The Georgian government drove the country toward a human rights crisis in 2024, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing its World Report 2025. The government has adopted new repressive laws, unleashed brutal police violence against mostly peaceful protesters, and pivoted away from the European Union accession process and the human rights reforms it would have required.

For the 546-page world report, in its 35th edition, Human Rights Watch reviewed human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In much of the world, Executive Director Tirana Hassan writes in her introductory essay, governments cracked down and wrongfully arrested and imprisoned political opponents, activists, and journalists. Armed groups and government forces unlawfully killed civilians, drove many from their homes, and blocked access to humanitarian aid. In many of the more than 70 national elections in 2024, authoritarian leaders gained ground with their discriminatory rhetoric and policies.

"The government is relentlessly taking the country into a repressive era that is uncharted for Georgia but all too familiar in authoritarian states," said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia Director at Human Rights Watch. "But it is never too late for it to reverse course, drop repressive laws, allow freedom of assembly, stop violence against protesters, and hold police accountable."

"Georgia took significant steps backward on human rights in 2024, with several new repressive laws undermining freedom of expression and of association. In November, the ruling party suspended efforts to open EU accession negotiations until late 2028, prompting mass, countrywide protests", reads the report.