Web Portal on Human Rights in Georgia

Georgian Bar Association and human rights defenders protest institutional persecution of lawyers in Georgia. The parliamentary majority avoids speaking about it. Minority representative, deputy chair of the Parliament’s Human Rights Committee Dimitry Lortkipanidze rebuked the Public Defender for not having reflected the facts of lawyers’ rights violation in his annual report.

Lately, opposition representatives have spoken about the training of paramilitary groups in western Georgia, particularly in the Samegrelo region. They have noted that the government is training a special contingent to be used to disperse possible protest demonstrations. The government responded to the opposition’s allegations after March 15, when Irakli Alasania, leader of opposition political party Our Georgia – Free Democrats, asked foreign ambassadors accredited to Georgia to put pressure on the Georgian government to halt the training process of armed units in Samegrelo.

The laws adopted by the Government of Georgia quite often cause discontent among citizens but the Law on Political Unions of Citizens has caused particularly serious discontent within Georgian civil society. Civic organizations initiated a campaign under the name “It Affects You” against the new provision in the law;