At the beginning of the month, Georgian Parliament passed the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) in its third and final reading, in a further attack against civil society organisations and human rights defenders in the country. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OMCT-FIDH), the Human Rights Center and Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) call on the authorities in Georgia to revoke this legislation, which is not compatible with the respect of the rights to freedom of association and expression.
Paris-Geneva-Tbilisi, 30 April 2025 – On 1 April 2025, the Parliament of Georgia passed the new “Foreign Agents Registration Act" in its third and final reading, and the next day, the President of the country signed it. The law will come into legal force on 1st June 2025, 60 days after being signed by the President. This is a stricter version of the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence, which was approved less than a year ago and sparked mass protests in the country. Among other things, the new law introduces criminal liability for those who refuse to register as so-called “foreign agents”.
The “foreign agents” law has been under discussion in Georgia for two consecutive years. The first attempt to pass it in 2023 failed following large-scale protests. The ruling party, Georgian Dream, pledged not to revisit the legislation. However, in May 2024, despite mass protests, an unprecedented wave of criticism, and a presidential veto, the “Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence” was adopted. This law required organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from foreign sources to register as “agents of foreign influence”. The new law FARA passed in April extended this requirement to individuals.
The definition of such “agents” includes those who engage in political activity in the interest of, under the control of, or with funding from so-called “foreign principals” — foreign organisations, governments, or individuals residing abroad. Violations of the law’s requirements are no longer limited to administrative fines, as it was the case in the two first versions, but may now result in criminal liability, including a fine and imprisonment for a term ranging from six months to five years, and be applied to individuals.
The Georgian Dream pretends that the new law is an exact copy of the United States’ (US) 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), created against Nazi propaganda, still in force today. This rhetoric fully mirrors that of the Russian Federation when it adopted its "foreign agents" law in 2012. Like the Russian authorities, the Georgian government omits the essential differences from the US FARA, which rarely applies to organisations that remain independent, even if they receive foreign funding.
It took the Russian Federation five years to extend the requirement to register as foreign agents to independent media, and seven years to apply it to individuals. Georgia has completed this path in just one year. Over thirteen years, Russia’s foreign agents legislation has proven to be a perfect tool for the state to suppress civil society, with dozens of non governmental organisations (NGOs) liquidated, and independent media and opposition figures forced into exile. In addition, "foreign agents" in Russia are banned from teaching, publishing books, receiving honoraria, among many other restrictions. As a result, by 2022, Russian civil society was effectively destroyed — largely due to the foreign agents law. Georgia is following the same path — only at an accelerated pace.
Once the law comes into force on 1st June 2025, human rights NGOs and independent media will face a stark choice: accept the stigmatising label of "foreign agent," go to prison or into exile, or shut down their work entirely.
At the same time, the party Georgian Dream has also recently proposed, and adopted on 16 April 2025, additional restrictive amendments to the Law of Georgia on Grants. According to the changes, organisations will not be able to receive a foreign grant unless they receive the approval of the Government of Georgia or an authorised person or body designated by the Government. To obtain such approval, donors must submit draft agreements to the Government of Georgia or to an authorised body. Receiving a grant without the aforementioned approval is prohibited. The receipt of a prohibited grant will entails legal liability for the recipient, who shall be fined an amount equal to twice the value of the received funds.
Amendments to the Broadcasting law were also adopted, prohibiting Georgian media from receiving foreign funding, which is another step towards tightening control over the media and suppressing independent press.
The Observatory, the Human Rights Center and GYLA condemn the adoption of such laws, as it is clearly not being passed in the name of transparency, but rather to persecute human rights NGOs and independent media, and to suppress freedom of expression and freedom of association in the country.
The Observatory, the Human Rights Center and GYLA call on the Georgian Dream authorities to immediately and unconditionally revoke the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and to respect, protect and promote the rights to freedom of expression and association in the country, in accordance with regional and international human rights standards, particularly Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and Articles 19, and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Georgia is a state party.
