President Zourabichvili slams foreign agents bills from UN tribune

Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili on Monday slammed two bills on transparency of foreign influence proposed by former members of the ruling Georgian Dream party from the United Nations’ tribune. 

 

In her speech at the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women of the UN Economic and Social Council in New York, Zourabichvili stressed the bills were expected to  limit the freedom of NGOs, and “will be harmful to the path of democratic transformation, elimination of gender discrimination and European integration” of the country. 

 

The president said she had already expressed her negative position towards the bills offered by the People’s Power movement, whose members still remain in the parliamentary majority, with the bills expected to be voted on with its first reading in the parliament on Thursday. 

 

The bills that envisage the registration of domestic NGOs and media organizations as foreign agents if they receive more than 20 percent of their incomes from abroad, have been discussed in parliamentary committees amid large public protests. 

 

The bills that are backed by the ruling party have been widely criticized by the international community as a “Russian law”, which “aim at stigmatizing and suppression” of domestic entities being funded by western donors.