The ECHR has accepted for consideration a lawsuit filed by Georgian NGOs against the "foreign agent" law.
According to the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA), the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has accepted a lawsuit filed by non-governmental organizations and media outlets against the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence.
As reported by Kavkazsky Knot, in mid-August, the Anti-Corruption Bureau sent letters to six non-governmental organizations accusing them of violating the foreign agent law and threatening them with criminal prosecution for refusing to register. The NGOs stated that they do not intend to register as representatives of a foreign state.
As a reminder, on May 14, 2024, the Georgian Parliament adopted the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence amid mass protests. On June 3, this law, which the opposition and its supporters call the "Russian law," seeing it as a threat to Georgia's European path of development, came into force, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "How the Georgian authorities adopted the law on foreign agents".
According to human rights activists, the court may Designate the case as "particularly important": this designation is given to cases that involve serious human rights violations, JAMnews reports, citing data from the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA).
Georgian media and civil society organizations claim that the Georgian authorities have violated the rights to privacy, freedom of assembly, and freedom of expression, and that the "foreign agent" law has led to discrimination. Furthermore, there is no effective legal mechanism for protecting rights. The applicants note that the restriction of rights was not motivated by the objectives of the law, which is contrary to Article 18 of the Convention on Human Rights, the publication reports.
"NGOs and media organizations, as well as individuals, claim in the Strasbourg court that the 'Russian law' violates the rights protected by the European Convention on Human Rights to freedom of association (Article 11), freedom of expression (Article 10), the right to respect for private and family life (Article 8), the prohibition of discrimination (Article 14), the right to an effective remedy (Article 13), and the limits of restrictions on rights (Article 18)," the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) reports on its website.
"The court accepted the case for proceedings on all articles. Moreover, from the correspondence sent by the court, it follows that the court can assign the case the status of a case with significant consequences. Such status is granted to cases concerning exceptionally important issues of human rights violations," the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) clarifies. association.
"The applicants presented the court with information about the repressive mechanisms and measures of influence applied to human rights and media organizations since the entry into force of the "Russian law," including the recent procedure of freezing the organizations' bank accounts," GYLA summarizes.