CoE Commissioner Intervenes as Third Party in ECtHR Case Against Georgia’s FARA

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty has intervened as a third party in the case challenging Georgia’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), arguing that the law is part of a broader pattern of restrictions seeking to intimidate Georgian civil society organizations. A Georgian version of the U. S. legislation, which came into effect last year as part of broader restrictions cracking down on media and civil society in the country, foresees criminal penalties for those failing to register as “foreign agents” if they receive foreign funding and are considered to be engaging “in political activities for or in the interests” of the “foreign principal.

” A group of Georgian non-governmental and media organizations, including the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, filed a joint application against FARA with the ECtHR in September 2025. GYLA said in April that the Court started examining the case. “The enactment of the Georgian FARA on 1 April 2025 forms part of a broader pattern of restrictive measures intended to intimidate CSOs who are perceived as critical of the government,” O’Flaherty says in the submission , published on September 8. “The aim of the Georgian FARA may have been to discredit civil society activists. ” The Commissioner notes that FARA operates alongside the 2024 Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence [the so-called Foreign Agents Law ], rather than replacing it, while further restrictions were introduced in Georgia since FARA’s adoption on foreign grants, foreign funding of broadcasters, civil society participation in public decision-making, and freedom of assembly and expression. 04/03/2026 – GD Adopts Package Restricting Grants, Political Activity, Lobbying, Government…