On June 25, Cindy Dyer, Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, commented about the impact of the Foreign Agents Law on Georgia’s standing in the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons 2024 Report. She noted that while there was great concern about the passage of the law, the impact of the law was hard to identify during the reporting period and it will be monitored in the future.
Asked whether the Foreign Agents Law, which has raised concerns related to the elimination of the role of civil society, would affect Georgia’s standing on anti-trafficking, Dyer said: “With regard to Georgia, we certainly were concerned by the passage of those – kind of that foreign agent law. At this point we are tracking it. Sometimes at the TIP office we note that a country might pass a law during the reporting period, and we might be concerned, but the impacts of that law or the effects of that law we don’t see until the next year.”
She said the US will be monitoring “to make sure that the NGOs that are providing such critical services and the civil society organizations that we rely on, if they begin to have trouble operating, then this is something that we would certainly be tracking as sort of the results of any laws that are passed.”
Also Read:
- 06/06/2024 – BREAKING: US State Department Implements First Tranche of Sanctions against Georgian Individuals
- 29/05/2024 – U.S. Condemns Override of Presidential Veto, Final Adoption of Foreign Agents Law
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