GYLA files complaint with European Court of Human Rights regarding November-December 2024 protests
GYLA has filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights regarding the administrative practices of torture and ill-treatment of peaceful demonstrators by law enforcement officials during the November-December 2024 protests.
As stated in the information released by the NGO, the complaint was filed on behalf of four complainants.
“On April 17, 2026, a complaint was filed with the European Court of Human Rights concerning the systematic torture, ill-treatment and other violations committed by law enforcement officers during pro-European demonstrations in November-December 2024. The complaint was filed on behalf of four complainants. GYLA claims in its complaint that the actions taken against them constitute a coordinated administrative practice of discriminatory ill-treatment of protest participants.
However, it is important that GYLA argues that the state’s actions constitute not only a violation of individual rights, but also a gross abuse of power aimed at suppressing pro-European protests and going beyond the limits of the democratic order (Article 17 of the Convention). The dispute in this regard is a novelty in terms of litigation and can be said to be the first of its kind in Georgia. The appeal is filed for the first time in the context of demonstrations.
The main strategy of the appeal is for the court to see and assess what happened during the dispersal of the demonstrations in November-December 2024. In particular, this was not just an individual misconduct or an improperly conducted operation to disperse the demonstration, but the dispersal of the demonstration was organized violence and the starting point of the acute human rights crisis that has been created in the country since November 28, 2024. The court can do this by taking into account the arguments under Article 17 of the Convention and beyond it, under other disputed articles,” GYLA’s information, which is posted on the organization’s website, states.