476 CSOs Register by Foreign Agents Law Deadline

The deadline for registering as “organizations pursuing the interests of a foreign power” with the National Agency for Public Registry under the Foreign Agents Law expired on September 2. In the one-month window provided by the law for voluntary registration, 476 organizations applied to the Ministry of Justice with such a request, as announced by Tamar Tkeshelashvili, First Deputy Minister of Justice. From today – September 3, 2024 – the Ministry of Justice will have the right to forcibly register other CSOs, as well as to impose fines and conduct so-called “monitoring” activities in the organizations.

According to some media sources, the number of registered organizations is only 1.5% of all registered CSOs in Georgia – their total number is speculated to be more than 30,000 (Geostat lists 3758 organizations as “active” – a number that also includes public agencies). During the registration process, the government didn’t spare any efforts to ensure that as many organizations as possible would register, keeping the Public Service Hall open on Sunday. Meanwhile, some CSOs’ representatives held a protest in front of the hall with banners that read “Dear Comrade, Don’t Become a Foreign Agent.”

Following the reintroduction of the Foreign Agents Law in April, many CSOs repeatedly announced that they would not comply with the “Russian-style law” and would not voluntarily register as foreign agents. The reintroduction of the law was followed by months of non-stop protests.

On August 29-31, the Constitutional Court held hearings on the law following five separate appeals filed against the law, including an appeal by Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili. The Court has yet to announce its decision on the admissibility of the constitutional claims and, more importantly, whether to temporarily suspend the practical provisions of the law pending its final ruling, as requested by the plaintiffs.

‘Due to the Russian Law, this Organization is Temporarily Closed’

Some organizations, which have smaller budgets and depend on small amounts of foreign donations, have announced that they will cease operations and shut down either temporarily or permanently due to the Foreign Agents law.

The charity organization “Revolution of Kindness“, founded by a teacher and his students in Samtredia, Western Georgia, announced its liquidation on August 29. The director of the fund explained the decision by saying that he was receiving help from his foreign friends who were sending him some money every month (about 1200-2000 GEL or 450-750 USD), which would be enough to help 3-5 families. This amounted more than the 20% of donations that would force the organization to register.

Another charity organization “Animal Project” also announced the difficult decision on August 30. Its founder, Mariam Tsertsvadze, wrote on Facebook that due to the Agent’s law, the organization will soon be closed and that they will hold the last fundraising event to collect some money to pay the hospital bills for the animals already in their care and to ensure their well-being at least for a while.

One more organization “Eco Center“, which works on environmental issues, announced both the decision to close down and to register in the Registry. The organization stated that after much consultation with their lawyers, they have decided to register due to the impact paying the fines would have on the organization, but without any plans to continue their activities if the law is not withdrawn after the elections.

That’s Shameful, ‘Shame Movement’!

On August 30, one of the largest civil movements in Georgia, the Shame Movement, announced in a social media video that after “much deliberation on choosing the lesser evil” the organization had decided to register in the Foreign Agents Registry.

The members of the organization explained that the reasons behind the decision were that they have already been called “agents” due to the government’s propaganda; that the registration doesn’t give them the status of “agents” according to the new law; that their main goal is to maintain functioning for the October elections, not to be fined, and to not get to the point where they have to close down due to the amount of fines they would have to pay.

The Shame Movement’s decision was widely criticized by the Georgian CSO community, which accused the organization of abandoning the principles it had pledged to uphold. Many could not resist the temptation to play with words, calling the “Shame”s decision (which was taken while the law was being considered in the Constitutional Court) “a real shame.”

Many CSO representatives pointed out that the Shame Movement was one of the most active organizations during the protests against the law and shouldn’t have withdrawn now, giving people a feeling of nihilism. At the same time, they pointed out that a lot of money was raised during the protests to help in various ways, such as paying the fines of people arrested by the government, so there is hope that if an organization faces an obstacle in paying the fine, people will help them.

While many in the Georgian civil society condemned the move, the ruling GD party sarcastically scolded the criticism of the Shame Movement and gleefully welcomed its decision. GD’s parliamentary majority leader, Mamuka Mdinaradze, wrote on Facebook that “fascist bullying against anyone is unacceptable!” followed by smiling and winking emojis and called on everyone to “keep their hands off the Shame Movement,” adding that “even the bullying of the Shame Movement is shameful!”

The negative comments from civil society and the uncomfortable compliments from the ruling party put pressure on the Shame Movement to reconsider its decision. As a result, on August 31, the organization announced that it had changed its mind and would no longer register in the Registry. The Movement said that its decision was poorly timed and announced it in a wrong way, adding it was important for the movement to take into consideration the society’s criticism. The movement also announced a change in its leadership, saying that Giorgi Mzhavanadze had left the position of director and that the organization would continue its work with a different leadership.

“Our decision was based on the goal of conducting planned campaigns to increase voter turnout in order to facilitate a change of government in the October elections, but based on the feedback, we believe that we have contributed to sowing nihilism and disillusionment even among our associates, which is clearly detrimental to the overall goal in both the short and long term,” stressed the organization.

The GD was quick to react: “Unfortunately, fascist bullying defeated the “Shame Movement”,” Mdinaradze wrote again, adding: “We couldn’t save them, they won’t register.”

Also Read:

• 02/09/2024 – Public Defender Outlines Risks in Implementing Regulations of the Foreign Agents Law
• 31/07/2024 – U.S. Pauses USD 95 Million Assistance to Georgian Government
• 19/06/2024 – Paweł Herczyńsky: Adoption of Foreign Agents Law Has Frozen Georgia’s EU Integration
• 30/05/2024 – OSCE/ODIHR Legal Analysis: Agent’s Law Incompatible with International Human Rights Law
• 21/05/2024 – Venice Commission Strongly Recommends Repeal of Foreign Agents Law

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