Georgian authorities are using newly adopted restrictions on public assemblies to arbitrarily detain and harass peaceful demonstrators, effectively making the right to protest in Georgia increasingly difficult and dangerous, Human Rights Watch said today.
Amendments adopted on December 12, 2025, to the Law on Assemblies and Manifestations grant police sweeping discretion to restrict protests on roadways and pedestrian areas, including sidewalks, and impose harsh penalties for noncompliance. Since the law entered into force, police have pursued dozens of cases against demonstrators, including for merely standing on a sidewalk near parliament, raising serious concerns about abuse of power and violations of Georgia's international human rights obligations.
"These amendments give police dangerously broad powers to decide when, where, and whether people can protest," said Giorgi Gogia, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "In practice, the law appears to be enforced arbitrarily to punish peaceful expression and push critical voices out of public spaces."
Under the new law, organizers of assemblies or demonstrations on roadways or pedestrian areas must notify the Internal Affairs Ministry at least five days in advance. Within three days, police may issue binding instructions requiring a protest to be moved to a different time or location if they determine it could obstruct traffic or pedestrian movement. Police are also empowered to issue mandatory instructions on the spot during an assembly.
Failure to notify authorities or to comply with police instructions is an administrative offense (misdemeanor) punishable by up to 15 days of detention or, for organizers, up to 20 days. A repeat offense may trigger criminal liability and may carry a prison sentence of up to one year.
On January 23, 2026, the Tbilisi City Court sentenced Sandro Megrelishvili, a 35-year-old international relations specialist, to four days detention for allegedly obstructing pedestrian movement while standing on a sidewalk in front of parliament on December 17, 2025, and not complying with police instructions to leave the area. Megrelishvili told Human Rights Watch that police informed him about the violation without specifying whom he allegedly obstructed or how.
During the court hearing, police cited surveillance footage purportedly showing several individuals stepping into the roadway nearby, but neither the footage nor the officers' testimony established that Megrelishvili himself obstructed anyone or that those individuals were not part of the protest. Evidence submitted by the Interior Ministry showed other pedestrians moving freely in front of Megrelishvili without difficulty. Megrelishvili also said he arrived after police had issued a general verbal warning to vacate the area.
Human Rights Watch is aware of four other court decisions issued the same day, sentencing individual protesters to four and five days detention for identical alleged violations. Dozens of others are expected to face trials in the coming days, including 30-year-old Giorgi Bulia, who is accused of committing the same violation on December 17. His hearing is scheduled for January 26, 2026. According to his lawyer, Merab Kartvelishvili, the case file contains no evidence that Bulia obstructed pedestrian movement. The police evidence, Kartvelishvili said, simply shows Bulia standing near parliament while citizens move freely in front of him.
Three lawyers representing multiple protesters said that the police submitted video recordings at trials showing officers making general announcements instructing people peacefully standing near parliament to leave the pedestrian area, without specifying to whom the instructions applied, which precise area had to be vacated, or where people were expected to relocate.
Human Rights Watch is further concerned that in several cases judges have terminated administrative proceedings and referred the files to investigative authorities, citing the individuals' prior alleged violations of protest-related rules and potentially exposing them to criminal liability.
The police issued a public statement denying reports of people being detained merely for standing on a sidewalk, claiming instead that the individuals were punished for deliberately obstructing pedestrian movement during a protest in front of parliament.
Georgia's international human rights obligations, including as a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, require the authorities to protect the rights to freedom of expression and to peaceful assembly, and any restrictions must not only be for a lawful purpose and have a proper legal basis, but must also comply with the requirements of necessity and proportionality. These safeguards are intended to ensure, amongst other things, that people can participate in public life without fear of abusive policing, arbitrary arrest, or disproportionate sanctions.
International human rights law also requires Georgia to apply criminal due process safeguards to any offense that in substance attracts criminal liability, even if the authorities label it as administrative under domestic law. This means examining the nature of the offense, including if it is directed at the public in general, and the severity of the potential penalty. This standard ensures that the authorities cannot evade their obligations to uphold due process by mischaracterizing offenses and helps identify when governments are effectively criminalizing behavior that does not substantially rise to that level and may instead be seeking to suppress legitimate activity.
In a recent ruling, the European Court of Human Rights found that Georgia violated a protester's rights to a fair trial and peaceful assembly after convicting him during the March 2023 protests based solely on uncorroborated police testimony and without meaningful judicial scrutiny of the lawfulness of police orders.
The ruling confirms structural deficiencies in Georgia's administrative offenses system that undermine fair trial guarantees and enable abusive protest policing, Human Rights Watch said.
Georgia's parliament should repeal or amend legislative provisions that unjustifiably restrict peaceful assembly and bring the law in line with the international standards. Law enforcement agencies and courts should immediately end arbitrary enforcement, ensure that any restrictions on assemblies are lawful, necessary, and proportionate, and guarantee fair trial rights in all proceedings.
"Requiring advance notification for people peacefully standing on a sidewalk, then jailing them based on vague police instructions and thin evidence, is plainly disproportionate," Gogia said. "These measures do not protect public order. They suppress dissent."
