Georgian and international civil society organisations urge the establishment of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism to investigate torture, ill-treatment and other gross human rights violations against protesters, human rights defenders, journalists and political activists from 28 November 2024 onward. The situation must be closely monitored by regional and international human rights mechanisms, including the UN OHCHR and Human Rights Council.
On November 28th, the suspension of EU accession talks was publicly announced by the political party “Georgian Dream”, a decision in direct contravention of Georgia’s constitutional obligation “to take all measures within the scope of their competencies to ensure the full integration of Georgia into the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization”. This statement ignited mass protests across Georgian cities and came in the aftermath of the 2024 parliamentary elections, during which, among other systematic breaches, voting secrecy was widely violated.
The protests were met with an unprecedented scale of police violence targeting protesters, human rights defenders, journalists, activists and political opponents both during the protests and outside of such settings. There are documented incidents of the use of less-lethal weapons in violation of their deployment rules, very violent physical attacks on protesters and media representatives at protest sites as well as during their transportation to detention facilities, and threats and insults towards detained protesters.
In light of the failure to ensure effective investigation of human rights abuses by Georgian authorities, on 13 December 2024, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), the Georgian Centre for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT), the Human Rights Center (HRC) together with other civil society organisations publicly launched a process to document the injuries and evidence of police brutality against individuals and groups participating in or supporting recent protests. The methodology for documentation is developed and implemented with the support of leading international anti-torture organisations from the United Against Torture Consortium (UATC).
From 10-24 December 2024, the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT), together with its Independent Forensic Expert Group (IFEG), and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) conducted a joint mission to Tbilisi with the support of GYLA, GCRT, HRC and other Georgian organisations. Omega Research Foundation assisted this mission with research.
The following is the preliminary findings from the investigation. The final report of the mission findings will be available in January 2025.