And their programs and activities can be cancelled by state authorities even if they do not violate the law. Nonetheless, the legal consequences are very real for those who are labeled "foreign agents." In Russia, these organisations cannot engage in educational activities in state schools, organise public events or produce or distribute materials for children. As such, the use of the terms "foreign agent" and "agent of foreign influence" is incorrect from a legal point of view - agency activity does not even need to be proved. However, there is a key difference between their legislation and FARA: In the Russian and now-abandoned Georgian versions, "foreign agents" do not need to carry out activities on behalf of a foreign government, political party, business or individual. In drafting their own foreign agent legislation, Russia and Georgia both referred to FARA. The large number of advisory opinions that the FARA unit has issued on individual requests indicates how difficult it can be to determine who should register as a foreign agent. While FARA does not create repressive restrictions on civil society, it can be interpreted extremely broadly if desired. The concept of propaganda has disappeared from it, and its stated purpose is to identify foreign influence in the US and address threats to national security. This law is still in force today but has undergone significant changes. The first foreign agent law, FARA, was enacted in the US in 1938 to counter Nazi propaganda. However, the more authoritarian a regime is, the more negative consequences these laws have on civil society. It also applies to foreign agent legislation in more democratic countries. And this broad and arbitrary classification of foreign agents is not unique to Russia. These vague legal concepts allow executive authorities and courts to interpret the law as broadly as they like and arbitrarily decide who is or isn't a foreign agent. Ever since Russia enacted its foreign agents law in 2012, I have seen how authorities use vague legal concepts like "political activity," "foreign funding" and "foreign influence" to determine whether an NGO is a foreign agent. Human rights groups say the Russian law allows the Kremlin to obstruct the work of NGOs and independent media, as well as to harass dissenting citizens.
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The authors of the Georgia bill compared it to the American Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, which applies to any "agent of a foreign principal." But critics argued that it was a copy of Russia's more repressive foreign agents law. The legislation in Georgia would have required nongovernmental organisations and media outlets that receive more than 20 per cent of their funding from abroad to be included in a special register of "agents of foreign influence." They would also need to file an annual financial declaration or face a USD 9,500 fine. Any organization involved in any way in international activities and deemed by a state to be influencing domestic policy or public opinion runs the risk of being recognized as a foreign agent. From my experience representing NGOs classified as foreign agents, such laws have the potential to be used as a tool against groups providing human rights and social assistance or monitoring the transparency of government agencies. But they all tend to require the registration and singling out of organizations with foreign funding or "influence." In many cases, their activities are also curtailed unreasonably. The interpretation and application of "foreign agent" laws vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The impetus for the adoption of these laws in recent years has come from growing international tensions and concerns of national authorities about foreign influence on domestic affairs and public opinion. And a few days after the withdrawal of the Georgian draft laws, Politico reported that the European Union was going to develop its own register of foreign agents. China, India, Cambodia, Australia and Uganda are among the dozens of countries that have "foreign agent" laws on their books. Over the past decade, they have sprung up in countries across the world.
But the uproar and media focus surrounding the Georgian initiative and its demise should not mask a greater trend when it comes to such laws, which target foreign-funded media and nongovernmental organisations, or NGOs. Massachusetts - After several days of mass protests and clashes between protesters and police in early March, the ruling party of Georgia, a former Soviet state located in the Caucasus, succumbed to pressure and abandoned its proposed laws on foreign agents.
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