Lawmakers in Kyrgyzstan have approved the second reading of legislation regulating the activities of nongovernmental organizations that advocacy groups and international rights organizations have said will throttle civil society. 

Of the 83 MPs registered on February 22 in the Jogorku Kenesh, the parliament, 64 ostensibly backed the bill. The voting process has come under fire, however, as many deputies flagrantly violated procedural rules by casting their vote on behalf of absent colleagues. Five MPs voted against. 

The group of around 20 lawmakers championing this legislation is fronted by Nadira Narmatova, a member of the Ata-Jurt Kyrgyzstan, who delivered another emotion-laden defense of the initiative before parliament. Narmatova has positioned herself as a foe of “Western ideology,” a rubric that she extends to LGBT advocacy, something she claims contributes to the rising divorce rates.

Under this legislation, any NGOs receiving funding from abroad will be classified as “foreign representatives.” Those types of organizations will also have to submit to annual audits and provide details on all their employees and their salaries.

Critics complain that the bureaucracy entailed in the requirements of the new rules will be so costly and onerous that many NGOs will have to cease operations. While pro-government voices contend that their intention is only to enhance financial transparency, the potentially affected parties suspect the true goal is to stir public animosity toward them by having them cast as operatives for outside paymasters.

Officials say there are currently around 18,000 NGOs registered in Kyrgyzstan.

While the Jogorku Kenesh has now largely become a vacant chamber that does the bidding of the authorities, Dastan Bekeshev remains one of its only members to consistently criticize proposals he sees as questionable.

During debates, Bekeshev quizzed Narmatova over whether she too should be considered a “foreign agent” in view of the fact that she rents out property she owns in the southern city of Osh to the Russian Consulate there. 

This sparked an impassioned response, during which Narmatova appeared to be on the verge of tears.

“If this law had been passed 10 years ago, there would not have been such caustic questions as yours, and there would be no state traitors. This [legislation] is for the sake of security, peace and independence of the state,” Narmatova said. “As a citizen of Kyrgyzstan, I can rent out my property to whomever I want.”

The Russian link is not incidental. Many legal experts have noted that the bill going through the Jogorku Kenesh bears a striking resemblance to Russian legislation adopted in 2012.

A strand of the “foreign representatives” bill that has many activists worried is one that envisions an additional label for organizations deemed to be “engaging in political activities.” This tag may be given to organizations engaged in lobbying government agencies and the wider public on matters of state policy. The parameters for this designation, however, are vague.

An international coalition of advocacy groups on February 13 petitioned European policymakers and politicians to use their influence to dissuade Kyrgyzstan from adopting the bill.

Their statement noted that the foreign representative label was “highly stigmatizing and discrediting” and implied “that NGOs serve foreign interests and do not work to the benefit of their own target communities or country.”

“Basic NGO activities, such as organizing public debates, peaceful assemblies or other events; publishing appeals, legal opinions or comments on state policies; and conducting sociological research, opinion polls or public awareness-raising would be classified as political activities if they are construed as attempts to influence public decision-making, policies or opinion,” the statement said.

In one notable climbdown earlier this month, lawmakers removed a provision invoking criminal liability and sentences of up to 10 years in prison for members of NGOs found by the justice system to have been involved in “violence against citizens” or induced them “to refuse to perform civil duties or commit other illegal acts.”

The U.S. government is among those criticizing the bill.

Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly expressed his misgivings, noting that the bill as it stands “threatens Kyrgyz citizens’ access to vital services such as health care and education through programs run by NGOs with support from the U.S. government and international partners.”

“Some U.S. implementing partners are so concerned about this law … they are considering the possibility of a preventive termination of their activities in the Kyrgyz Republic,” Blinken said in the letter, whose contents were reported by 24.kg news agency.

The office of President Sadyr Japarov lashed out angrily at that criticism, which it said was based on inaccurate information provided by foreign-funded NGOs.

“Such unreliable sources speculate on their ‘difficulties’ and ‘persecutions,’ which, in turn, force sponsoring foreign structures to follow their lead, engage in wastefulness, wasting money of taxpayers in the United States and [European Union] countries,” Japarov said in the letter, written in English. “Over the past three decades, a ‘layer’ of non-governmental/non-profit organizations that receive funding from abroad has appeared in our country (in Kyrgyz society they are called ‘grant eaters’), whose leaders have turned them, in fact, into ‘family enterprises,’ engaged in [stealing] the money coming from foreign sponsors.”