The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), on the basis of the Public Defender's requests of February 24 and March 6, prepared a legal report on the so-called "foreign agents" draft laws initiated in the Parliament of Georgia in February 2023 and negatively evaluated the said initiatives.

As it is known to the public, as a result of intense social protests, the discussion of the mentioned draft laws was stopped in the Parliament of Georgia, one of them was withdrawn, and the other one was dropped in the second reading. However, due to the importance of the issue, OSCE/ODIHR continued to work on the Note and presented a broad overview of human rights standards and recommendations related to the issue.

The document focuses on the basic rights that the draft laws have a negative impact on, namely: the rights to freedom of association, to freedom of expression, to respect for private life, to participate in public affairs, and freedom from discrimination. The Note also reviews the US and Australian legislations. It is emphasized that they are fundamentally different cases, have a completely different goal and scale, which is why they do not represent relevant comparative examples in the Georgian context.

The Note reviews the above and other issues. Its full version is available on the link.