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Georgia Faces Constitutional Crisis & Crackdown on Civil Society

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1. Georgia Faces Constitutional Crisis as Ruling Party Loses Votes Necessary for Key Constitutional Issues 

2. New NGO and Media regulations were announced by the Georgian Dream as a response to Western pressure and sanctions.

Tbilisi, Georgia – The ruling Georgian Dream party faces an unprecedented constitutional crisis as the country’s parliament verges on losing its ability to function. Following the mass resignation and removal of opposition MPs, the legislature now risks falling below the threshold required for critical decision-making, rendering it effectively paralyzed.

Constitutional Gridlock and the 2/3 Majority Rule 

Under Georgia’s Constitution, certain critical decisions—including constitutional amendments, judicial appointments, impeachment procedures, and issues related to territorial integrity—require a supermajority of at least two-thirds (2/3) of the full Parliament.

Following the cancellation of 49 opposition MPs’ mandates of three opposition coalitions, Parliament has been reduced to just 101 active members. It is to be underlined that there is a fourth opposition party (for Georgia) with 12 mandates still legally represented. If the body loses two more members (very high probability), the ruling party will no longer be able to secure the required 2/3 threshold, rendering key governance functions inoperative.

The Constitution explicitly states:

  • Article 19: Amendments concerning land ownership require a 2/3
  • Article 35: The Public Defender of Georgia must be elected by a 3/5
  • Article 45: Approval of constitutional agreements requires 3/5
  • Article 47: Ratification and abrogation of international treaties require a full-majority vote, with treaties concerning territorial integrity requiring a 3/4 majority.
  • Article 48: Impeachment of the President requires a 2/3
  • Article 60: Constitutional Court judges must be appointed with a 3/5
  • Article 64: Members of the High Council of Justice must also be elected with a 3/5
  • Article 77: Constitutional amendments require a 2/3 majority for adoption and presidential submission.

The Immediate Crisis: Inability to Govern 

On February 5, 2025, Parliament effectively voted on its own incapacity by approving the removal of opposition MPs, further undermining its ability to function. If just two more MPs step down, the ruling party will no longer control the legislative process for constitutional matters, creating an unprecedented deadlock.

Several key areas will be directly impacted by this crisis:

  • Territorial Integrity and Border Decisions: Parliament will be unable to make decisions related to Georgia’s territorial integrity, a crucial issue amid regional tensions.
  • Judicial Appointments: The term of Constitutional Court Judge Merab Turava is set to expire on March 20, requiring 90 votes for a replacement. Without Gakharia’s faction entering Parliament, this threshold cannot be met, leaving the judiciary in limbo.
  • Presidential Impeachment: Any attempt to remove the President would be constitutionally impossible without the required 2/3 majority.
  • Lawmaking Paralysis: The ruling party will be unable to pass constitutional amendments, leaving critical governance matters unresolved.

Political Fallout and Financial Repercussions

Beyond the legal paralysis, the opposition’s resignation has financial consequences. Under Georgian law, parties maintaining a parliamentary presence are entitled to budgetary funding. By voluntarily surrendering their mandates, opposition parties—including the Coalition for Changes, Strong Georgia, and Unity-National Movement—will lose government financing, intensifying the political standoff.

Additionally, the opposition party “for Georgia” has so far refused to apply for mandate cancellation but remains outside the parliamentary process. Giorgi Gakharia, the party’s leader, has declared that he will not legitimize a one-party Parliament, further complicating legislative proceedings.

Path Forward: New Elections as the Only Solution?

The disintegration of Parliament into an ineffective body has raised urgent questions about the necessity of new elections. In established democracies, when a Parliament becomes functionally incapacitated due to a lack of quorum for decision-making, new elections are often called to restore governance. With the Georgian Dream already unable to push through constitutional amendments, territorial integrity or border issues (requires 113 votes), as well as significant legislative changes, the political pressure for a new electoral process is mounting.

The ruling party, which has spent the past three months moving from political delegitimization to legal incapacity, now finds itself trapped in a self-created crisis. With every additional mandate lost, the government edges closer to institutional collapse, making early elections increasingly only scenario for the country to function.

New regulations and laws accounted against NGOs and Media

 The Georgian Dream’s policies increasingly resemble reactive measures driven by frustration rather than strategic governance. With the majority of opposition figures now sidelined from Parliament, the ruling party has unveiled a new slew of measures targeting the bedrock of Georgian civil society. In a recent declaration, Mamuka Mdinadze, leader of the parliamentary majority, stated, “In the face of increased pressure, coercion, blackmail, and threats to our nation’s stability and sovereignty, our response will only grow firmer. We will continue to adopt both legal and political measures to ensure Georgia’s resilience against external manipulation, fortify our institutions, and safeguard our internal affairs from foreign interference.”

This rhetoric foreshadows the introduction of legislation aimed at further constricting the operating space for NGOs and the media. He said that Russian foreign agents’ law will be replaced by two new pieces of legislation, separate for NGOs and Media. He promised “translated US FARA and BBC regulation to be brought to parliament for approval.” However, given past attempts to equate Russian-style laws with American legal standards, the implications of such measures are troubling.

Moreover, Mdinadze has signaled significant alterations to the Grants Law, which has been a cornerstone of support for civil society in Georgia, surviving previous governmental efforts to curtail civic freedoms unscathed. Additionally, the government plans to withdraw from commitments made under the Open Government Partnership (OGP), including the elimination of statutory provisions that facilitate NGO participation in public decision-making processes.

While the government has left a window open for negotiation by scheduling these proposals for parliamentary consideration within the next two to three months, this appears to be a strategic move. By presenting such contentious policies, the Georgian Dream seems to be positioning itself to compel civil society leaders to engage in talks, potentially under duress, as a condition for acknowledging the legitimacy of the Parliament. Additionally, the government plans to establish a state-managed grant fund for public organizations, aiming to replace foreign funding sources with domestic alternatives.

The unfolding situation in Georgia underscores the fragility of democratic institutions when political maneuvering overrides constitutional stability. Whether this crisis results in renewed political legitimacy through elections or further governance paralysis remains to be seen.

Georgia Faces Constitutional Crisis & Crackdown on Civil Society Read More »

GD’s New Legislation Tightens Grip on Dissent and Accelerates Dictatorship

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The Georgian Dream (GD) party has unveiled yet another wave of legislative changes designed to tighten its grip on power, ramping up penalties for a variety of offenses—many of which directly target protesters, critics, and political dissenters. Among the most striking changes:

  • harsher punishment for “insulting officials,”
  • a new criminal offense for a public insult on politicians and other high-ranking officials,
  • the transformation of public calls for “violence” from an administrative violation into a felony punishable by up to three years in prison,
  • increase in administrative detention term from 15 to 60 days,
  • prohibition of protest in any building without prior consent of an owner (it will include universities, theaters, and most of the large public spaces).

These amendments were announced on February 3 by GD parliamentary majority leader Mamuka Mdinaradze following a political council meeting and they were approved by first reading by the parliamentary committees the same day. In his usual combative rhetoric, Mdinaradze framed the crackdown as a necessary response to what he called the ongoing efforts of “Deep State agents” to overthrow the government. He declared that the ruling party requires “the appropriate tools and means to govern the country” and to “serve the citizens.” In reality, these measures seem aimed at silencing dissent and literally curbing freedom of speech rather than addressing any genuine threats to governance.

Mdinaradze clarified that this is just the beginning: “The process will continue until the imposed norms are completely replaced by the adoption of norms necessary for the proper functioning and independence of the state.”

The New Rules of Repression

The proposed legislation includes an array of new restrictions and harsher penalties:

  1. No more spontaneous protests: Holding indoor rallies without prior permission from the building owner will be explicitly prohibited. This is particularly significant given that many universities, theaters, and public institutions are state-owned—effectively banning protests on those premises. Understanding the context, universities have been on top of the protests in Georgia since 1988.
  2. Steeper penalties for dissent: Administrative offenses such as petty hooliganism, disobeying police orders, vandalism, and blocking court entrances will now carry increased fines and detention periods.
  3. Extended administrative detention: The maximum period for administrative detention will skyrocket from 15 to 60 days. Understanding the context, Georgia was constantly criticized by international human rights institutions for long administrative detention periods (used to be 90 days long), and it was the Georgian Dream coalition government that brought it down to 15 days years back.
  4. Criminalizing speech: Insulting a public official in connection with their work will become a new administrative offense, giving authorities yet another tool to silence criticism. Obviously, there is no definition or framework for an insult. Under current Georgian reality, anything, including a cynical Facebook post, will qualify. 
  5. Jail time for speech-related crimes: Public calls on disobedience to law enforcement officials, refusal to obey the law, and calls on “violence,” previously met with fines, will now lead to imprisonment of up to three years. And again, there is no framework or definition for “calls of violence.”
  6. Crackdown on resistance to police: Resisting, threatening, or using violence against law enforcement will now be classified as a “major crime” punishable up to ten years of imprisonment.
  7. Harsher punishment for harming police: New aggravating circumstances will be introduced for attacking police officers, state authorities, or their family members. Again, for the context, arrests against activists were always marked by the heavy use of this particular law. We have a handful of case laws where “harming policeman” is defined by the court based on the testimony from the policeman: “I felt pain in my cheek”. Write now: a journalist in pretrial detention is waiting for a five-year sentence strictly for those words said by a policeman during testimony.  
  8. Criminalizing vague ‘threats’: A new criminal code amendment will punish threats of attack, incitement or violence against political and state officials, providing broad leeway for interpretation and potential abuse.

What This Means for Georgia

The only tool the government is left with is the power of force. They solely and heavily rely on repressive power. There is no soft power left, no arguments or convincing. The mood of dissent is increasing, and the number of those protesting magnifies every day. Georgia has been on daily protests for over two months now, and there is no sign that it will change without the government freeing political prisoners and calling for new elections.

So, Georgian Dream decided to make peaceful protests riskier as a deterrence. GD grants itself sweeping new powers to detain demonstrators, silence critics, and police online discourse massively. Students protesting in universities? Banned. Actors speaking out in theaters? Potentially criminalized. Calling a regime official a name on social media? That, too, will soon be grounds for punishment.

These measures announced just one day after peaceful demonstrations on February 2, make it clear that GD is not simply reacting to threats—it is preemptively rewriting the rulebook to eliminate any kind of resistant speech. GD’s ominous warning that “there will be a continuation” suggests that this is only the first phase of an escalating crackdown.

In essence, GD is laying the legal foundation for something much bigger: a system in which opposition is discouraged and criminalized.

GD’s New Legislation Tightens Grip on Dissent and Accelerates Dictatorship Read More »

The Road to Dependency: Chinese Banks Eyeing Georgia

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A new report by Civic IDEA examines a key development stemming from the Sino-Georgian strategic partnership: the potential entry of Chinese banks into the Georgian market.

The report highlights recent meetings between the central banks of Georgia and China, during which the National Bank of Georgia consistently expressed interest in the presence of Chinese state-owned banks in Georgia.

It also addresses the risks and challenges linked to Chinese financial institutions, citing examples of “debt-trap diplomacy” in countries such as Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, and Montenegro.

The Road to Dependency: Chinese Banks Eyeing Georgia Read More »

EMERGING CONCERN Chinese Surveillance Cameras in Georgia

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A new report by Civic IDEA explores an emerging dimension of China-Georgia law enforcement cooperation: the procurement of Chinese surveillance technology by Georgian government institutions.

Drawing on publicly available data, the report examines state procurement of Chinese surveillance cameras between 2019 and 2024, revealing a growing trend in the acquisition of this technology by Georgian authorities.

The report’s final section highlights the significant challenges associated with Chinese surveillance technology, including data insecurity, vulnerability to cyber-attacks, human rights concerns, and close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. These issues have led to the banning of Chinese surveillance technology in several Western countries.

CHINESE SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS REMAIN A GLOBAL CONCERN

EMERGING CONCERN Chinese Surveillance Cameras in Georgia Read More »

Evidences of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment and persecution against protest participants in Georgia

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Individual Cases of Torture and Violence against Protestors in Georgia

November 28 – December 18

This document was prepared by “Georgia’s European Orbit” and Human Rights’ Center of the University of Georgia based on publicly available sources, including media footage, victim testimonies, statements from non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The information provided is intended for informational purposes.

🔗 Full report 🔗

Criminal Cases

November 29 - December 17

The present document concerning the ongoing criminal cases is based on publicly disclosed information provided by media outlets and investigative authorities. It is subject to periodic updates in accordance with publicly available data. The document was prepared by “Georgia’s European Orbit” and Human Rights’ Center of the University of Georgia. The information provided is intended for informational purposes.

🔗 Full report 🔗

Evidence of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment and persecution against protest participants in Georgia

December 9-18

This document was prepared by “Georgia’s European Orbit” and Human Rights’ Center of the University of Georgia based on publicly available sources, including media footage, victim testimonies, statements from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and reports from the Public Defender’s Office. The information provided is intended for informational purposes and reflects the findings of the human rights lawyers based on these sources.

🔗 Full report 🔗

Evidences of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment and persecution against protest participants in Georgia Read More »

Illegitimate Parliament Set to Elect President in Violation of Constitutional Deadlines

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The unfolding political drama in Georgia reaches new heights of lawlessness as the illegitimate parliament prepares to elect the country’s president on December 14. Not only does this act arise from a body lacking legitimacy, but the election itself flagrantly violates constitutional deadlines and established legal procedures.

The move, orchestrated by “puppet master1” echoes previous attempts to subvert democratic processes, such as the parliamentary session convened before the Constitutional Court’sruling.

The Georgian Constitution (Article 50) clearly stipulates that “the President of Georgia is elected for a term of five years, without debate, by open voting by the electoral college.”
Furthermore, the organic law—defined as the Election Code of Georgia—establishes the procedural framework for presidential elections in Chapter XI, titled “Elections of the

President of Georgia.” Specifically, the Election Code mandates that the presidential election must occur within 45 days after the first session of the newly elected parliament. As the parliament’s inaugural session took place on November 25, the constitutionally valid deadline for the election would be January 9, 2025. Scheduling the election for December 14 not only shortens this timeline without justification but also disrupts key procedures enshrined in the Election Code.

The Legal Violations

1. Election Deadlines Ignored

According to Article 97 of the Election Code, presidential candidates must be nominated at least 30 days before the election and only after the composition of the electoral college is approved. This means that for a December 14 election, the deadline for nominating candidates would have been November 15. However, by November 15, the Central Election Commission (CEC) had not even published the summary minutes of the parliamentary elections (released on November 16).

2. Exceptional Cases Clause Misused

The Election Code (Article 14.1.c) allows the CEC to modify deadlines only in “exceptional cases” where it is impossible to meet the requirements of the law. Such decisions require detailed documentation justifying the circumstances that made adherence to the deadlines unfeasible. In this instance, no such explanation was provided.

3. Irregular Candidate Nomination Process

The CEC approved the electoral college’s composition on December 2, yet a presidential candidate was nominated on November 27—five days before the electoral college’s official formation. This premature nomination contravenes the Election Code. Additionally, the CEC has failed to publish the required documentation, including the formal notice of candidate nomination signed by at least 30 members of the electoral college. ​

The “puppet master” Strikes Again

This blatant disregard for constitutional and legal norms highlights a disturbing pattern of authoritarian manipulation. The same “puppet master” that orchestrated prior unconstitutional parliamentary sessions has now branded the presidential election process with similar illegitimacy.

Georgia’s democratic institutions and constitutional order are being systematically undermined. This latest transgression demonstrates that the illegitimate parliament is not only willing to consolidate power by any means necessary but is also unashamedly disregarding the rule of law.

Illegitimate Parliament Set to Elect President in Violation of Constitutional Deadlines Read More »

“Examining the Environmental and Social Impact of the Belt and Road Initiative: Civic IDEA Leads Panel at CITW 2024 Summit”

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On November 24, Ani Kintsurashvili, Senior Researcher at Civic IDEA, alongside Tinatin Khidasheli, Chairwoman of Civic IDEA, led a panel discussion titled “Lessons Learned from the BRI: Examining Environmental Hazards and Regulatory Shortcomings” at the CITW 2024 summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

The panel examined environmental and social challenges from Chinese BRI projects in Africa and the South Caucasus. The speakers highlighted that since the launch of the BRI, Chinese investments have attracted significant global attention, increasingly burdening many developing states worldwide and sparking controversies related to environmental concerns, and debt sustainability. 

The session also emphasized the risks to communities, ecosystems and biodiversity and emphasize the need for stronger monitoring, regulatory frameworks, due diligence, and improved information sharing to mitigate spillover effects.

Tap to see the presentation:

“Examining the Environmental and Social Impact of the Belt and Road Initiative: Civic IDEA Leads Panel at CITW 2024 Summit” Read More »

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