Global Focus is inviting you for a webinar on foreign agent narratives and legislation targeting civil society. In 2024, we witnessed mass protests as Georgians came to the streets to express their dissent towards a new repressive foreign agents’ bill. This is just one example of the trend of labelling civil society organizations as foreign agents, foreign representatives or similar defaming rhetorics. This trend is affecting civil society’s legitimacy by being equated with treachery and espionage. Also, it targets civil society’s ability to organize freely as CSOs receiving international funding face bureaucratic barriers and costs, transferring resources away from core work to lengthy compliance and reporting procedures.

Last year, the EU introduced the foreign interference directive as part of the Defence of Democracy Package. While there are important differences to foreign agent legislation in other contexts, the bill has been met with resistance from European civil society, especially for risking to stigmatize civil society and undermining the goal of the Package of safeguarding democratic values. Four UN Special Rapporteurs have also jointly pointed to issues of the directive negatively affecting civil society.

Join the webinar and listen to expert insights and national perspectives  of the trend. The webinar will seek to investigate characteristics of national foreign agent laws and draw similarities and differences across these as well as the EU foreign interference directive.

SPEAKERS:

Based on the insights from the speakers, we will jointly discuss actions to prevent and push back on foreign agent narratives and legislation.

All interested civil society actors from both inside and outside Europe are welcome to join the webinar, share experiences and explore potential avenues for action. We hope to see both familiar and new faces!

For any questions, please reach out to Julie Arrildt, Policy Advisor and Thematic Coordinator on Human Rights and Civic Space at Global Focus (Denne e-mail adresse bliver beskyttet mod spambots. Du skal have JavaScript aktiveret for at vise den.).

Please sign up for the webinar below. The security box is currently only available in Danish on our webpage. If you tick the box, you confirm "I'm not a robot".