Public Defender Presents Report on Human Rights Violations During Protests
By Liza Mchedlidze
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
At the recent plenary session of parliament, Public Defender Levan Ioseliani presented the 2024 report, raising serious concerns about the conduct of law enforcement during public protests and the absence of accountability.
Ioseliani stated, "The year 2024 was particularly difficult and memorable in the context of human rights violations during protests. The series of human rights violations began mainly during the protests of April and May 2024." He explained that the failure to hold officers accountable for violence during those earlier protests, combined with the lack of basic preventive measures such as identification markings for special units, created conditions for even more widespread abuse during the protests held from November twenty-eighth 2024 to March first 2025.
"Accordingly, the number of people who indicated ill-treatment during the winter protests increased," Ioseliani said. "From November twenty-eighth 2024 to March first 2025, I personally and my representatives visited four hundred twenty-two individuals, of whom two hundred sixty-seven, approximately sixty percent, indicated ill-treatment."
He reported that no criminal prosecution had been initiated against any law enforcement officer during this period, despite the growing number of allegations. In contrast, the number of detained protesters reached several hundred. The report also mentions violence and intimidation targeting civil activists, journalists, and public figures, including organized telephone threats and other forms of aggression from unidentified individuals.
Ioseliani expressed appreciation to the Special Investigation Service for granting access to approximately fifty volumes of case materials related to the spring protests. However, he noted, "After reading the case materials, it was revealed that the investigation was not being conducted in accordance with the standards of effective investigation. Therefore, I addressed the Special Investigation Service and the Prosecutor General's Office with a proposal to conduct specific investigative procedural actions and change the classification."
The Public Defender also drew attention to ongoing problems with administrative detention. "The issue of the authority to verify the legality of administrative detention was problematic," he said. He explained that judges do not review the legality of the detention itself but consider it as part of separate legal proceedings. "Unfortunately, the proposals and recommendations issued over the years to eliminate this problem have not yet been implemented."
He added that 2024 "was distinguished by the abundance of political gatherings of various scales and forms." The report noted that responses by police varied depending on the size, location, and frequency of the gatherings. However, one of the main challenges was the tendency of law enforcement to disperse entire crowds rather than isolate and address individual acts of violence.
"Despite the existence of a formal basis for the use of police measures in such cases, the right was disproportionately restricted," Ioseliani concluded.
