Azeri Groups Celebrate as Proposed Restrictions Are Removed from New NGO Law

Civil society groups in Azerbaijan won a crucial victory on June 30, when the Azeri Parliament set aside a raft of dangerous measures before its final vote on a new law regulating the activities of non-governmental organizations.

The rejected proposals included a series of new rules that would have effectively crippled the local NGO community, including drastic limitations on foreign funding, escalated registration requirements and new prohibitions on the activity of non-Azeri foundations within the country.

Members of civil society had united in an outcry over the proposed changes to the law "On NGOs," which ran counter to basic principles of democracy and free speech. On June 19, more than 50 NGO and foundation representatives had gathered in protest outside the Parliament, the Milli Mejlis.

	Civil society leader Gubad Ibadoglu speaks outside Azerbaijan's parliamentary building in Baku on June 19.

The amendments were first announced on June 8 and the proceeded with unusual rapidity for planned consideration on the 19th. Because there is virtually no domestic funding available for civil society organizations in Azerbaijan, the measures would have shut down much, if not all, NGO activity. The amendments also would have imposed a five-year ban on any group that violated the laws.

In response to the proposed amendments, Azeri nonprofits took immediate action, creating a new association called the Civil Society Defense Committee. An emergency conference was held on June 18 to prepare for the Milli Mejlis session. On June 19th, Gubad Ibadoglu of the Economic Research Center delivered a Resolution of Protest Action inside the Milli Mejlis building.

Threats such as these to Azerbaijan's civil society presence have direct implications for local advocates fighting for transparency and disclosure in government management of the extractive industries. Earlier in June, citizen groups decried two new state oil development contracts covering four oil fields that were signed without public notice, as "stealth" deals that compromise Azerbaijan's international reputation and strong example in prior policies. The contracts, drafted without the financial and training provisions that would normally benefit Azerbaijan in such an agreement, are a reversal of years of commendable transparency in oil negotiations. This backwards step ironically comes just months after the country's validation as the first state compliant with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

Revenue Watch Institute director Karin Lissakers said that any restrictions on civil society in Azerbaijan represent a serious threat to the region's progress toward greater transparency of oil and mining revenues. "Azerbaijan is the first country to be validated as EITI-compliant," said Lissakers. "The EITI is a worldwide standard for transparency and accountability in the extractives sector. It would be a sad irony if Azerbaijan, shortly after this success, were to effectively cripple the essential participation of civil society in the EITI, an initiative in which Azerbaijan's government has invested so heavily."

LEARN MORE

• Activists: NGO Amendments Put Civil Society at Risk (Eurasianet)
• "Stealth" Oil Agreements Threaten Azerbaijan's Reputation and Policy Progress (OSI-Azerbaijan)

• AZERBAIJAN: Overview