Civil society organizations have presented a documentation report on the grave and systemic human rights violations committed since November 2024, according to information released by the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA).

According to GYLA, the report covers serious and systemic human rights violations that occurred between November 28, 2024, and February 28, 2025, committed in an attempt to suppress peaceful and legitimate protests.

As part of the documentation process, interviews were conducted with 117 individuals, 77.7% of whom (91 people) reported being subjected to violence and ill-treatment by the police.

The report was prepared with the participation of 11 civil society organizations. The documentation is based on both public information and evidence provided by protest participants and victims of violence, including in-depth interviews conducted with them.

The forms, intensity, consistency, and scale of police violence described in the report indicate that torture and ill-treatment are widespread and systemic.

Additionally, the report examines cases of unlawful and disproportionate violations of the right to freedom of assembly. Alongside physical violence, police forces extensively used active special means, the use of which often posed threats to life and health.

The report also analyzes actions directed against freedom of expression and the media. It notes that the media became a particular target of police violence, which was fueled by the ruling party Georgian Dream’s campaigns to discredit the media and the impunity for crimes committed against journalists. The report documents 108 cases of violence against media representatives.

Furthermore, the report identifies the instrumentalization of administrative and criminal justice mechanisms against protest activity. Administrative justice has been systematically used to unjustly punish protest participants, including victims of police violence, through baseless imposition of administrative liability.

It is also noted that numerous criminal cases are actively being pursued in court related to activists arrested during the protests in April–May and later in November–December of 2024. The use of criminal prosecution in relation to protest activities has, in effect, criminalized peaceful protest and restricted free assembly. As of February 2025, more than 60 individuals face criminal charges—10 of them in connection with the spring 2024 protests and 52 with those held from November 2024 to February 2025.

The report also reviews other forms of repression, including cases of forced disappearance, illegal searches of homes, workplaces, and personal belongings, discriminatory dismissals of public servants, and the abuse of legislative powers.

Moreover, the report analyzes the responsibility of specific institutions and high-ranking officials in systemic repression. The lack of effective response to serious human rights violations, ineffective investigations, biased judiciary, open support or incitement of violence by officials, and new repressive legislative initiatives indicate that the methods of restricting human rights and violently suppressing protest are systemic and involve all three branches of power captured by Georgian Dream. Impunity at both institutional and individual levels, reinforced by ineffective investigations, completely undermines public trust in Georgia's justice system.

The report was prepared by the following NGOs:

Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA)

Human Rights Center (HRC)

Democracy Research Institute (DRI)

Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI)

Partnership for Human Rights (PHR)

International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED)

Georgian Democracy Initiative (GDI)

Social Justice Center (SJC)

Rights Georgia (RG)

Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group (WISG)

Georgian Center for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT).