The European Court of Human Rights has announced the start of a substantive hearing on the case of the seizure of five civil society organizations

The European Court of Human Rights has communicated the complaint regarding the seizure of the bank accounts of five Georgian civil society organizations - the Center for Social Justice, the Civil Society Foundation, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, the Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) and Safari, which implies the start of a substantive hearing on the case. The information was released by the non-governmental organization Fair Elections.

According to them, the European Court of Human Rights has granted the aforementioned claim the status of a case with significant impact, which means that the court preliminarily assesses that the aforementioned case may have a particular impact on the practice of the court, national legislation and broader human rights and public issues.

"The commencement of the substantive consideration of the case in this mode is an important message to the Georgian authorities that any action aimed at restricting civil society activities, criminalizing human rights activities, and persecuting independent organizations will be subject to international legal assessment and cannot remain without an appropriate response," the information states.

For your information, the organizations applied to the European Court of Justice on October 15, 2025.