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A draft bill Georgia’s government is pushing through parliament, the so-called “foreign agents” bill, will place a blanket label on civil society organizations and human rights defenders that creates an atmosphere of “mistrust, fear and hostility” making it difficult for the country’s civil society to operate, according to a senior official at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Matteo Mecacci, director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) at the OSCE, told RFE/RL’s Georgian Service on April 30 that the bill, which has sparked huge protests in the capital, Tbilisi, and called into question the Caucasus nation’s subsequent path towards membership in the European Union, will have “negative consequences for civil society.

“The draft law imposes restrictions on civil society organizations for receiving foreign funding, which is too broad. Some of the provisions are also vague which increases the risk of arbitrary application,” he …