Responding to news that the Georgian Parliament made the first steps to approve the contentious bill “On transparency of foreign influence,” which is similar to last year’s widely contested and ultimately withdrawn “foreign agents” bill, Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said:
“We urgently call on the Georgian authorities to immediately stop their incessant efforts to impose repressive legislation on the country’s vibrant civil society. The proposed legislation poses a direct threat to the rights to freedom of association and expression, and for this reason it must not be adopted.”
Similar legislation, all modelled on Russia’s infamous and highly repressive and stigmatizing “foreign agents” legislation, have been considered by countries across the post-Soviet region. The de facto authorities in Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia have also announced plans to vote on a “foreign agents” law as part of their legislative efforts.
“This latest attempt by the Georgian government to push through repressive legislation, while suppressing peaceful protests against it, must end now. Georgia’s international partners must not look away from this blatant effort to curb human rights in the country and the cynical attempts to impose overly restrictive legislation that would hinder the ability of people to defend human rights.”
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- United Kingdom
