Georgia’s rapid decline in civic freedoms has once again triggered international alarm, with the country added to the CIVICUS Monitor’s March 2026 Watchlist alongside Benin, Ecuador, Iran and the Philippines.
The CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist – an alert system for countries experiencing a rapid and significant deterioration in civic freedoms – rates Georgia (with 34/100 points) as “Repressed”, the second worst rating a country can receive, indicating severe restrictions to the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association.
According to the CIVICUS Monitor, the deterioration of Georgia’s civic space has progressed at a rapid rate and Georgia is downgraded from “Obstructed” to “Repressed” after being downgraded from “Narrowed” (points 62/100 points) to “Obstructed” (with 54/100 points) in 2024.
As the platform describes the profile of Georgia in its 2025 report, it notes that this is the first time a country has been downgraded in two consecutive years by the rating platform. According to archives Georgia remained in the Narrowed category from 2018 until 2024.
Photo: CIVICUS Monitor
“In the coming weeks and months, the CIVICUS Monitor will closely track developments in each of these countries as part of efforts to ensure greater pressure is brought to bear on governments. CIVICUS calls upon these governments to do everything in their power to end the ongoing crackdowns immediately and ensure that perpetrators are held to account”, reads the Watchlist report.
The CIVICUS Monitor is an online platform which began in 2017 and tracks the state of freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression in 198 countries and territories.
The rating system includes five categories and countries are assessed on a 100-point scale, where 100 represents the best possible score. The ratings are classified as follows: ‘Closed’ (1–20), ‘Repressed’ (21–40), ‘Obstructed’ (41–60), ‘Narrowed’ (61–80), and ‘Open’ (81–100).
“There are 50 total “Repressed” countries around the world in 2025, including Serbia, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and El Salvador”, – reads CIVICUS Monitor’s report.
In countries with this rating, civic space is significantly constrained. Individuals and civil society actors who speak out against those in power face risks including surveillance, harassment, intimidation, imprisonment, physical harm, and even death. While some organisations continue to operate, their work is frequently obstructed, and they remain under constant threat of deregistration or closure by the authorities.
The CIVICUS Monitor explains that Georgia’s entry to the Watchlist is driven by:
• A relentless wave of restrictive legislation, including new “foreign agents” laws, criminal liability for “extremism against the constitutional order”, and successive amendments criminalising a wide range of protest activities.
• Escalating pressure on civil society and independent media, including politically motivated criminal investigations, administrative inspections, and the freezing of bank accounts.
• Persecution of political opposition, with leading politicians sentenced to jail and criminal cases opened against opposition leaders facing up to 15 years in prison.
The press release published by the CIVICUS Monitor includes the comments by Tara Petrović, Europe researcher for the organization:
“Authorities are introducing sweeping new restrictions at a relentless pace, dismantling civic space piece by piece. This constant stream of repressive laws must be urgently reversed, and provisions that are incompatible with Georgia’s human rights obligations must be repealed in full.”
According to the March 2026 Watchlist, Benin (49/100) and Ecuador (47/100) are rated ‘Obstructed’, while the Philippines (38/100) and Georgia (34/100) fall under ‘Repressed’. Iran (9/100) remains in the ‘Closed’ category, where it has been classified since 2018.
Beyond the CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist, the platform’s 2025 annual global report highlights broader global trends. It recorded rating changes in 18 countries, with 15 downgraded and only 3 upgraded (Gabon, Mauritania and Senegal). Overall, the report finds that civic freedoms are being curtailed in a record number of countries, with civil society under severe pressure in 122 of 198 countries and territories.
Photo: CIVICUS Monitor
The CIVICUS Monitor, which began in 2017, tracks the state of freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression in 198 countries and territories.
The annual report, People Power Under Attack, rates the state of civic space conditions based on data collected throughout the year from country-focused civil society organisations, regionally-based research teams, international human rights indices and the CIVICUS Monitor’s in-house experts. The data from these four separate sources are then combined to assign each country and territory a rating as either open, narrowed, obstructed, repressed or closed.
