The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) published a report today on its periodic visit to Georgia, carried out from 18 to 29 November 2024 and from 21 to 22 January 2025, and the response of the Georgian authorities. The CPT assessed the treatment and safeguards afforded to persons in police custody, including those recently detained in connection with the public demonstrations which had been ongoing in Tbilisi since 29 November 2024. The delegation also examined the conditions in several prison establishments and three psychiatric hospitals, focusing on treatment, living conditions, and the legal safeguards for involuntary hospitalisation.
Up to 28 November 2024, the overwhelming majority of interviewed detained persons who were or had recently been in police custody stated that the police had treated them correctly. By contrast, the CPT was inundated with allegations of ill-treatment when it interviewed numerous persons detained in connection with the demonstrations in Tbilisi on 29 November 2024. Most of the people interviewed bore visible injuries, some of them severe and having required urgent medical attention. They described what appeared to be a clear pattern of police behaviour during the demonstration: masked and hooded, unidentifiable police officers reportedly made arrests in groups, punching and kicking detained persons indiscriminately all over their bodies, threatening them. Further, the beatings were allegedly carried out repeatedly, by several officers at a time, including whilst the persons had their hands cuffed behind their backs. In nearly all cases, the violence stopped once persons were handed over to non-masked police officers.
The CPT reiterates its long-standing recommendation that steps be taken by the Georgian authorities to ensure that, when apprehending persons, the police use only the force that is absolutely necessary and proportionate. There can never be any justification for any form of violence in respect of persons who have been brought under the control of police officers, the CPT states. The Committee emphasised the urgent need for training in crowd control techniques, and for all masked law enforcement personnel deployed at demonstrations to display visible identification. Electronic recording of all police interviews would also safeguard persons in police custody from being ill-treated.
In the context of the long-standing issue of impunity and concerns about the effectiveness of investigations into police misconduct, the recent abolition of the Special Investigation Service (SIS) and the transfer of its functions to the Prosecutor's Office are alarming. The establishment of an independent mechanism to investigate allegations of ill-treatment by law enforcement officials has been a long-standing recommendation by the Committee. Abolishing an independent investigation body, rather than strengthening it, appears to be a move in precisely the opposite direction.
As for the prisons visited, the CPT noted that the system was not generally overcrowded, though localised overcrowding persisted. No progress had been made toward closing semi-open prisons (so called "zonas") which continued to suffer from chronic problems such as overcrowding, absence of a proper prisoner allocation policy, inter-prisoner violence, influence of the informal prisoner hierarchy, insufficient activities, and very low staffing. Decisive steps are needed towards the declared goal of closing the three "zonas" and replacing them with smaller, modular prisons focused on rehabilitation and individualised activities, and with more staff.
The absence of any real progress in the development of prison regimes in Georgia represents a real failure of the authorities, the CPT said. Prisoners typically lacked organised out-of-cell activities, with many locked in their cells up to 23 hours daily - except for those in Prison No. 15 in Ksani. Furthermore, many prisoners were held for months, if not years, in solitary confinement, with very limited human contact, and often under permanent CCTV surveillance. This is not acceptable, the CPT stressed, urging the Georgian authorities to develop and introduce purposeful activity programmes for all prisoners.
Prison healthcare services were generally good, with thorough entry medical screenings and appropriate recording of injuries. However, the provision of mental healthcare remained inadequate, and the approach to prisoners with addiction was limited mainly to detoxification, with insufficient access to maintenance therapy.
All the prisons visited were also severely understaffed, lacking custodial staff but also social workers rendering impossible the development of an adequate regime - the situation the CPT considers totally unacceptable.
In the psychiatric hospitals visited, the Committee received no allegations of recent patient ill-treatment by staff, and inter-patient violence appeared rare and was appropriately monitored by staff. The Hospital in Kutiri had undergone substantial renovation and offered good conditions, as had the one in Khelvachauri; however, conditions at the Tbilisi Psychiatric Hospital were in urgent need of improvement and could be described as degrading. Patients' living conditions at this hospital must be significantly improved, CPT recommended.
Psychiatric care relied mostly on first-generation antipsychotic drugs, risking side effects. The CPT recommends reducing their use, with a transition to newer-generation medications where necessary. Therapeutic and rehabilitative activities were very limited due to staff shortages. Restraint practices appeared generally proportionate and not excessive, but instances of chemical restraint were not appropriately recorded.
Many "voluntary" patients were de facto deprived of their liberty, unable to leave locked wards, often subjected to restraint, and denied the legal safeguards for involuntary patients. Urgent steps need to be taken to ensure that legal safeguards are upheld.
In their response, the Georgian authorities provide information and outline measures taken in response to the recommendations made by the CPT.
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) visits places of detention in the states parties to the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture to assess how persons deprived of their liberty are treated with a view to strengthening, if necessary, the protection of such persons from torture and from inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. These places include prisons, detention centres for children, police stations, immigration detention centres, psychiatric hospitals, and social care homes. After each visit, the CPT transmits a report containing its findings and recommendations to the government concerned.
Read the response of the national authorities in full
Committee for the prevention of torture (CPT)
