This page provides information on the national frameworks to address hate crime in Georgia. The information provided here should be viewed alongside data presented on Georgia's hate crime report page.

Hate crime recording and data collection

Since 2020, Georgia has collected and published unified statistical data on hate crimes in accordance with the memorandum on maintaining statistics on crimes committed on grounds of intolerance. 
In October 2023, a new memorandum was signed by the Supreme Court of Georgia, the Prosecution Service of Georgia (PSG), the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia (MIA), the Special Investigation Service (SIS), and the National Statistics Office of Georgia. All participants of the Memorandum collect statistical data on hate crime in accordance with their scope of work. They share information four times each reporting year on data defined in the Memorandum's Annex. The joint report on hate crimes is published on the website of the National Statistics Office of Georgia no later than 1 March each year.
Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are instructed to immediately initiate investigations when they suspect that an offence might have been motivated by bias, in line with provisions of Article 53 (1) of the Criminal Code of Georgia. By a decree of the Minister of the Internal Affairs, investigative units are required to send information about cases for which bias indicators were identified to the Department of Human Rights Protection. The Department examines the crime reports and criminal investigation cases through an electronic program, and generates statistical data about criminal offences involving an element of discrimination. Moreover, Department employees monitor the quality of investigations into criminal cases with bias motive indicators on a daily basis, and analyse the legal proceedings. Through the monitoring process, the Department identifies challenges, emerging trends and develops (or updates) recommendations for employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in order to tackle those challenges and ensure a timely response and the effective investigation of hate crimes.
There is also an external control mechanism, through which information on particular incidents and cases is reported by civil society and other organizations via a dedicated email account and Facebook page. The Ministry of Internal Affairs does not monitor cases that do not constitute a crime.
The Department of Human Rights Protection under the Ministry of Internal Affairs  registers potential hate crimes in a dedicated spreadsheet in accordance with the articles of the Criminal Code of Georgia. The spreadsheet is used to record and analyse statistical data on hate crimes, and contains a reference to a specific indicator to identify the bias motivations listed in Paragraph 1 of Article 531 of Georgia's Criminal Code (namely, bias due to "race", colour, language, sex, sexual orientation, due to intolerance against the equality of women with men, age, religion, disability, citizenship, nationality, ethnic affiliation, and origin). The Department of Human Rights Protection under the Ministry of Internal Affairs has also developed a recommendation on the "Identification and Effective Investigation of Crimes Committed with the Motive of Intolerance on the Grounds of Discrimination." The recommendation provides a definition of hate crime, a methodology for investigating and identifying motives, and outlines circumstances to consider when clarifying the bias motive. The document was distributed to the territorial bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The General Prosecutor's Office has a separate Department of Human Rights Protection responsible for collecting and analysing hate crime data. Following a General Prosecutor order in 2022, all prosecution service employees are obliged to notify the Department of any decisions related to hate crimes and the status of victims.
The Department has developed its own spreadsheet (Ms-Excel format) used to record and analyse statistical data on hate crimes. The spreadsheet includes basic information about the case – including the legal qualification, discriminatory motive, intersectional discrimination, and prosecution decisions and legal grounds thereof – as well as information about the victim, including any disabilities. Information included in the spreadsheet is sent by email to the Department of Human Rights Protection within five days of deciding on the prosecution of the case or the status of the victim.
In the electronic investigation program, a new function was added to indicate one or more bias motivations in several procedural documents issued by the prosecutors. The bias motive can also be indicated in cases where a prosecutor does not pursue prosecution.
As of 2025, the Prosecutor's Office has issued nine recommendations related to hate crimes: 
1.    Recommendation to apply Article 531 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, prescribing a hate motive as an aggravating circumstance;
2.    Recommendation on the legal qualification of hate crimes motivated by an anti-religious bias;
3.    Recommendation to investigate cases involving persons with disabilities;
4.    Recommendation on the "Effective Investigation of and Procedural Guidance over the Crimes Committed against Human Rights Defenders";
5.    Recommendation on "Standards and methods of working with a witness, a victim and a defendant with disabilities";
6.    Recommendation on "Standards and methods of working with a minor witness/victim/defendant with disabilities";
7.    Guideline on "Eliminating Shortcomings Identified in Criminal Cases Involving Persons with Disabilities" (issued in 2024);
8.    Guideline on "Eliminating Shortcomings Identified during the Monitoring of Hate Crime Criminal Cases"(issued in 2024); and
9.    Guideline on "Eliminating Shortcomings Identified during the Monitoring of Femicide Criminal Cases" (issued in 2024).
In addition, a separate tab titled "Crimes motivated by intolerance" has been added to the official website of the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia. This page presents hate crime analysis for recent years and is available in Georgian and English here.

In the judicial system, the Analytical Department of the Supreme Court of Georgia collects and processes judicial statistics, including hate crime cases, and is responsible for ensuring that judicial statistics are made public.
When a bias motive is mentioned in the indictment, a dedicated box is ticked in the court's statistical card along with the specific bias motivation. Depending on the outcome of the case, the bias motive (or lack thereof) is also indicated on the statistical card of the adjudicated case record. If the court determines that the crime was committed with a bias motive, or if the motive of intolerance is highlighted as an aggravating circumstance, the assistant judge fills out a specific form about the bias motivation along with the statistical card of the adjudicated case record.
All statistical cards completed by the assistant judge (regarding both received and adjudicated cases) are periodically submitted to the court registry. The registry staff member transfers the data from these cards into the Excel file of the criminal case management. Each month, this file is sent to the statistics sector of the Supreme Court of Georgia, where data from all district (city) courts are monitored and merged. Preliminary data on hate crimes can be processed from a consolidated Excel file if necessary. At the end of each reporting year, statistics are processed for a joint report after comparing and collating the data provided by the Prosecutor's Office and the statistics sector of the Supreme Court and, if necessary, after monitoring particular cases by consulting the judgments. The courts do not have a joint electronic case management programme combining cases registered by the Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the judiciary lacks the technical means to flag hate crimes and comprehensively manage case files.

Hate crime victim support

While no specific support is offered to hate crime victims in Georgia, victims can receive relevant support through generic victim support services and those dedicated to victims of other crimes.
Georgia's Agency for State Care and Assistance for the (Statutory) Victims of Human Trafficking was set up to protect, assist and promote the rehabilitation of victims of human trafficking, victims of violence against women and/or domestic violence, victims of sexual violence, and persons dependent on victims. Victims of hate crime are often eligible for support through the Agency. Currently, there are six shelters and seven crisis centres in Georgia. In 2025, 813 persons benefitted from the services of facilities for the victims of violence, including shelters and crisis centres. Additionally, a total of 3,896 calls were made to an Assistance Hotline for victims of violence (116 006).
Since 2011, the Prosecutor's Office has offered a Witness and Victim Co-ordinator Service. The Office facilitates victims' and witnesses' involvement in the investigation and proceedings by providing information, communicating between the parties, accompanying the victim or witness to court (when requested), and arranging meetings with prosecutors. Additionally, the Office provides some psychological help and assistance in obtaining accommodation, rehabilitation services and free legal aid. A referral mechanism is also in place. There are also specialized prosecutors, investigators and witness and victim co-ordinators across the country dealing with hate crime cases. Co-ordinators are primarily involved in cases related to hate-motivated crime, in addition to cases where the victim and/or witness is a disabled person, the victim/witness suffered serious physical and moral damage as a result of the crime, and/or when the crime-related stress makes it difficult to communicate with the victim/witness. Individual assessments of victims' needs are not conducted in Georgia.
Witness and victim co-ordinators are involved in criminal proceedings based on a decision of the prosecutor. By a decree of the Prosecutor General of Georgia, prosecutors are obligated to involve witness and victim co-ordinators in hate crime criminal cases as a priority. Prosecutors are also obligated to involve the co-ordinators in criminal cases involving persons with disabilities and criminal cases motivated by gender-based intolerance. In 2025, the Prosecutor's Office victim and witness co-ordinators provided services to 402 victims in relation to 376 criminal cases of hate crime.
The Prosecutor's Office has developed a guidebook for witness and victim co-ordinators and prosecutors. The guidebook includes practical recommendations on the inclusion of a co-ordinator in cases related to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. It also sets out the role, rights and obligations of the witness and victim co-ordinators, as well as the priorities of the Co-ordinator Service.
In 2019, a Witness and Victim Co-ordinator Service was also established at the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), in order to protect the interests of victims and witnesses and to avoid re- and secondary victimization. Since 2024, witness and victim co-ordinator service became a structural unit under the Human Rights Protection Department of the MIA. Since 2021, MIA investigators are authorized to involve the co-ordinator in the criminal case at their discretion before the case is brought to court. The co-ordinator prioritizes communication with the victims of hate crimes, human trafficking, domestic violence and violence against women, or where the victim is a minor or a person with disabilities. The co-ordinator is invited to communicate with the victim and/or witness based on the decision of an investigator, with the goal of evaluating the emotional state of an individual, identifying their needs and providing appropriate services. The co-ordinator is authorized to speak to the victim or witness, to attend the investigative and procedural actions that require their attendance, and to be present at the victim's/witness's interrogation in court.
In 2025, witness and victim co-ordinators of the MIA provided relevant support services in up to 750 criminal cases. 
In 2023, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia introduced an updated risk assessment tool. As a result, more victims were given the opportunity to benefit from the electronic monitoring mechanism used to monitor perpetrators, provided the victim gave their consented. In 2025, the electronic monitoring mechanism was used in relation to 42 perpetrators.

In Georgia, all victims have the following rights: 
•    The right to be informed about the charges brought against the perpetrator, procedural actions and the progress of the investigation; 
•    The right to give testimony; 
•    The right to obtain copies of the main procedural documents and review the materials of the case;
•    The right to indemnity for expenses incurred as a result of their participation in the proceedings; 
•    The right to recover their own property; 
•    The right to request the application of special protection measures; 
•    The right to obtain information about measures of restraint applied to the perpetrator; 
•    The right to request a closed hearing; and 
•    The right to receive information about their rights and obligations. 
Victims of all crimes can claim compensation in the course of civil – but not criminal – proceedings.

Hate crime capacity building

Georgia implemented ODIHR's Training Against Hate Crime for Law Enforcement (TAHCLE) programme in 2019. Following the training-of-trainers, training sessions are delivered to police officers on a regular basis. There is also a basic training course on human rights for police officers and a course to strengthen the qualifications of police investigators.
Since 2020, specialized investigators and prosecutors of the Prosecutor's Office exercise official hate crime duties, including conducting investigations within the Prosecutor's Office, supervising investigation procedures, and supporting the state prosecution in court. The Professional Development Center (Division) of the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia, in co-operation with the Department of Human Rights Protection, conducts a specialized course on hate crimes for prosecutors and investigators of the Prosecutor's Office.
Georgia implemented ODIHR's Prosecutors and Hate Crime Training Programme (PAHCT) in 2017. The training programme was revised in 2020 with support from the Council of Europe as part of a project to combat discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in Georgia. The updated training programme is a mandatory basic component for all specialized investigators and prosecutors of the Prosecutor's Office. In addition, materials on hate crimes are integrated into a training course undertaken by interns prior to their appointment as an intern-prosecutor or intern-investigator.
The High School of Justice is involved in the training process for judges and other officials of the judiciary, and delivers ad-hoc training courses, including sessions focusing on hate crimes. In 2025, the High School of Justice developed a training module on the prohibition of discrimination, covering domestic legislation and international standards, which also includes issues related to crimes motivated by intolerance.