The Councils of Religions and Ethnic Minorities of the Public Defender of Georgia express extreme concern regarding the ongoing legislative process in the Parliament of Georgia, which aims to discredit the entire civil society and create a hostile environment for it.

The proposed draft law contradicts the unwavering will expressed by the citizens of Georgia regarding the integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures, the goals and human rights enshrined in the Constitution of Georgia. Adoption of the draft law will be alarming and destructive for the country's democratic development.

The proposed draft law labels the media, civil society organizations, charitable and even religious associations as "agents of foreign influence" and denigrates their entire activities and role in society.

It is fundamentally important to prevent the said draft law or any similar initiative from becoming a law. Passing the law on agents of foreign influence in any form would be extremely damaging to the entire country.

The draft law, if adopted, will directly lead to the violation of several rights at the same time, namely, freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of religion and the right to privacy.

The law will hinder the implementation of charitable, social, humanitarian, educational, scientific-research, health, cultural, sports, ecological, agricultural development projects, as well as programmes of state and public importance, and will harm the beneficiaries of civil society organizations.

It is to be especially emphasized that the adoption of the law on foreign agents (in any form) will be a severe blow to the entire process of civil integration and development of the culture of tolerance.

Therefore, we consider the adoption of the law on agents of foreign influence inadmissible!

Council of Religions

• Holy Trinity Protestant Church
• Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia
• Apostolic Administration of the Latin Catholics
• Evangelical Church of Georgia
• Restored Apostolic Church
• Gospel Faith Church
• Redeemed Christian Church
• Society of Friends – Quakers
• Armenian Catholic Church of Georgia
• Bahá'í Community of Georgia
• Supreme Religious Administration of Georgia’s All Muslims
• Salvation Army
• Georgian Muslims Union
• Seventh-day Adventist Church
• Evangelical Church - Word of Life
• SpiritualCouncil of YezidisinGeorgia
• Evangelical Protestant Church of Georgia
• Dioceseof theArmenian Apostolic Orthodox Holy ChurchinGeorgia
• Ahmadiyya Muslim Association of Georgia
• Evangelical Lutheran Church of Georgia

Council of National Minorities

• Elnur Alisoi (Aliev) - Museum of Solidarity
• Edgar Bitbunov - Caucasus and Middle East Research Center
• Kerim Gumbatli - Resources of Democracy and Integration
• Aleksandre Kavtaradze - Udis of Georgia
• Lili Safarova – Women’s Rights Community Initiative
• Zaza Kalashov - Georgian Kurdish Association"Ronai"
• Giorgi Tumasyan- Peace Foundation
• Rashan Ziadaliev - Center for Civic Engagement and Activism
• Samira Ismailova - Civil Equality Platform
• Mari Mikoyan - GENERATION I
• Zaur Khalilov - Center for Civic Integration
• Naira Bepieva - International Society “Caucasian Mosaic”
• Raina Beleva – Bulgarian Diaspora in Georgia
• Mari Arakelova - Union of Georgian Armenians
• Sussana Khachatryan – “Shushanik” Association of Armenian Women in Georgia.
• Nona Khangoshvili - Community Union for the Well-Being of Pankisi
• Leila Mamedova - Azerbaijani Youth Union of Georgia
• Agit Mirzoev - Center for Participation and Development
• Valentina Marjanishvili - Georgian-Ukrainian Press and Book House
• Jeikhun Narzalov (Mukhamedal) - Red Bridge
• Arnold Stepanian - Public Movement Multinational Georgia