April 21, 2026 - The South Caucasus News - SouthCaucasusNews.com

Amnesty International, a UK-based human rights organization, said Georgia has “plunged head-on into authoritarian practices, with systemic crackdowns on dissent” in its 2025 “The State of the World’s Human Rights” report published on April 21.

The report, which reviews human rights developments in 144 countries during 2025, says that in Georgia, “the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly were severely curtailed,” adding that “repressive legislation, unfair trials and police impunity for unlawful use of force fuelled an ongoing government crackdown.”

According to the report, “peaceful protesters, journalists, opposition figures and activists were subjected to arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment followed by unfair trials,” while “human rights defenders, NGOs and independent media faced ongoing harassment, including asset freezes and regulatory pressure.”

The report further highlights the adoption of “foreign agent”-style legislation and the freezing of bank accounts belonging to seven NGOs, and that the heads of those organizations were “repeatedly summoned for questioning.”

The document further says that “women protesters endured gender-based violence,” and were “increasingly targeted with gendered abuse, including sexist insults, threats of sexual assault and degrading full strip searches,” despite authorities’ pledge in June to end full-body searches. It adds that “misogynistic and sexist rhetoric from senior officials continued to fuel abuse against women protesters,” citing cases involving opposition politician Elene Khoshtaria and activist Kristine Botkoveli [a.k.a. Nancy Woland].

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In the report, Amnesty International notes that “independent media outlets faced a full palette of repression including smear campaigns, fines and criminal probes,” while “arbitrary detention and imprisonment of protesters, journalists, and opposition figures following unfair trials were commonplace in Georgia within efforts to suppress dissent.”

The watchdog also says that authorities responded to ongoing daily demonstrations by “criminalizing peaceful acts such as wearing masks or standing on sidewalks.” Demonstrators, it added, “faced unlawful force including police beatings, tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon reportedly laced with toxic chemicals,” while “activists, journalists and opposition supporters were systematically targeted with searches, arrests and prison sentences solely for exercising their human rights.”

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The report says that individuals, detained during the anti-government protests, “were subjected to unfair trials marked by procedural violations and prosecutorial bias,” mentioning in this context the cases of jailed journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli, protesters Omar Okribelashvili, Saba Meparishvili, Saba Jikia, as well as actor Andro Chichinadze, among others.

The report also states that masked officers “routinely beat” detainees during arrests and in detention, arguing that “unidentified men in plain clothes – some armed and apparently linked to the authorities – intimidated and assaulted protesters and journalists with police complicity, including near their homes and workplaces.”

“Many of those detained were denied access to lawyers, relatives, or urgent medical care while in custody,” the report states, citing the case of the jailed protester Saba Skhvitaridze, arguing that “despite medical evidence of injuries sustained in custody, no effective investigation had been carried out by the end of the year.”

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