Georgia

The CIVICUS Monitor downgrades Georgia's civic space to "Obstructed" amid rising repression

DECEMBER 4, 2024

The CIVICUS Monitor announced in a new report Wednesday that it has downgraded Georgia's civic space to "Obstructed" in its annual ratings. This alarming change reflects repressive laws and actions stoking division, vilifying critics, civil society and marginalised communities and threatening people’s rights to speak out and organise.

Georgia’s downgraded rating, detailed in the People Power Under Attack 2024 report, reflects the impact of a controversial law labelling foreign-funded civil society organisations as “agents of foreign influence” on fundamental freedoms. The law’s reintroduction in 2024 triggered widespread protests, the largest in Georgia’s recent history. People who came out to protest were met with excessive force, rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons. Activists also reported a chilling wave of intimidation, including threatening phone calls and physical attacks.

"This downgrade is a stark warning about the deteriorating state of democracy and civic freedoms in Georgia" said Tara Petrović, the researcher on Europe and Central Asia for the CIVICUS Monitor. "Throughout the region, we are seeing governments crack down on human rights under the guise of tradition and sovereignty. This dangerous trajectory undermines international human rights standards and must be urgently challenged."

The CIVICUS Monitor, which is a research consortium led by global civil society alliance CIVICUS, tracked civic space conditions in 198 countries throughout the year. The Monitor determines each country’s rating based on data on civic space incidents collected by dozens of research teams around the world. Incidents may include protests, censorship, arrests of human rights defenders, harassment, and more. Each country then receives a rating between 0-100 based on its incidents, with higher scores indicating more open civic space.

This year Georgia’s score dropped 8 points from 62 to 54, moving it from the upper tier “Narrowed” to the middle tier “Obstructed.” An “Obstructed” rating means civic space is heavily contested by power holders, who impose a combination of legal and practical constraints on the full enjoyment of fundamental rights. There are 35 total “Obstructed” countries around the world in 2024.

“The weaponisation of laws to silence dissent and marginalise communities erodes the fabric of democratic society” continued Petrović, “Georgia’s government must halt its authoritarian trajectory and work towards safeguarding civic freedoms.”

Ahead of the October elections, which were criticised by civil society observers as irregular, the government furthered polarisation by passing a deeply discriminatory law that threatens to make life and activism for the LGBTQI+ community in Georgia nearly impossible. Under the banner of “traditional values” the law empowers the authorities to censor books and films with LGBTQI+ content and discussion of LGBTQI+ issues in schools, ban people from flying rainbow flags and prevent Pride events. It forbids LGBTQI+ people from adopting children, accessing gender affirmation surgery and hormone therapy and refuses to recognise same-sex marriages of Georgians conducted abroad.

CIVICUS urges the Georgian government to uphold its citizens fundamental freedoms and abandon divisive, populist tactics. The government should recognise civil society for the critical role it plays in a democracy, rather than treating it as an adversary.

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Notes to the Editor:

The CIVICUS Monitor is a research tool that provides quantitative and qualitative data on the state of civil society and civic freedoms in 198 countries and territories. The data is generated through a collaboration with more than 20 civil society research partners, and input from a number of independent human rights evaluations. The data provides the basis for civic space ratings and countries can be rated as either 'Closed', 'Repressed', 'Obstructed', 'Narrowed' or 'Open'.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact : media@civicus.org