MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, October 21 (IPS) – When 1000’s of Georgians crammed the streets of Tbilisi in 2023 to protest towards their authorities’s proposed ‘overseas brokers’ regulation, they understood what their leaders had been attempting to do: this wasn’t about transparency or accountability; it was about silencing dissent. Although the federal government was compelled to withdraw the laws, it returned with renewed dedication in 2024, passing a renamed model regardless of even larger protests. The regulation has successfully frozen Georgia’s hopes of becoming a member of the European Union.
Georgia’s repressive regulation is only one instance of a disturbing international pattern documented in CIVICUS’s new report, Slicing civil society’s lifeline: the worldwide unfold of overseas brokers legal guidelines. From Central America to Central Asia, from Africa to the Balkans, governments are adopting laws that manufacturers civil society organisations and unbiased media as paid brokers of overseas pursuits. Overseas brokers legal guidelines are proliferating at an alarming fee, posing a rising menace to civil society. Since 2020, El Salvador, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua and Zimbabwe have all enacted such legal guidelines, whereas many extra states have proposed comparable measures.
Russia established the blueprint for this structure of repression in 2012, when Vladimir Putin’s authorities launched laws requiring any civil society organisation that acquired overseas funding and engaged in broadly outlined ‘political exercise’ to register as a overseas agent. This provided an unattainable selection: settle for a stigmatising designation that successfully manufacturers organisations as overseas spies, or stop operations. Russia repeatedly expanded its crackdown, and by 2016, no less than 30 teams had chosen to close down somewhat than settle for the designation. The European Court docket of Human Rights has unequivocally condemned Russia’s regulation as violating elementary civic freedoms, but this hasn’t prevented different states eagerly adopting the identical mannequin.
The pretence that these legal guidelines promote transparency is essentially disingenuous. Civil society organisations that obtain worldwide help are already topic to rigorous accountability necessities imposed by their donors. In distinction, governments typically obtain substantial overseas funding but face no equal disclosure obligations. This double normal reveals the true function of those legal guidelines: not transparency, however management. In apply, nearly any public curiosity exercise will be deemed political beneath overseas brokers legal guidelines, together with human rights advocacy, election monitoring and efforts to strengthen democracy. States intentionally go away definitions obscure and broad to permit discretionary enforcement and concentrating on of organisations they don’t like.
The impacts will be devastating. Nicaragua supplies a very excessive instance of the usage of overseas brokers legal guidelines to dismantle civil society. President Daniel Ortega has used such laws as a part of a complete repressive arsenal that has shuttered over 5,600 organisations, roughly 80 per cent of all teams that after operated within the nation. State safety forces have raided suspended organisations, seized their workplaces and confiscated their property, whereas 1000’s of lecturers, activists and journalists have been pushed into exile. With solely state-controlled organisations remaining operational, Nicaragua has develop into a full-blown authoritarian regime the place unbiased voices have been eradicated and civic house has slammed shut.
In Kyrgyzstan, a overseas brokers regulation handed in March 2024 has had a direct chilling impact. Organisations have scaled again their actions, some have re-registered as industrial entities and others have proactively ceased operations to keep away from fines for non-compliance. The Open Society Foundations closed its long-established grant-making workplace within the nation. In the meantime, in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele’s authorities imposed a punitive 30 per cent tax on all overseas grants alongside stigmatising labels and registration necessities, forcing main civil society organisations to close down their workplaces.
Overseas brokers legal guidelines impose systematic limitations by means of complicated registration processes, demanding reporting necessities and frequent audits that drive many smaller organisations to shut. The specter of harsh penalties – together with heavy fines, licence revocations and imprisonment for non-compliance – creates a local weather of concern that ceaselessly results in self-censorship and organisational dissolution. By limiting overseas funding whereas providing no measures to increase home funding sources, governments make civil society organisations depending on state approval, curbing their autonomy. And by forcing them to put on the stigmatising ‘overseas agent’ label, governments guarantee they lose public belief, making it more durable to mount a defence when additional crackdowns comply with.
But there are grounds for hope. Civil society has proven exceptional resilience in resisting overseas brokers legal guidelines, and road mobilisation and authorized challenges have generally stalled or rolled again these measures. Ukraine’s speedy reversal of its 2014 overseas brokers regulation following mass protests confirmed that rapid pushback can come when the political second is correct. Ethiopia modified its restrictive 2009 regulation in 2019, whereas Hungary was compelled to drop its 2017 regulation following a 2020 European Court docket of Justice ruling. In Could 2025, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Constitutional Court docket suspended a overseas brokers regulation, recognising it violated freedom of affiliation.
Worldwide authorized stress has been very important. The European Court docket of Human Rights’ categorical condemnation of Russia’s laws established essential precedents. These choices supplied a basis for difficult comparable legal guidelines elsewhere. Nevertheless, authoritarian governments could adapt their methods and implement new variations of restrictive laws, as seen in Hungary’s 2023 introduction of a brand new ‘sovereignty safety’ regulation.
The acceleration of this pattern since 2020 displays broader patterns of democratic regression world wide. Authoritarian political leaders are capitalising on legit issues about overseas interference to create authorized instruments that serve their repressive agendas. The hazard extends past present adopters. Bulgaria’s parliament has rejected overseas brokers payments 5 instances, but a far-right social gathering retains reintroducing them. Turkey’s autocratic authorities shelved its proposed regulation following public backlash in 2024, solely to reintroduce an amended model months later.
Coordinated resistance is important earlier than overseas brokers legal guidelines develop into normalised. There’s an pressing want for worldwide courts to expedite consideration of circumstances and develop emergency procedures for conditions the place civil society faces rapid threats. Democratic governments should keep away from adopting stigmatising laws, impose focused sanctions on overseas officers chargeable for enacting overseas brokers legal guidelines and supply protected haven for activists compelled to flee. Funders should set up emergency mechanisms with rapid-disbursement grants, whereas civil society should strengthen worldwide solidarity networks to share resistance methods and expose the true intent of those legal guidelines.
The choice to coordinated motion is to look at idly as unbiased voices are systematically silenced. Civil society’s proper to exist and function freely should be defended.
Inés M. Pousadela is CIVICUS Head of Analysis and Evaluation, co-director and author for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.
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