Parliament must reject discriminatory bill targeting NGOs
On April 14, 2016, the Parliament will discuss insecond reading a draft law amending several provisions of the Law onNon-Commercial Organisations. A revised text was adopted in less than a minuteby the Human Rights and Constitutional Legislation Committee at its weeklyhearing on April 12.
The draft law was first proposed in 2013 by threeformer Members of Parliament and initially attempted to impose the label of“foreign agent” on all NGOs receiving funding from abroad and engaging in anydeemed to be “political activities” - a broad term with negative connotations.A similar legislation was adopted in Russia in 2012 and led to the designationof more than 120 organisations in the country as “foreign agents” and to theclosure of a dozen of them.
While, the new version of the law has been scrappedfrom most of repressive and discriminatory content, the new provisions stillplace onerous reporting obligations on non-commercial organisations. Suchprovisions fail to meet States’ obligation to create the best possible enablingenvironment for civil society. First, they are discriminatory as they imposerestrictions on associations that are stricter than those applying forbusinesses[1].Second, they are also contrary to international human rights standards, whichrequire that any restrictions be “necessary in a democratic society in theinterests of national security or public safety, public order, the protectionof public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms ofothers” (Article 22.2 of ICCPR).
“These new provisions seem toconsider NGOs as a special source of concern for national security, thus againcreating an environment of suspicion towards the NGO community. As a member ofthe UN Human Rights Council, Kyrgyzstan must demonstrate its genuine commitmenttowards the promotion and protection of human rights by creating a moreenabling environment for civil society organisations”, said FIDH President Karim Lahidji.
“Such differential treatment between non-commercial andcommercial entities is not legitimate, as it only aims at shrinking the spacefor civil society to peacefully carry out its work in defense of human rightsand fundamental freedoms. Our organisations urge the Kyrgyz Parliament toreject the current draft and create the best possible enabling environment forcivil society, by removing all existing restrictive legislation”, said OMCT Secretary General Gerald Staberock.
TheObservatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OBS) was createdin 1997 by FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). Theobjective of this programme is to intervene to prevent or remedysituations of repression against human rights defenders.
[1] SeeMaina Kiai’s third report to the United Nations General Assembly, Comparativestudy of enabling environments for associations and businesses, UN DocumentA/70/266, August 4, 2015.