The Republic of Georgia has struggled to uphold its commitment to advancing human rights amidst its ongoing effort to reconstruct a distinct national identity after centuries under the influence of foreign powers. In moments of weakness, the state has historically turned to the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC) to reinforce its political legitimacy in exchange for legal and financial concessions. Because of this arrangement, the GOC has been able to acquire unique privileges and exert significant influence on state policies—especially those concerning moral and religious issues. Expectedly, this has caused difficulties for ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities—all of whom have faced discriminatory legal and extra-legal practices at the hands of the state and private citizens alike. I seek to use publicly available resources and interviews that I conducted with members of these marginalized communities during a service-learning trip to the Republic of Georgia in 2021 to demonstrate that the GOC can be directly connected to recent human rights abuses throughout the country. I also seek to examine the creative and collaborative approaches to non-violent resistance seen in the work of community leaders and NGOs. Finally, I seek to illustrate what a sound response to all of this could look like—for the academic, activist, and foreign-policy strategist alike.

This paper is available upon request.