The Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (EaP CSF) conducted a survey of 53 civil society organizations in Georgia from July 30 to September 2 to assess the impact of the Foreign Agents Law on the Georgian civil society sector. The law’s consequences have already impacted 70% of surveyed CSOs in various ways, the survey found.
This impact, the survey found, was reflected in organizations and their staff being subjected to online threats and harassment, increased scrutiny by authorities, increased administrative burdens, negative media reports against them, and offline threats and harassment, including verbal and physical threats, the display of posters, and phone calls directed at them or their relatives.
The Foreign Agents Law requires organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from foreign sources to register as foreign agents, officially defined as “organizations pursuing the interests of a foreign power.” From the outset, many organizations said they would not register. The deadline for registration passed in early September, and it’s a matter of time before the Justice Ministry fines organizations for not registering, but “forcibly” registers them anyway. Since the documents of the registered organizations are checked and published first, and only then the Ministry of Justice will start to fine the others that did not comply with the law, there is a hope that this will not be realized before the elections.
Noting that the evasion of registration or submission of an incomplete declaration can lead to recurrent fines up to 25,000 GEL (the equivalent of 8,500 EUR) the document concludes that the “status carries a discriminatory and stigmatizing effect and may lead to self-censorship.” The survey also notes that the law has been widely criticized “for triggering restrictions on the work of activists and independent voices within civil society organizations and curtailing civil society’s ability to hold those in power accountable.”
However, the survey found that most respondents would not consider registering as such foreign agents in a special registry, even if the ruling party remains in power after the October elections.
With organizations facing heavy fines, the survey also found that 75 percent of respondents called for financial support, including funding to cover fees associated with non-compliance. In addition, 62 percent expressed the need for more legal support, including pro bono legal assistance from local lawyers, and 57 percent for advocacy support, including policy dialogue with EU and international stakeholders.
“Heavy reliance on international funding makes CSOs highly vulnerable to the foreign agent law,” the survey notes.
Overall, of the 53 respondents, almost all (94 percent) confirmed that they receive more than 20 percent of their funding from international donors and therefore feel that the Foreign Agents Law will have a “strong impact” on them “due to its overarching stigmatizing effect, disproportionate sanctioning enforcement mechanism, and burdensome administrative and monitoring reporting requirements.”
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