UN Report Opposes Transparency in Foreign Funding of NGOs

By | June 27, 2024

NEW YORK, June 28 (C-Fam) A UN report claims that LGBT groups have a right to receive funds from foreign governments and to keep such funding secret.

Laws that require organizations to disclose their foreign funding violate the “rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association” of homosexual/transgender persons, according to a report from the new UN independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, Graeme Reid. The report was presented at the Palais de Nations last week.

The report explains that homosexual/transgender groups are politically unpopular in most countries and do not receive any funding locally. They need money from Western governments and institutions to exist.

“By imposing limitations on financial assistance from international sources, governments undermine the ability of these organizations to carry out their essential work, including through investigations and onerous reporting requirements that interfere with the ability of these organizations to conduct regular activities” Reid’s report claims.

The UN report emphasizes that the term “foreign agent” has a “stigmatizing association, suggesting that LGBT groups represent a foreign threat to the State.”

Looming large in the background of Reid’s presentation was a new law in the country of Georgia. The law requires civil society and media organizations that receive foreign funds to register as foreign agents and to publicly disclose the sources and amounts of foreign funds they receive as well as the leadership structure of their organization.

While Reid never named Georgia or any other country other than Russia and Hungary, a German delegate at the meeting specifically complained about Georgia’s recent law as a threat to “the core principles of democracy.”

The Georgian law has similarities to Russia’s and Hungary’s. But the latter go beyond mere reporting and disclosure. They restrict foreign funded entities’ ability to engage in education, media, and politics.

Reid’s report points out that LGBT groups across the world are especially reliant on foreign funding because the LGBT agenda is not politically popular. According to an Asian Development Bank report, over 95% of funding for civil society in Georgia, comes from foreign sources.

Western countries took turns in praising the report in Geneva last week. The sole discordant note was struck by India, in defense of its own foreign agent registration laws.

Major Western/backed UN agencies and human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have framed their opposition to foreign influence laws as a threat to LGBT rights and democracy for over a decade.

The United States has laws requiring foreign agents to register with the U.S. Department of Justice. Failure to comply subjects organizations and individuals to fines and prison terms. The U.S. State Department sees foreign agent registration laws in other countries as interfering with its ability to influence politics and culture in those countries, including promoting LGBT issues.

Over the last month the U.S. State Department has imposed visa sanctions on Georgian politicians and officials over their role in the passage of the new transparency law. The European Union is reviewing Georgia’s application to join the EU bloc. The law passed even though EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyden threatened to act if the law was adopted.

Critics charge that the United States government has funded NGOs on the ground that have been dedicated to “regime change.” The charge is specifically leveled at the groups that precipitated the sometimes violent toppling of the Russian-friendly Victor Yanukovych.

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter