საერთო ცხელი ხაზი +995 577 07 05 63
OTHER /
Statement
Public Statement on the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s Investigation of Our Organization
We wish to inform the public about the inspection initiated by the Anti-Corruption Bureau against the Social Justice Center, which constitutes an arbitrary and aggressive intrusion into the autonomy of civil society organizations and fundamentally violates our freedoms of association and expression, as well as the privacy rights and interests of our beneficiaries.
As is publicly known, based on an order of the Tbilisi City Court, the Social Justice Center and eight other organizations were required to submit to the Anti-Corruption Bureau an unrestricted volume of information about their activities between 1 January 2024 and 10 June 2025. This included sensitive personal data relating to the private lives of beneficiaries. The deadline granted to the organizations for the preparation and submission of this complex and sensitive information was three working days.
According to the court decision, the obligation to provide the information was formally based on several laws — including the Law on Combating Corruption, the Law on Grants, and the Law on Political Unions of Citizens. Notably, the legal basis did not include reference to the so-called “Foreign Agents Registration Act” (FARA), although the Anti-Corruption Bureau had cited that law in its own motion.
It is evident to us that none of the legal grounds cited by the court are relevant to our work. The Social Justice Center is not a political party or an organization that has declared electoral aims under the Law on Political Unions of Citizens. Furthermore, amendments to the Law on Grants only came into force on 17 April 2025 and thus cannot apply retroactively to projects that were already completed before that date. Despite this, the court’s order requires us to submit information related to those past projects.
Beyond the inapplicability of the laws used against us, it is also clear that the evidence referenced in the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s motion — which served as the factual basis for the inspection of our activities — is unsubstantiated and constitutes a serious intrusion into the freedoms of association and expression. Even at first glance, it is evident that the true motive behind the inspection of the Social Justice Center is our critical work in the areas of human rights protection, research, and analysis.
Under the Constitution of Georgia and international human rights law, state interference in the autonomy and operations of independent civil society organizations may only occur when there is a clear and foreseeable legal basis, a pressing public necessity, and full compliance with the principles of proportionality and non-discrimination. In the current proceedings, however, we have yet to be informed of what specific type of legal process the Anti-Corruption Bureau has initiated against us or which precise legal grounds justify its demand for unrestricted access to our organizational information.
The legal uncertainty and arbitrariness demonstrated in the process launched against civil society organizations amounts to aggressive and unlawful interference with the freedom of association and the right to carry out human rights work. It is clear to us that the purpose of this process is to paralyze, control, and weaken civil society operations.
On these and other grounds, the Social Justice Center appealed the City Court’s order to the Court of Appeals on 28 June. Unfortunately, the judge at the Tbilisi Court of Appeals dismissed our appeal immediately upon receipt, without an oral hearing and through an expedited process. The judge issued a final ruling that merely copied the unreasoned order of the first-instance court word-for-word. As a result, the decision issued against us by the Tbilisi City Court has entered into legal force.
Nevertheless, as we have already stated, we will not violate the confidentiality of information protected under the Constitution of Georgia and international human rights standards. The Social Justice Center — which has worked for years with vulnerable social groups (including workers, environmental defenders, ethnic and religious minorities, persons with disabilities, LGBTQI+ people, women, and migrants), and whose core professional, ethical, and legal principles are rooted in protecting the rights, security, and interests of these groups — will continue to protect the personal data and sensitive information of its beneficiaries and third parties. At the same time, as an organization that has worked for over 13 years to advance public interest and common goods — and whose principles of openness and public accountability remain unchanged — we will allow the Anti-Corruption Bureau access only to information directly related to our operations (e.g., grant agreements for funded projects), excluding any personal or sensitive data about third parties.
The political developments unfolding in Georgia clearly indicate an aggressive and accelerated trend toward authoritarian consolidation. One of the central aspects of this process is the narrowing — and ultimate destruction — of civic space. Civil society, as a sphere of critical knowledge, solidarity networks, trusted resources, and independent action, presents a strategic obstacle for authoritarian systems — especially in a context where political institutions have been captured and rendered dysfunctional, and where the judiciary and legal system are openly deployed by the ruling elite as tools for suppressing and controlling citizens.
It is clear that the current political regime is employing mechanisms of legal pressure, discreditation, and delegitimization against civil society organizations in order to suppress not only their organizational autonomy, but also the entire potential for solidarity, activism, and social support. This is especially dangerous given that civil society institutions, social movements, and local initiatives are the last remaining spaces in which it is still possible to imagine alternative, more just and egalitarian political and social futures — and to sustain the impulse for legal and social protection and collective emancipation.
For this reason, it is fundamentally important that we, as a society, take collective action to preserve the alliances, networks, and practices of solidarity that exist within civil society. This is precisely the goal of the authoritarian regime — to leave citizens isolated and submissive.
Our team will continue its work and its struggle to protect and support the rights of individuals, communities, and movements.
