Public Defender Criticizes Justice Minister's Decree on Foreign Agents Law
By Liza Mchedlidze
Tuesday, September 3, 2024
On August 30, Public Defender Levan Ioseliani addressed Justice Minister Rati Bregadze, expressing concern over the Minister's August 1 decree related to the "Foreign Agents" Law. Ioseliani contends that the decree, which outlines the "procedure for the preparation of the register of organizations carrying out the interests of the foreign power, submission of financial declaration and monitoring," introduces risks of discrimination and arbitrary state actions.
The Foreign Agents Law does not specify the details required in the financial declarations of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), leaving this to the discretion of the Justice Minister. According to Ioseliani, the decree permits the publication of sensitive personal information about employees of these NGOs, including names, personal identification numbers, and bank account details.
Ioseliani argues that such disclosure is both unjustified and harmful, having a "strong restrictive, chilling, and stigmatizing effect" on employees working for organizations affected by the law. He has urged the Justice Ministry to revise the decree to exclude the publication of personal data, suggesting that financial details and the purposes of foreign funding be shared in a depersonalized manner or as aggregate totals.
The Foreign Agents Law is currently under scrutiny by the Constitutional Court of Georgia, which is expected to make a decision soon regarding the admissibility of the constitutional claims. The court may also consider a request to temporarily suspend the law's provisions until a final ruling is issued.
In his Amicus Curiae brief submitted to the court, Ioseliani highlighted that the law unfairly targets certain organizations by assigning them a distinct status based on foreign funding, which he argues stigmatizes these entities and hampers their operations.
