linked to a substantial restriction of the very essence of human rights.
As the analysis of the events throughout the year demonstrates, 2025 is a year of curtailed freedoms, meaning that autocratic law-making and the disproportionate restriction of freedoms exerted particular pressure on the freedoms of expression, assembly, and association - the rights that render democracy functional.
According to the report, the process of strengthening authoritarian administration, which began in 2024, continued throughout this year: the deliberate undermining of human rights and democracy through various means, including the deterioration of the legislative framework, physical violence, arbitrary arrests and fines, politically motivated justice, and disinformation campaigns. The repressive measures particularly targeted those instrumental rights that constitute the cornerstone of a democratic society and guarantee the enjoyment of other rights: the freedoms of expression, assembly, and association.
The report highlights that one of the main targets of the repressions was freedom of expression. The legislative framework regulating freedom of expression significantly deteriorated, including through the prohibition of insulting public servants and political officials, the weakening of safeguards protecting public debate in the context of defamation, a blanket prohibition on broadcasters receiving foreign funding, and restrictions on the work of the media in courts.
The situation about the freedom of assembly also continued to worsen. The “Georgian Dream” introduced several amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences, the Criminal Code, and the Law on Assemblies and Manifestations that are incompatible with human rights, introducing new offences and significantly increasing sanctions. Throughout the year, arbitrary administrative detentions, heavy fines, and physical violence were actively used against protest participants.
The report underlines that the situation regarding freedom of association significantly deteriorated in 2025. In addition to adopting new repressive laws, the “Georgian Dream” also pressured civil society through politically motivated investigations, freezing of accounts, and interrogations.
One of the most serious problems was politically motivated criminal justice. Monitoring of first-instance criminal proceedings in cases concerning 69 individuals from spring 2024 to September 2025 demonstrated that the use of criminal prosecution mechanisms against activists was aimed not only at preventing specific alleged offences, but also at exerting pressure on the freedoms of assembly and expression.
In 2025, the ill-treatment of demonstrators continued. Individuals responsible for systemic torture committed in November–December 2024 still remain unpunished.
The report also analyses the deterioration of the situation regarding the realisation of the right to equality and the condition of vulnerable groups. During 2025, the undermining of years of progress in gender equality continued through anti-gender rhetoric, laws, and actions, alongside the encouragement of sexism and homophobia/transphobia.
It is noteworthy that on the background of ongoing political repression, economic, social, and cultural rights continued to be neglected, despite the persistence of numerous problems in these areas. In 2025, the grave consequences of the severe situation concerning the right to adequate housing and the right to live in a safe environment were once again evident. The report also reviews several cases recorded in 2025 in which individuals’ deaths were likely linked to the state’s neglect of its positive obligations under the right to life / the absence of preventive measures.
It is noteworthy that the organisation’s staff were able to prepare the report in a reality where GYLA operated under a hostile attitude from the authorities, propagandistic media outlets and public officials, alongside restrictive legislation, continuously targeted the work of the human rights organisation.
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