On January 23, 2024, Kyrgyzstan’s Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Legislation approved the draft Law on Foreign Representatives. The draft law is expected to be fully approved after the final reading at the plenary session of the parliament to take place from January 31 to February 1. The draft law would greatly interfere with Kyrgyzstan’s free and independent civil society. This draft law would require civil society organizations (CSOs) receiving foreign funding and engaging in broadly defined “political matters” to register as foreign agents while providing state authorities with the right to interfere in their internal affairs. According to Erkina Ubysheva, Director of the Smart Zharan Association in Kyrgyzstan “adopting the draft law on foreign agents will effectively close most of the country’s civic space.”

Read Erkina’s blog on Kyrgyzstan’s draft law on foreign agents here.