The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA), Studio Monitori, and Georgian News, along with their heads, have challenged the Foreign Agents Registration Act (the so-called FARA) in the Constitutional Court. The authors of the constitutional complaint are seeking the annulment of the law adopted by Georgian Dream and are also demanding the suspension of the relevant articles until the dispute is resolved.
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On April 1, Georgian Dream adopted the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which violates the Constitution of Georgia. The law aims to silence, discredit, and persecute independent civil society organizations and media outlets, including through the imposition of criminal liability.
Georgian Dream considers this law an analog to the American FARA. However, in reality, the American FARA is a law adopted in 1938 which, considering its historical context and following interpretations from the U.S. Department of Justice and independent courts, aims not to restrict independent public and media organizations but to expose the activities of agents of hostile foreign powers. Furthermore, this regulation applies to cases where individuals funded from abroad do not act autonomously and are fully subject to the instructions of their principals.
According to U.S. court practice, receiving funding from a donor does not, automatically, make the recipient subject to the donor's direction or control. In such cases, the subsidy recipient is not required to register as an agent of the donor.
The constitutional complaint argues that, in parallel with its vague provisions, the law grants unbalanced powers to its enforcing bodies: the Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Prosecutor's Office, and the courts. This increases the risks of the law's arbitrary application.
In such a reality, especially given that Georgian Dream fully controls the Anti-Corruption Bureau, the courts, and the Prosecutor's Office, there's a real danger that FARA will be used against independent civil society organizations and media outlets. This could happen despite the absence of any factual or legal prerequisites, targeting those who assist various oppressed groups, oppose systemic torture, expose the Georgian Dream's anti-European course and corrupt dealings, and cover ongoing political events, Systemic human rights abuses, and more.
The provisions of Georgian Dream's FARA are so vague that they create a real danger of being used to silence and punish independent organizations and individuals. This is further confirmed by the broad interpretations made by the head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau over the past two days regarding this law. To prevent the immediate and irreparable harm arising from the law's enactment, the Constitutional Court is obligated to suspend the challenged norms.
"We do not expect the Constitutional Court to act quickly and by the Constitution. However, we believe that we must use all forms of legal struggle to protect the rights granted by the Constitution," stated Nona Kurdovanidze, Chair of GYLA.
