Human Rights House Foundation statement
HRC62 – Item 6 – UPR Adoptions – Georgia
1 July 2026
Georgian NGO UPR Joint Submission
Report of the Working Group on the UPR
Check against delivery.
Thank you, President.
This statement is delivered on behalf of Human Rights House Foundation and Human Rights House Tbilisi.
We welcome the recommendations made to Georgia during its fourth Universal Periodic Review, including the strong focus on civic space, media freedom, non-discrimination, and accountability for violations committed during protests.
This focus is necessary. Since Georgia’s previous review, the human rights situation has deteriorated sharply. Peaceful protesters, human rights defenders and journalists have faced violence, intimidation, arbitrary detention and punitive fines. Allegations of torture and ill-treatment by the security services have not been met with any level of accountability.
At the same time, restrictive legislation targeting civil society has proliferated. The Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence, the Foreign Agents Registration Act, amendments to the Law on Grants, and recent restrictions on assemblies and media do not strengthen democracy. They stigmatise civil society, increase State control over independent organisations, and restrict the rights that Georgia has already committed to protect.
Human Rights House Tbilisi has itself been targeted through the freezing of its bank accounts, following its support to peaceful protesters facing heavy fines. This is not transparency. It is the criminalisation of solidarity.
We therefore recommend Georgia to:
- Repeal laws and amendments restricting the rights to freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression;
- End attacks, smear campaigns and judicial harassment against civil society actors, and lift all restrictions imposed on Human Rights House Tbilisi;
- Ensure prompt, independent and effective investigations into all allegations of torture, ill-treatment, excessive use of force, arbitrary detention and violence, and release all political prisoners.
Georgia can and should use this UPR outcome as a path back towards its international human rights obligations.
Thank you.
