Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said today that Georgia's "foreign agents" bill, passed on Tuesday, seriously undermines freedom of expression and association.
The newly passed Foreign Influence Transparency Act requires media, nongovernmental organizations, and other nonprofit organizations to register as "organizations pursuing the interests of foreign powers" if they receive more than 20 percent of funding from abroad.
Protests erupted in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, on Tuesday after the bill was passed, with the Georgian opposition denouncing the bill as aimed at cracking down on independent media, civil society, activists and critics of the government.
The chilling effect
Türk said authorities and lawmakers have chosen to ignore warnings from activists and civil society. The bill is now highly likely to have a significant impact on Georgia's right to freedom of expression and association. Filing requirements can also have a chilling effect on those working for civil liberties, greatly limiting their activities.
"Silencing dissenting voices on issues of vital public interest will only complicate the government's ability to respond effectively to the many challenges facing the country and prevent it from adopting sound legislative and policy measures," he said. ”
Türk called for the law to be shelved and urged the authorities to engage in dialogue with the media, civil society organizations and human rights defenders.
Broken promises
Meanwhile, a number of independent United Nations human rights experts also issued statements on Wednesday condemning the law's passage.
Experts say that in March last year, a similar bill was withdrawn because of mass protests. In November of the same year, senior Georgian government officials and parliamentarians assured the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders that the draft would not be introduced again.
"We are appalled that the parliament has accelerated the adoption of this law, even in the face of the unequivocal opposition of a large part of the population in Georgia, while the media and representatives of civil society have been denied access to the proceedings," the experts said. ”
They also expressed grave concern about the speed of parliamentary deliberations, which "do not appear to be engaged in inclusive, transparent and genuine consultation with civil society, society as a whole and the opposition".
Human rights defenders are not enemies of the State
The experts warned that if the president signed the bill, Georgia would be in breach of its human rights obligations, particularly with regard to freedom of association.
"For Georgia, this is a step in the wrong direction," they said. Human rights defenders, young people and peaceful protesters are not enemies of the state. ”
Human rights expert
The co-issuing experts include the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, and the Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity.
Special rapporteurs and working groups are part of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN human rights system, is the general name of the independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanism of the Human Rights Council, dealing with country-specific situations or thematic issues around the world. Special procedures experts work on a voluntary basis. They are not United Nations staff members and do not receive a salary at the United Nations. They are independent from any government or organization and serve the United Nations in their individual capacity.
