Russian version of OBS Annual Report 2013: Restrictions on Human Rights Defenders' Access to Funding Bolster Impunity

The Report is available in Russian here.

Geneva-Paris, April 3, 2013. In its newly published Annual Report, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders focuses on a new setback impeding the work of human rights defenders. Access to funding, in particular foreign funding, is increasingly being hindered by governments, whose primary intentions are to silence human rights defenders. This obstacles, which affects a growing number of defenders of fundamental freedoms around the world, not only violates universally recognised human rights standards, but also seriously impacts efforts by civil society to promote and protect human rights and ensure that the voice of victims of human rights violations is heard.

The Annual Report 2013 of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), provides a global review of the violations of NGOs’ right to funding via various forms of restrictions imposed by States. It provides a detailed picture of this as yet insufficiently studied problem. This analysis is illustrated by concrete cases in 35 countries.

The right of NGOs to access funding is an integral part of the right to freedom of association. Access to funds and resources is essential and without it the daily work of NGOs is highly jeopardised. In some countries, the consequences of such laws and practices are debilitating.

In the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, Belarusian law now prohibits any possibility for an NGO to hold a bank account in an institution based abroad, and criminalises the use of so-called unauthorised funds. These provisions were adopted as Belarusian FIDH Vice-President and "Viasna" President Ales Bialiatski was sentenced to 4.5 years' imprisonment after he made use of funds located abroad to finance human rights activities in his country. In the Russian Federation, a law amending the NGO legislation now imposes any NGO receiving foreign funding for so-called “political” activities to register as a “foreign agent”. The law broadly defines “political activities” as “activities aimed to change State public policies and to influence public opinion”. In this context, since early March 2013, the Public Prosecutor has started to request some NGOs to provide documents concerning their activities, including their accounting records, contracts with donors and declarations under the simplified tax system, as well as the name of the recipient organisations or individuals, their “nationality" and the purposes of the grants received. Such controls have reportedly started in cooperation with specialists of the Federal Tax Service and the Ministry of Justice, a few days after President Vladimir Putin stated at a FSB meeting on February 14 that "procedures for the activities of NGOs in Russia have been established, and apply in particular to funding from abroad".

In Uzbekistan, all foreign funding approved by the authorities must transit via one of the two State banks. In most cases, the funds remain blocked in the accounts of these banks, thus affecting the capability of the NGOs concerned to operate. In Azerbaijan, the Tax Code strongly discourages any foreign donor from providing - and any NGO from soliciting - foreign funding. Moreover, on February 15, 2013 the Parliament decided to pass a series of regressive amendments to the Law on Grants and the Law on NGOs. If adopted, these amendments would significantly restrict the activities of independent NGOs, since they stipulate that NGOs receiving donations in any form of a value greater than 200 AZN (about190 euros) without a formal agreement could face massive fines and confiscation of their property.

“We want to protect NGOs. This is now an urgent problem because there is a pattern emerging, a global backlash, attacking and identifying human rights defenders as illegitimate because of their international connections. This new argument against international support, specifically funding, restricts the actions of NGOs. This is unacceptable. With this year's Report, we want to reframe the debate concerning universally recognised human rights work”, said Gerald Staberock, Secretary General of OMCT.

“Barriers to funding are often erected in the context of a pervasive climate of repression in which restrictive laws combined with smearing campaigns and judicial harassment against human rights defenders create a hostile environment towards their activities. These barriers to NGO funding imposed by States represent one of the most serious institutional problems facing defenders today”, added Souhayr Belhassen, President of FIDH.

As also highlighted by Maina Kiai, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, in the Foreword to the Report, “The topic of this year’s Report is most pertinent as lately we have witnessed increased stigmatization and undue restrictions in relation to access to funding and resources for civil society organizations, in an attempt to stifle any forms of criticism [...]”.

Based on the legal framework surrounding the right to access to funding and the embryonic jurisprudence on this subject, the Report seeks to foster an in-depth analysis of the negative impacts of these restrictive measures, and addresses recommendations to all stakeholders - beneficiaries, donors, governments and intergovernmental organisations.

The Report is available in Russian here.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders is the leading global programme on the protection of human rights defenders. In 2012, the Observatory covered more than 50 country situations, notably through 336 urgent and follow-up interventions concerning over 500 human rights defenders. This book is the first theme-based Annual Report issued by the Observatory.