[chottala.com] New Commission to Restrict NGOs

New Commission to Restrict NGOs

Body is Smokescreen for Government to Control Civil Society

The Bangladeshi government's recently announced commission to regulate
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) adds burdensome procedures that
will hinder important watchdog functions. International donors should
press the Awami League government to ensure that the country's
thriving NGO sector can continue to work without unnecessary
government interference.

On August 25, 2012, the Bangladeshi government stated it was going to
launch a commission to look into the operations of NGOs, claiming that
many were involved in "terror-financing and other anti-state
activities." The government announced at the same time that it had
cancelled the registration of some 6,000 NGOs because of links to
"anti-state" activities and is in the process of examining the
registration certificates of an additional 4,000.

"The Awami League regularly claims that it is the only political party
that will protect democracy and pluralism in Bangladesh, but its
attempts to control NGO activity call this into serious question,"
said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "If previous
governments had attempted to regulate non-governmental organizations
in this way, the Awami League would have rightly claimed that this was
an attempt to stifle freedom of expression and association."

Human Rights Watch pointed out that Bangladesh already has in place
other laws through which terrorist or illegal activities by NGOs and
others can be addressed. The criminal law, anti-terror laws, tax law,
and existing regulations governing NGO activities already provide a
framework to deal with individuals within NGOs or organizations
involved in illegal activity.

"The government has not shown any serious terror threat arising from
'many' NGOs nor why the existing criminal law is insufficient to deal
with any problems that may arise," said Adams. "This is just a smoke
screen to exert political control over civil society."

NGOs play a critical role in Bangladesh in areas such as poverty
reduction, economic development, health and education, and human
rights. The government estimates that there are nearly 50,000 active
NGOs operating throughout the country.

NGOs operating in Bangladesh already face an overly cumbersome and
intrusive regulatory process, including needing multiple approvals to
register and to implement projects. NGOs operating in Bangladesh have
to clear what the International Centre for Non-Profit Law (ICNL)
describes as a process "complicated by delays and hurdles," including
non-transparency in authorization of registration by the Home
Ministry, the police, or the National Security Intelligence.

NGOs operating in Bangladesh report long delays and arbitrary refusals
at various stages of the approvals process. The NGO Affairs Bureau in
the Prime Minister's office often simply rejects any requests for
registration or project proposals on arbitrary grounds, at times for
apparently political reasons. NGOs have reported to Human Rights Watch
that corruption is a major problem, with bribes demanded to gain
approval in the NGO Affairs Bureau and at various ministries and local
government offices.

Human Rights Watch noted that the Bangladeshi government is also on
the verge of announcing new laws restricting the receipt of foreign
contributions to NGOs. The new law would require several levels of
prior government approval for any project which relies in any part on
foreign donations.

Human Rights Watch has previously criticized the Indian Foreign
Contributions Regulation Act, which is very similar to the Bangladeshi
draft law, because of the unnecessary burdens it places on foreign
contributions for charitable work, as well as to other similar laws or
draft laws in other countries.

"The Bangladeshi government increasingly acts as though it is
interested in controlling the NGO sector to a minute level detail,
which will only stifle civil society activity rather than encourage
it," said Adams. "Instead of setting up a commission to breathe down
the necks of NGOs, the government should set up a commission to
investigate the alleged epidemic of corruption in the NGO Affairs
Bureau and other government agencies which steal funds from projects
that serve the public interest."


http://www.hrw.org/asia/bangladesh
For more information, please contact:

In San Francisco, Brad Adams (English): +1-510-524-7003; or adamsb@hrw.org
In Mumbai, Meenakshi Ganguly (English, Hindi, Bengali):
+91-98-20-036032 (mobile)
In The Hague, Tejshree Thapa (Nepali, English): +31-70-306-3817; or
+31-6-533-664-63 (mobile); or thapat@hrw.org
In New Delhi, Jayshree Bajoria (Hindi, English): +91-089-479-94262
(mobile); or bajorij@hrw.org

http://www.hrw.org/asia/bangladesh


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