An expert mission on Georgia has begun work under the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Moscow Mechanism starting February 11.
Relevant information related to the mission may be submitted until February 24 via email at moscowmechanism-georgia@odihr.pl.
The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) has already submitted seven reports within the framework of the Moscow Mechanism.
The mechanism concerning Georgia was triggered on January 29, 2026, by 23 OSCE participating states to assess the country’s implementation of its commitments to the organization, with particular attention to developments since spring 2024.
The Moscow Mechanism, which was last used on July 24, 2025, in relation to Ukraine, allows OSCE participating states to deploy expert missions to address specific issues related to the organization’s human dimension.
The mandate of the expert mission to Georgia includes documenting recent developments concerning human rights and fundamental freedoms in the country, assessing their impact on civil society, media freedom, the rule of law, judicial independence, political pluralism, and other structural components of a democratic society, and providing recommendations on how to address identified concerns. This is the first time the Moscow Mechanism has been invoked with regard to Georgia.
The 23 states that initiated the mechanism are Albania, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.
Earlier, in December 2024, 38 OSCE participating states invoked the Vienna Mechanism to express concern over developments in Georgia and request additional information from the authorities. OSCE says concerns increased even after Georgia’s response.
The OSCE human dimension mechanism serves as a monitoring tool for the implementation of commitments undertaken by participating states in the field of human rights and democracy. It consists of two instruments: the Vienna Mechanism, established in the 1989 Vienna Concluding Document, and the Moscow Mechanism, created at the 1991 Moscow Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension, which complements and strengthens the Vienna Mechanism.
