A proposed bill to address lobbying that is before Argentina's Congress would place unreasonable burdens on independent human rights organizations and other civil society groups that wish to influence government policy, Human Rights Watch said today.
The bill seeks to advance important government interests around transparency and integrity, but would impose new administrative burdens and legal risks so severe that they would effectively prevent many civil society groups from participating in the policymaking process.
"The government is right to want to regulate and ensure transparency around lobbying activity, but needs to ensure the rights of Argentine people and organizations to participate in crucial policy debates," said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "Congress should fix the overly broad provisions in the law to make sure rights groups and others are allowed to operate without undue restrictions."
On May 23, 2026, the government of President Javier Milei introduced the bill in Congress with the stated objectives of limiting undue influence over government decisions and bringing much greater transparency to lobbying activity. The bill, which is before the Congressional Committee on Constitutional Affairs, would bar all communications intended to influence government policy unless the entity and persons involved first register as lobbyists and make rapid, detailed reports about every contact and communication.
The bill would create a Public Registry of Interest Representation and require professional lobbyists as well as representatives of companies, business associations, and any other individuals or organizations seeking to influence decisions by the executive branch or Congress to register.
Registration would not be automatic or a matter of right. Instead, registry authorities, who would operate under the executive branch, would be allowed to reject the registration, for instance, if it is not "compatible" with the organization's registered purpose.
They would also be able to suspend or cancel the registration for violations of the law, such as not reporting a meeting quickly enough. This would allow executive authorities to arbitrarily block civil society groups from engaging in lobbying activity at all, Human Rights Watch said.
The bill would also ban government officials from "representation of interest contacts" with unregistered organizations or people, "even if such contacts are spontaneous or incidental." The law also defines "representation of interest contacts" broadly to include "any communication ... that has the objective of presenting interests, positions, arguments, proposals, information or requests destined to influence the adoption of public policies."
The bill would require registered people or organizations to report extensive details about each meeting or "contact" with government authorities, within five days. Civil society groups would most likely struggle more than business interests to manage these administrative burdens. This risks tilting the playing field in a way that would ultimately give more access to deep-pocketed interest groups than to human rights activists and other civil society groups, Human Rights Watch said.
The bill would also modify the criminal code to allow for up to two years in prison for anyone who engages in unauthorized lobbying activity. It would also allow a sentence of up to three years for anyone who conducts "clandestine representation of foreign interests," including those who fail to register that they are trying to influence the "national defense, interior security, or foreign policy" with foreign funding.
Robust regulation of lobbying activity can support the integrity and transparency of key governmental policymaking processes. Other countries have taken varied approaches to balancing those imperatives against the rights of people and civil society groups to participate freely in policy deliberations. Some countries exempt activists from lobbying requirements altogether, while others exempt lobbying activity on certain matters of broad public interest or tailor requirements to account for the risks and rights imperatives associated with various kinds of lobbying.
Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights, Argentina is required to respect the rights to freedom of association and expression. Any restrictions on these rights must be clearly defined, and necessary and proportionate to achieve a legitimate goal, such as protecting the rights of others.
As drafted, the bill is not meaningfully tailored in a way that seeks to accommodate these human rights obligations and would even give the executive branch excessive powers to sanction groups that seek to improve the government's approach to corruption or rights violations.
"If Congress truly cares about transparency, it should regulate lobbying without undermining civil society advocacy," Goebertus said.
