Georgia: Observatory Report Reveals Alarming Crackdown on Civil Society

26 November 2025, Geneva / Paris — The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in the framework of their joint programme, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, today released a joint report, “Under Siege: How Georgia Is Dismantling Civil Society,” revealing how the Georgian Dream party’s government has orchestrated a coordinated system to silence dissent, dismantle independent civil society organisations, and suppress human rights activism.

Drawing on a field mission and more than 30 in-depth interviews with human rights defenders, journalists, and lawyers, the report exposes a coherent pattern of state repression unprecedented in Georgia’s post-Soviet history. Once regarded as a democratic frontrunner in the OSCE region, Georgia now faces one of the most severe clampdowns on civic space in Europe.

The investigation shows how the ruling party’s strategy operates through interconnected legal, administrative, and coercive tools—from repressive “foreign agent” laws and politically motivated prosecutions to smear campaigns, surveillance, and intimidation of defenders and their families. This system severely restricts the country’s civic life, eroding accountability and depriving thousands of Georgians of essential services and protection.

“Georgia’s government has built a machinery designed to stifle every independent voice,” said Isabel Rosales, Director of the Human Rights Defenders Programme at OMCT. “By criminalising legitimate human rights work and cutting off international funding, the authorities are dismantling the very foundations of civic life.”

Among the most alarming developments are the adoption of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and the amendments to the Law on Grants, which prohibit or criminalise foreign-funded activities and compel organisations to disclose sensitive personal data of staff and beneficiaries. The arbitrary application of these and other laws, enforced by the government-controlled Anti-Corruption Bureau and courts, have already led to the freezing of NGO bank accounts, politically motivated criminal and administrative prosecutions, and the suspension of numerous human rights and media organisations.

"The escalating repression against Georgia’s civil society proves how the GD authorities employ the authoritarian playbook developed in today’s Russia, Belarus and other authoritarian States,” said Ucha Nanuashvili, Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights. “The European Union, the OSCE, and the wider international community must act decisively and urgently: we need strong words, we need solidarity, but above all, we need action."

The report also documents the human toll of the crackdown, showing how the restrictions and intimidation have devastated those relying on civil society organisations (CSOs) for support—survivors of domestic and sexual violence, victims of torture, minors, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and exiled human rights defenders from neighbouring authoritarian states. As CSOs are forced to close or scale down their operations, entire communities are left without legal aid, psychosocial assistance, or humanitarian relief.

“Under Siege: How Georgia Is Dismantling Civil Society” provides an in-depth mapping of how Georgia’s government is methodically dismantling civic space and the cascading impact on those it once vowed to protect. It calls for urgent international action, including the activation of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism, inter-state proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights, and strong diplomatic presence at trials of detained defenders and journalists. It also calls for the creation of flexible humanitarian visa pathways and protection mechanisms for human rights defenders and their families.

The report concludes that only sustained diplomatic pressure, international solidarity, and concrete protection mechanisms can prevent the complete collapse of independent civic life in Georgia.

The full report is available here.

Contacts for media inquiries:

OMCT: Francesca Pezzola, fpe@omct.org

FIDH: Raphaël Lopoukhine, rlopoukhine@fidh.org / +33 6 72 28 42 94