Human Rights Watch: 'Adoption of FARA law will further deepen human rights crisis in Georgia'

Human rights in Georgia report

The international human rights organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) is urging the Georgian parliament not to adopt a law modelled on the US FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act), warning that it would criminalise civil society activists and NGOs that refuse to register as “foreign agents.”

Georgian vs. American 'foreign agent' law: What's the difference?

Experts: “What matters is not where the law comes from, but who enforces it.”

“The draft law violates core human rights standards and, if adopted, will seriously harm Georgia’s civil society and further deepen the human rights crisis fuelled by the government in recent months.

If passed and enacted, the law would present independent activists and organisations with a false choice: accept an unjustified and stigmatising ‘foreign agent’ label, face imprisonment or exile, or abandon their work altogether.

This could mark the end of independent civil society in Georgia,” said Hugh Williamson, HRW’s director for Europe and Central Asia.

HRW also notes that leading human rights bodies have found that Georgia’s 2024 Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence similarly breaches human rights norms.

“The government is pushing Georgia deeper into a human rights crisis. It can still prevent further damage and show some respect for human rights and the rule of law by withdrawing the foreign agents bill,” Williamson added.

How US FARA differs from Georgia’s ‘foreign agents’ law – lawyer explains

“If the Georgian Dream’s law were truly identical to the American one, it wouldn’t apply to independent organisations,” Brachveli says.

On 18 March, Georgia’s one-party parliament approved the “Foreign Agents Registration” bill in its second reading — a law modelled on the US FARA. However, civil society in the country doubts that the authorities will apply it in the same way as its American counterpart.

According to the Social Justice Center, a reasonable interpretation of FARA would exclude media and NGOs from its scope, but the ruling Georgian Dream party sees the law specifically as a tool for gaining control over them.