The treatment of some detainees in Georgia “has arguably reached the threshold of torture”, a probe into the country’s human rights situation backed by 23 OSCE members has found.
The report, published on Thursday (12 March) by the regional security organisation’s human rights office, said that “marked democratic backsliding” had taken place in Georgia during the period studied, from spring 2024 to the present.
Georgia’s government said it “vigorously” rejected the report’s findings, adding that the nearly 217-page document contained “serious factual inaccuracies, selective interpretations, and politically biased conclusions that fundamentally undermine its credibility and objectivity”.
An investigation into Georgia was triggered by 23 OSCE member states in January 2024 under the Moscow Mechanism, a tool for addressing concerns about human rights in OSCE countries.
With the permission of Tbilisi’s government, an OSCE investigator was dispatched to Georgia on a fact-finding mission. Professor Patrycja Grzebsk, the rapporteur, met with officials from government institutions during the visit.
The 23 OSCE countries that initiated the Moscow Mechanism, as well as Poland, released a joint statement on Thursday urging the Georgian government to carry out investigations into allegations of torture and to repeal legislation “incompatible with its international human rights obligations”.
The statement specifically referenced the ruling Georgian Dream party’s 2025 foreign agents legislation, which requires NGOs and media organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register with the Ministry of Justice. The legislation, which opponents argue threatens independent NGOs and media, sparked large protests in Tbilisi.
Georgia “should halt efforts to ban opposition political parties”, the statement, signed by OSCE countries including the UK, Canada, Denmark, and Sweden, added.
The ruling Georgian Dream party, which has governed the country of 3.9 million people since 2012, filed an appeal to ban several of the country’s main opposition parties with the Constitutional Court in October 2024.
These parties include the United National Movement, which pursued a pro-Western foreign policy during its nine-year rule between 2003 and 2012, as well as Ahli and Lelo.
Alexander Maisuradze, Georgia’s Permanent Representative to the OSCE in Vienna, urged the organisation’s 57 member states to disregard the findings of Professor Grzebsk’s report in a statement on Thursday.
“The Government of Georgia once again appeals to the OSCE and its participating states to give due consideration to the legal arguments provided by the Georgian authorities and to reject and distance themselves from the controversial findings and politically influenced recommendations advanced by the fact-finding mission in disregard of its mandate,” he said.
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Residents of the village of Kurseb in western Georgia have been evacuated to safety after a landslide struck the area. Emergency crews were dispatched to the scene and authorities closed a key road as a precaution.
Georgia has cancelled international tenders for the construction of major road sections that form part of a regional highway linking the country with the borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
A senior delegation from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly has been holding meetings with Georgian government officials, opposition leaders and security authorities this week, as international observers attempt to gauge the country’s political climate following last year’s contentious elections.
A delegation from Georgia's ruling party visits Washington for a Congress and sovereignty summit this week, however analysts say Georgia remains largely absent from current U.S. regional priorities.
The U.S. military confirmed on Friday (13 March) that all six service members aboard a plane that crashed in western Iraq on Thursday had died, as conflict in the Middle East continues.
The U.S. should shut down its military bases in the Middle East, Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday (12 March). His words were read out by a broadcaster on state Iranian television.
Norwegian police apprehended three brothers suspected of carrying out Sunday's (8 March) bombing at the U.S. embassy in Oslo, in an attack investigators have branded an act of terrorism.
At least 64 people have been killed in southern Ethiopia following recent landslides and floods, the regional government’s communications office said on Thursday (12 March), citing local police
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All six U.S. service members aboard a plane that crashed in western on Iraq on Thursday have died, the U.S. military confirmed on Friday (13 March). Meanwhile, one French soldier was killed in a drone attack in the Erbil region of northern Iraq, President Emmanuel Macron announced.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued veiled threats to Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and Hezbollah on Thursday (12 March), during his first press conference since the conflict with Iran began.
Iran reacted to the UN Security Council resolution condemning attacks on U.S. bases in regional countries, saying it neglected Tehran’s right to self-defence and demonstrated that the world body is being misused as an instrument to serve Washington’s interests.
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