Tear Gas, Violence, and Medals: HRW Slams GD Government Response to Protests
On December 24, Human Rights Watch, a leading international human rights watchdog has issued a statement raising alarm over the Georgian authorities’ violent crackdown on pro-EU protests, and stressing the punitive nature of these actions. “In widespread and apparently punitive acts, security forces have chased down, violently detained, and beat protesters”, the watchdog said, adding that police also tortured and otherwise ill-treated them in police vans and police stations.
“The level of the authorities’ violence against largely peaceful protesters is shocking, blatantly retaliatory, and violates Georgia’s domestic laws and international norms,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
HRW reported that police have used tear gas, water cannons, and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds. It also cited Georgian local rights groups as saying “Since November 28, the authorities have arrested more than 460 protesters, of whom the majority face administrative charges and approximately 30 face criminal charges. The rights groups said that over 300 of those arrested alleged ill-treatment and torture during or following their arrest, with at least 80 of them requiring hospitalization.”
The watchdog also highlighted several testimonies from detained and injured demonstrators, including Avtandil Kuchava, Zviad Ratiani, Aleksandre Keshelashvili, who reflected on the moments of detention and beatings that they experienced.
HRW highlighted that despite international outcry, the Georgian government has doubled down, awarding medals to Interior Ministry officials involved in the crackdown, and said that: “Honoring these officials while investigations are pending shows contempt for the obligation to hold people accountable for the violence.”
The statement reminded the Georgian authorities that under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and European Convention on Human Rights, they have an obligation “to respect the right to freedom of assembly and to refrain in all circumstances from engaging in prohibited ill-treatment”.
HRW also noted that the OSCE recently triggered the Vienna Mechanism, demanding answers from Georgian authorities about arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment. Should Georgia fail to respond, participating states may escalate to the Moscow Mechanism for an independent inquiry, HRW noted.
“Georgian authorities should free all those detained solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to assembly,” Williamson said, adding: “There needs to be a reckoning and accountability for the broken bones and other injuries police intentionally inflicted on so many people.”
“The authorities should immediately call a halt to the police violence, respect the rights to peaceful assembly and expression, and promptly and effectively investigate all allegations of beatings, torture and other ill-treatment,” Human Rights Watch said.
It stressed that such investigations “should ensure not only individual accountability, but command responsibility for the excessive use of force.”
Also Read:
- 11/12/2024 – HRW Representatives Urge EU to Sanction Georgian Officials, Calls for Independent Investigation
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