Amnesty International has warned that Georgia is facing one of the most serious human rights setbacks since its independence, accusing the authorities of building a coordinated system to crush dissent and strengthen their hold on power. In a new report, the organization said the government has used disinformation, restrictive legislation, police violence, courts and pressure on civil society as part of a wider assault on human rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report, titled \u201cAnatomy of Repression \u2013 Georgia: 500 Days of Protest, Crackdown and Resilience,\u201d<\/strong> documents how protests and public criticism have intensified since 2022, particularly over Georgia\u2019s approach to Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine and the country\u2019s relationship with the European Union. According to Amnesty, opposition voices, independent media and civil society groups have increasingly been portrayed as foreign-backed actors, radicals or threats to national sovereignty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Amnesty highlighted several key laws that it says have deepened pressure on civic space, including the May 2024 Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence<\/strong>, the April 2025 Foreign Agents Registration Act<\/strong>, and amendments related to grants, administrative offences and political associations. The organization said these measures have forced many civil society organizations to downsize, suspend activities or operate in survival mode. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The report also details a harsh crackdown on protests. Amnesty said peaceful demonstrators were subjected to tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets, arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment. Citing data from Georgia\u2019s Public Defender\u2019s Office, Amnesty reported that 78 to 88 percent of people detained by security forces in 2024\u20132025 said they experienced ill-treatment in detention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Amnesty, courts have also been used to pressure protesters through heavy fines, administrative detention and prison sentences. The organization said more than 150 people are currently unjustly detained for peacefully exercising their human rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Amnesty International called on Georgian authorities to repeal laws that unduly restrict freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, release people detained solely for peaceful activism, ensure fair trials and investigate allegations of torture, ill-treatment and unlawful use of force. The organization also urged the international community to support documentation and accountability efforts for human rights violations in Georgia. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Amnesty International says Georgian authorities are using laws, courts and police force to suppress dissent and weaken civil society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[33,41,54,524,523,168,521,39,171,522,520],"class_list":["post-1732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-amnesty-international","tag-civil-society","tag-democracy","tag-dissent","tag-foreign-agents-law","tag-freedom-of-expression","tag-georgia","tag-human-rights","tag-independent-media","tag-police-violence","tag-protests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/civilsocietypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/civilsocietypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/civilsocietypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civilsocietypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civilsocietypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/civilsocietypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1734,"href":"https:\/\/civilsocietypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732\/revisions\/1734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civilsocietypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/civilsocietypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civilsocietypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/civilsocietypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}