Restrictions on access of human rights defenders to foreign financing contribute to impunity
Paris-Geneva, 3
April 2013. In a recent annual report
Observatory for the Protection of human rights defenders drew
attention to the new negative trends affecting the effective work of
human rights defenders.
Restrictions on
access to financing,
particularly foreign, are increasingly used by governments, which
tend to make defenders silenced. This obstacle affects a growing
number of advocates of fundamental
freedoms around the world. It
not only violates the generally accepted standards of human rights,
but actually undermines the efforts of civil society in the promotion
and protection of human rights and the right to raise
one's voice for the protection of victims of
human rights violations.
Annual Report 2013. Observatory for
the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint program of the
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International
Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), provides a comprehensive review
of violations of NGOs'
access to funding through a variety of constraints imposed by states.
The report provides a detailed analysis of such violations as a
part of this under-investigated
problem, which is confirmed by case studies
from 35 countries.
The right of non-governmental organizations
to access funding is an
integral part of the right to freedom of association. Access to
funding and resources is
very important because
without it the daily work of NGOs can be
really difficult. In some countries, the
impact of such laws and practices leads
to devastating consequences for a democratic society.
The
Belarusian legislation, quoted as an expamle from Eastern
Europe and Central Asia, prohibits
NGOs have bank accounts
abroad, and use of so-called "unauthorized" funding is
subject to criminal prosecution. These provisions were adopted after
the FIDH Vice-President and Head of the Belarusian human rights
organization "Viasna" Ales Bialiatski, was sentenced to 4.5
years in prison for the fact that he continued to receive funds for
the human rights activities in the country through his
accounts abroad. In the Russian Federation, the amendments to the law
on NGOs, associations require that receive foreign funding for
so-called "political" activities, to register as a "foreign
agent." The law provides
a rather vague
definition of "political activity", "activity, which
aims to change public policy and to influence
public opinion." In this context, since the beginning of March
2013 prosecutors demanded the majority of NGOs to provide documents
related to their activities, including manuals, books, contracts with
sponsors and tax declarations, and the names
of the recipient organization or the names of individuals involved in
their activities, their nationality, and the purposes for which the
funding was received.
This control was launched in collaboration with the Federal Tax
Service and Ministry of Justice, and sometimes the
center on extremism or fire services, a few
days after President Putin at the board meeting on February 14 the
FSB announced that the procedures of NGOs in Russia must be clearly
marked and this applies in particular to foreign funding.
In
Uzbekistan foreign funding, approved by the authorities, should be
carried out through two state-owned banks. Most of the funding will
remain blocked in the accounts of these banks, thus undermining the
work of NGOs. In Azerbaijan, the law prevents open funding from
foreign donors and even requests
of such assistance by
NGOs. In addition, on 15
February 2013 the Parliament
decided to introduce a number of regressive amendments to the Law on
Grants and the Law on NGOs. If these amendments are adopted, they
will greatly restrict
the activities of independent NGOs, as NGOs that receive funding in
any form for over 200 Azerbaijani manats (about 190 euros) without a
formal contract may face significant fines and confiscation of
property.
"We want to protect NGOs. There are new models
of repression, accompanied by a global backlash, intensified attacks
on human rights defenders, who are presented
as some foreign agents
engaged in illegal activity under the influence of their
international relations. This is a new argument – including the
very idea of international support, including financial support, to
restrict the activities of NGOs. This is unacceptable. In this annual
report, we would like to define a new framework for discussing
generally accepted work in
the field of human rights,"said Gerald Staberok, Secretary
General of OMCT.
"Restrictions for
funding are often built in the context of parallel strengthening
of repression, and restrictive laws in
combination with smear campaigns and prosecution of human rights
defenders create openly hostile environment for their activities.
These barriers of NGO funding, raised by authoritarian states, are
one of the most serious systemic problems faced by human rights
defenders today ", added Souhayr Belhassen, President of
FIDH.
In addition, as noted by Maina
Kiai, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on the right to
freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, in the preface to
the report: "The theme of this annual report of the Observatory
is very crucial. Recently, we have seen increased stigmatization and
undue restrictions on access to funding and resources for civil
society organizations in order to suppress any form of criticism,
especially in regard to those who are calling for democratic reforms
and ensure accountability for human rights violations."
Based
on the legal framework concerning
the right to access to finance which
started to appear in court and practice law on the matter, the report
is intended to facilitate an in-depth analysis of the impacts of
these restrictive measures and to make recommendations for all
participants – the recipients,
donors, governments and
intergovernmental organizations.
The report is available in
Engslih on the
following
link:
http://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/obs_2013_human_rights_defenders_english.pdf
The
Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders is
a leading global program for the protection of human rights
defenders. In 2012, the Observatory mobilized its efforts to find
solutions to the crisis in more than 50 countries, in particular
through the urgent appeals in 336 cases and monitoring
the situation of more than 500 human rights defenders. This is
the first report which is dedicated not only to common
trends persecution of human rights, as all the previous but
also to topical
issues common to many of them.