Local and international non-governmental organizations active in Azerbaijan are pressing President Heidar Aliyev to reject amendments the Azerbaijani parliament passed in early May to the country's Law on Grants. Defenders of the changes, which would require charities and other nonprofit groups to register their grant payments with authorities, say it aims to promote "transparency" and prevent corruption. The NGO community, though, fears the amendments will spur new restrictions on their activities and might make it impossible for some organizations to continue their work.
Under the current law, all such payments from Azerbaijani organizations to foreign recipients must be registered. Parliament's amendments to the grants law's Article 4 would subject domestic grantees to the same registration requirements. Any activities funded by unregistered grants would be illegal. Many NGO representatives believe the amendments are deliberately vague, and fear that, under the proposed new procedures, they will effectively need the government's permission to implement projects. Even though lawmakers called the measures a step toward "transparency," NGO representatives fear that the registration and authorization procedure could increase opportunities for corruption, facilitate censorship and weaken the development of the NGO sector.
NGOs are suspicious in large part because, they say, the administrative elements of the law seem redundant. "The government says the law is just about registering grants, not authorizing them. But we already have legislation that obliges NGOs to send information to the Ministry of Economic Development, the Tax Department, the State Statistics Committee and local social insurance departments," Anar Qasimov of the International Center for Non-Profit Law told EurasiaNet. "Why change the law, unless you want to change the situation?"
Politics may inform the parliament's reasoning, says Qasimov. He said in the run-up to elections next year, some agencies worry that the government may want to control funding to organizations that monitor the vote. Meanwhile, the amendments' defenders use political symbolism to justify their position. The authorities argue that the new measures form part of Azerbaijan's cooperation in the war against terror, and that they will clarify the sources of funding coming into the country. (The United States reported shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks that some charities had served as fronts for al Qaeda. Azerbaijan has occasionally surfaced as a possible site of al Qaeda cells.) But members of the donor community say that the amendments run counter to the principles of transparency and efficiency that are increasingly important in international aid. If that conviction takes hold, the amendments might reduce Azerbaijan's standing with civil-society organizations.
Margo Squire of the Eurasia Foundation says her group, which operates on a grant and disburses grants within Azerbaijan, doesn't think the new amendments will be good for the development of civil society. "We have no problem with the idea of notification all our grants are public but there's already a notification procedure under current law," she says. "The new procedure seems like an unnecessary step which adds another bureaucratic hurdle, at a time when everyone is calling for less bureaucracy."
Other organizations fear that the law could suffocate them. "If the suggested changes become law and are interpreted literally, it could mean that the Norwegian Refugee Council is unable to continue its work in Azerbaijan," says Merethe Kvenrod, the NRC's resident representative in Baku. Her agency starts to pay for board-approved relief projects several months before it receives money to fund the projects directly, so any process requiring approval from the authorities could impede its cash flow and delay its work. "We would have to change our financial year routines and the employment situation would be much more insecure for our 134 local employees," says Kvenrod, who also worries about government crackdowns. "We would also have less freedom to choose implementing partners among the local NGOs."
NGOs' hostility to the law has prompted them to join forces. Local and international NGOs have been campaigning together to stop the amendments from becoming law. They have taken their case to the president with a statement urging him to reject the changes as "inconsistent with both international standards and experience and with other legislative acts of Azerbaijan." The National NGO Forum passed an appeal to this effect on May 21. "Experience shows that administrative methods and unreasonable restrictions do not address issues, but stimulate further violations and create more problems," says the appeal. "It will be sound, transparent and tax-paying NGOs who suffer from these restrictions."
By emphasizing the amendments' threats to international credibility, the appeal drew signatures from representatives of some of the oil companies and foreign embassies in Baku. NGOs have suggested amendments using alternative wording, which would require recipients and donors to apply for registration rather than to receive it.
It may be too late for alternatives, since Aliyev could technically sign the amendments into law at any moment. To make up for lost time, NGO representatives are planning further action and seeking permission to stage a demonstration in central Baku. If the legislation goes through, there are already plans to mount a legal challenge based on alleged inconsistencies with Azerbaijan's constitution.
Clare Doyle is a freelance journalist based in Baku.
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