An extra-ordinary session of Azerbaijan’s parliament convenes tomorrow to consider proposed legislation on non-governmental organizations and the media which critics believe will seriously undermine rights to freedom of expression and freedom of association. The debate takes place just 10 days after the proposed amendments were made public, giving critics little chance to mobilize or comment on the issues.
The Council of Europe has expressed concern at the proposed laws’ impact on freedom of expression and freedom of association. The changes will likely harden the Caspian state’s purportedly soft authoritarianism.
NGOs planning to conduct activities in the country would required to register with the state and individuals speaking on behalf of an unregistered NGO would render the organization liable to a fine of up to 50,000 AZN (US$ 62,500 or EU 44,650). Azerbaijani NGOs would not be allowed to operate if over 50 percent of their funding comes from foreign sources. An organization would need to have branches in at least one-third of the country’s 59 administrative districts in order to operate at the national level.
“If this law is passed, it will be the end of Azerbaijan[i] civil society,” said the Legal and Development Union’s Hafiz Hasanov.
The amendments are designed to “eliminate” independent NGO activity and retard the development of civil society, according to Leyla Yunus, director of the Baku-based Peace and Democracy Institute, a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy. Azerbaijani NGOs must already wait for seven or 10 years for registration, and are often declined.
Yunus notes that the proposed laws are similar to provisions adopted in Belarus and Uzbekistan, as a result of which there are no longer independent NGO and civil society activists have been forced to emigrate or work illegally.
Foreigners will be barred from creating NGOs and suffer a five-year ban on NGO activity for violating the law. Foreign NGOs would be effectively barred from opening offices in the absence of a formal international agreement between Azerbaijan and the NGO’s country of origin. If passed, the new provisions would immediately place most foreign-funded NGOs be in violation of the law.
The “agreement provision” of the draft law fails to state “what kind of international agreement . . . must exist,” notes the Washington, DC-based International Center for Not-for-Profit-Law.
“This is an unusual situation because the law applies retroactively to NGOs that are already registered,” according to Hafiz Hasanov, head of the Legal and Development Union, a Baku-based NGO.
The government will be able to disband media outlets convicted of writing “biased articles” and subject to suspension for “abuse of power” if they use anonymous sources, according to draft amendments to the Media Law.
“These changes will severely limit the capacity of organizations and media critical of the government, and are a direct attack on freedom of expression and association in Azerbaijan,” said Rashid Hajili of the Media Rights Institute, a NED grantee.
Starting an independent broadcast media outlet in Azerbaijan is already practically impossible, notes the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety. But the new regulations also threaten to further restrict access to print media which “has always been a liberal area where all people and groups have typically been able to contribute.”
Democracy, civil society and human rights activists today met under the auspices of the Civil Society Defense Committee (CSDC) to express their concern at the proposed changes and announced that protests against the provisions would take place outside the assembly tomorrow.
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