REPRESSION OF OPPOSITION AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN GEORGIA
Igor Kotler
The political and human rights situation in Georgia underwent a significant deterioration during 2025 and 2026, prompting growing concern among international organizations, democratic institutions, and human rights advocates. While political polarization has long been a feature of Georgian public life, developments during this period reflected a substantial expansion of state measures directed against opposition parties, independent media outlets, civil society organizations, journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens engaged in peaceful political expression. The cumulative effect of these developments has been the emergence of an increasingly restrictive political environment characterized by the concentration of political power, weakening institutional safeguards, restrictions on fundamental freedoms, and the growing use of legal and administrative mechanisms to suppress dissenting voices.
