Government of Georgia intends to pass a so-called «foreign agents law». Civil society opposes the initiative.
More than 400 non-governmental and media organizations operating in Georgia have already signed a petition against the draft law initiated by People’s Power movement. According to the bill, foreign-funded non-governmental and media organizations must be registered as «agents of foreign influence.»
The text of the petition is published on the website of Rondeli Foundation — Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies.
Human rights activists and media organizations call this initiative a «Russian law» and say it is directed against the citizens of Georgia.
«We, the people of Georgia, strongly oppose the bill initiated by the members of the Parliamentary Majority, also endorsed by the Speaker of Parliament and other MPs. We declare that the attempts to adopt this Russian law attack not only the independent civil society organizations and the critical media, but the people of Georgia themselves,» text of the petition says.
Its authors stress that this bill aims to leave defenseless the abused children and women; people with disabilities, minorities, scientists, workers, and the youth; to not provide assistance to the socially vulnerable families, farmers, miners, internally displaced, homeless, illegally laid off, detained, and other people fighting for their rights.
The draft law was initiated to mute the voice of the people living in the peripheries of the country that can only communicate their troubles through the independent media.
As noted, after the introduction of a similar law in Russia, many organizations were forced to shut down.
«Those that continued to operate faced increased control, harassment, and repressions. This is not the type of governance that we have fought for many years to achieve, and Russian law is certainly not the type of governance that Georgian citizens aspire to have in our country,» the petition says.
Adopting this bill will amount to an attack on the key Georgian values of dignity, independence and solidarity with our communities and fellow people.
«Adopting this bill will also damage Georgia’s aspirations of Euro-Atlantic development. This law will obstruct our path to membership of the EU as this law was found illegal in the EU. Moreover, the execution of this law will be impossible without causing insurmountable harm to hundreds of thousands of citizens of Georgia,» authors of the petition stress.
