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Khatia Rekhviashvili is a human rights defender from Georgia who has worked for over a decade to advance human rights. Rekhviashvili is the Chairperson of the Board of Rights Georgia; her work is focused on strategic litigation, domestic and gender-based violence, torture and ill-treatment by police, and mass surveillance of activists.

At the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights House Foundation and Human Rights House Tbilisi urged Georgia to repeal restrictive legislation, end attacks against civil society actors, and called for accountability for human rights violations, and for the release of political prisoners.

At the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights House Foundation delivered a statement warning that surveillance, spyware, and emerging AI-assisted surveillance technologies are increasingly being used to restrict civic space and intimidate civil society actors across the Network of Human Rights Houses and beyond.

At the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, HRHF welcomed the Special Rapporteur on the freedom of freedom of opinion and expression’s final report and echoed concerns about the growing use of national security, extremism, and counter-terrorism frameworks, as well as legal harassment such as SLAPPs, to restrict freedom of expression and undermine independent journalism and civil society. HRHF also highlighted the need for stronger protections for journalists working in armed conflict and occupied territories, drawing attention to ongoing risks faced by media workers in Ukraine and calling for the release of imprisoned Crimean civic journalist Iryna Danylovich.

At the OSCE’s second Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting of the year, HRHF urged the OSCE Participating States to strengthen legal safeguards against digital threats to civic space, as well as calling for the OSCE to establish a formal mechanism to monitor and report on reprisals against civil society for engaging with the institution. HRHF also called for additional steps to be taken to address rising threats to civic space, including for various stakeholders to review their own digital practices in order to not undermine the security and safety of civil society.

At the first of the OSCE’s key human rights forums of the year, HRHF worked with civil society partners from the Network of Human Rights Houses and beyond to continue to raise the issue of reprisals and threats against human rights defenders across the OSCE region, as well as highlighting the situations in Georgia and Serbia via side events co-organised with partners.

At the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council, HRHF worked closely with partners from the Network of Human Rights Houses and beyond to keep civic space and accountability at the centre of international attention. HRHF cited the reporting and analysis of partners to highlight the human rights situations in multiple countries, renewed calls for scrutiny where repression is entrenched, and used interactive dialogues, UPR adoptions, side events, and various meetings with officials to bring the voice of civil society partners to HRC member and observer states.

In 2025, Human Rights House Foundation worked closely with the Network of Human Rights Houses and other civil society partners to defend human rights and support perseverance amidst global uncertainty.

At the 61st session of the Human Rights Council, HRHF warned of accelerating authoritarianism and systemic repression in Georgia, citing credible allegations of the use of chemical agents against protesters, violence against journalists, the dismantling of civil society, and the use of repressive laws to silence dissent both in occupied regions and government-controlled territory.