In Kyrgyzstan, human rights activists recommend withdrawing the bill on NGOs
In connection with the initiative of the deputy of the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic, Baktybek Raiymkulov, on the bill on non-profit organizations, the human rights organization “Justice”, which is a member of the Coalition Against Torture in Kyrgyzstan, sent a letter addressed to the deputy on the revocation of the bill.
Recall that the draft law provides for the imposition of additional types of duties on certain types of non-profit organizations: to provide reports to state bodies, including information on sources of income, expenses, number of employees and membership, on their remuneration, which should include information on sources of formation and directions of property’s expenditure.
“The draft law is aimed at tightening state regulation of the activities of non-profit organizations and is contrary to certain standards. For example, the requirements of the new reporting lead to an increase of work both for non-profit organizations that will spend their resources on preparing reports, limiting their ability to carry out socially useful activities, and for the state also, because collecting and checking reports is expensive occupation for the budget,” human rights activists explain.
In their opinion, before introducing an additional type of reporting, it is necessary to analyze the risks and cost-effectiveness of introducing such reports.
“At present, in Kyrgyzstan non-profit organizations, as well as commercial organizations, regularly submit three reports to state bodies: to the Tax authorities, the Social Fund and Statistics’ agencies. The most of information, provided in these reports, will be duplicated in new additional reports. If state bodies don’t have the resources to process the information they have already received from non-profit organizations in three reports, it is not clear how they will analyze the same information that will be provided in an additional form of reporting,” the “Justice” added.
The imposition of an additional obligation to submit government-determined reporting to the judiciary is in fact a violation of the right to freedom of associations.
“After all, a violation of the right to freedom of associations can be realized not directly, but through an additional imposition of obligations. It is important to understand the role of nonprofit organizations in our society. The special rapporteur on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and the right to freedom of associations in his report noted that states should not resort to tax pressures so as not to interfere with associations in obtaining funds. Any restrictions should pursue a publicly beneficial goal, not excessive control. In view of the foregoing, we recommend withdrawing this bill,” concluded the human rights organization.
