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Several international civil society organisations on Monday issued a joint letter to PACE members addressing the concerning situation following the Council of Europe’s PACE Resolution 2664 (2026) on the functioning of democratic institutions in Georgia.
Parliamentary Assembly Resolution 2664 was adopted on 24 June 2026, stating that the conditions for democratic elections no longer exist in Georgia due to severe democratic backsliding, systemic crackdowns on civil society and the opposition, and the government’s refusal to implement previous reform recommendations, comply with European Court of Human Rights judgments, and follow the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) recommendations. It further underlines that the Council of Europe remains committed to dialogue but emphasises that its core membership obligations and democratic standards are strictly non-negotiable.
Since then, international non-governmental organisations have been waiting for the Georgian government to implement real changes. However, this is not the first time Georgia has been the focus of such critical democratic scrutiny by European institutions. A case illustrating this is the introduction of restrictive new laws in late 2024, which effectively criminalised peaceful protest by heavily penalizing demonstrators and giving police sweeping powers to detain them.
The specific call for member states to lodge an inter-state application against Georgia was first made by PACE in 2025 under Resolution 2624. It was subsequently reinforced in February 2026 by an OSCE Moscow Mechanism report, and most recently by the June 2026 resolution, all of whom have urged legal accountability under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Article 33 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is the lawful way for member states of the Council of Europe to use an inter-State application before the European Court of Human Rights against Georgia, but no state has done so yet. This is the main reason that the joint letter by the international civil society organisations was issued: to urge PACE members to actively engage their respective governments to treat an Article 33 application as a concrete legal option and to coordinate on joint actions before authoritarian consolidation becomes irreversible.
The intensifying human rights crisis in Georgia can be attributed to multiple factors, most notably, the ruling Georgian Dream’s party’s consolidation of power after winning 54% of the vote in the October 2024 parliamentary elections. Civil society organizations and former Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili have later condemned the elections as a ‘blatant fraud’, stating that it is reminiscent of the fraudulent 2003 elections which led to the Rose Revolution and the overthrow of Minister Eduard Shevardnadze.
Following the disputed vote, Georgia’s EU accession negotiations have been delayed until 2028, resulting in widespread public outrage and protests. Amnesty International has also criticized Parliament’s enactment of the Transparency of Foreign Influence Law in 2024 and the Foreign Agents Registration Act in 2025, which has been weaponized to stifle free speech by freezing the bank accounts of these groups and eroding existing defamation protections.
With the external pressure from international organizations and institutions, it remains to be seen what the Georgian government’s steps toward the recommendation goals will be.
The post Pressure spikes on Georgia as international groups demand legal accountability under ECHR appeared first on JURIST - News.
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Parliamentary Assembly Resolution 2664 was adopted on 24 June 2026, stating that the conditions for democratic elections no longer exist in Georgia due to severe democratic backsliding, systemic crackdowns on civil society and the opposition, and the government’s refusal to implement previous reform recommendations, comply with European Court of Human Rights judgments, and follow the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) recommendations. It further underlines that the Council of Europe remains committed to dialogue but emphasises that its core membership obligations and democratic standards are strictly non-negotiable.
Since then, international non-governmental organisations have been waiting for the Georgian government to implement real changes. However, this is not the first time Georgia has been the focus of such critical democratic scrutiny by European institutions. A case illustrating this is the introduction of restrictive new laws in late 2024, which effectively criminalised peaceful protest by heavily penalizing demonstrators and giving police sweeping powers to detain them.
The specific call for member states to lodge an inter-state application against Georgia was first made by PACE in 2025 under Resolution 2624. It was subsequently reinforced in February 2026 by an OSCE Moscow Mechanism report, and most recently by the June 2026 resolution, all of whom have urged legal accountability under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Article 33 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is the lawful way for member states of the Council of Europe to use an inter-State application before the European Court of Human Rights against Georgia, but no state has done so yet. This is the main reason that the joint letter by the international civil society organisations was issued: to urge PACE members to actively engage their respective governments to treat an Article 33 application as a concrete legal option and to coordinate on joint actions before authoritarian consolidation becomes irreversible.
The intensifying human rights crisis in Georgia can be attributed to multiple factors, most notably, the ruling Georgian Dream’s party’s consolidation of power after winning 54% of the vote in the October 2024 parliamentary elections. Civil society organizations and former Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili have later condemned the elections as a ‘blatant fraud’, stating that it is reminiscent of the fraudulent 2003 elections which led to the Rose Revolution and the overthrow of Minister Eduard Shevardnadze.
Following the disputed vote, Georgia’s EU accession negotiations have been delayed until 2028, resulting in widespread public outrage and protests. Amnesty International has also criticized Parliament’s enactment of the Transparency of Foreign Influence Law in 2024 and the Foreign Agents Registration Act in 2025, which has been weaponized to stifle free speech by freezing the bank accounts of these groups and eroding existing defamation protections.
With the external pressure from international organizations and institutions, it remains to be seen what the Georgian government’s steps toward the recommendation goals will be.
The post Pressure spikes on Georgia as international groups demand legal accountability under ECHR appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.