Georgia NGOs take foreign agent law to constitutional court, ECtHR
A woman waves a Georgian national flag as she protests the "foreign influence" law outside the parliament building in central Tbilisi, Georgia, May 28, 2024. (AFP Photo)


A group of Georgian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are set to take the "foreign agent" law to the country's constitutional court, local media reported Thursday.

Georgia's Interpress news agency reported that the coalition of NGOs was also preparing a submission to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

Georgian legislators voted Tuesday to override a presidential veto of the foreign agent bill, which has sparked some of the biggest protests seen in the South Caucasus country since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

The bill would require organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from overseas to register as agents of foreign influence, with onerous disclosure requirements and punitive fines for violations.

The vote sets the stage for the speaker of parliament to sign the bill into law in the coming days, despite criticism from the U.S. and European countries, which say the bill is authoritarian, Russian-inspired and undermines Georgia's pro-Western foreign policy.

The Georgian government says the bill is necessary to promote transparency and safeguard Georgia's sovereignty against what it says is a bid by Western countries to drag Georgia into a confrontation with Russia.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who opposes the bill, has called on the country's fractious opposition to unite in opposition to the law ahead of parliamentary elections due on Oct. 26.