TAJIK NGO LAW NOT AS BAD AS IT COULD HAVE BEEN~BUT STILL NOT

UNCLAS DUSHANBE 000764

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KDEM EAID TI
SUBJECT: TAJIK NGO LAW NOT AS BAD AS IT COULD HAVE BEEN~BUT STILL NOT
GREAT

REF: Dushanbe 262


1. (SBU) Tajikistan finally has an official new law on
non-governmental organizations. After multiple drafts, months of
negotiations and parliamentary discussions, diplomatic
interventions and civil society hand-wringing, President Rahmon
signed the Law on Public Associations May 12. However, the
final version was not considered official -or available to the
public -- until published in a state-run Tajik language
newspaper May 19. The official Russian version has not yet been
released.


2. (SBU) The new law took into consideration a number of
concerns post and other donors had actively raised with the
government:

-- It eliminated the proposed requirement that international
NGOs such as Mercy Corps, CARE, Internews, and other long-time
U.S. implementing partners, register with both the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice. Given that
administrative red tape is a favorite Tajik government tactic to
stall or unofficially to deny organizations the ability to
operate, this leaves the bureaucratic hurdles some organizations
will face the same as before.

-- The parliament removed a proposed requirement that any
organization manager be a Tajik citizen, which would have
effectively eliminated expat leadership from the bigger
organizations. There are fewer restrictions on the rights of
foreign citizens to participate in public association.

-- The final version no longer gives the government unlimited
access to all NGO training programs and internal meetings, but
still allows authorities access to "mass events" (undefined).

-- The "registering authority," in most cases the Ministry of
Justice, cannot suspend the activities of an NGO without a court
order, and investigations of violations should be conducted
through the prosecutors' offices.

-- The final version also eliminated a "territorial" requirement
in the draft that in some cases would have meant that an
organization would need to register in each individual district.


3. (SBU) However, some remaining provisions still raise
concerns:

-- A broad range of grounds for denying registration to a public
association, which would allow bureaucrats and security services
to refuse registration without much explanation.

-- For international NGOs, all full-time staff -- international
and local -- must be accredited with the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs after the organization is registered. Given the
Ministry's lack of organization, this adds yet another
administrative requirement for our implementing partners.

-- Unregistered organizations are not allowed to conduct any
activities until they have been fully registered. This would
affect National Democratic Institute, which has been operating
without registration for its entire tenure in Tajikistan.


4. (SBU) Under the new law, all public associations and
non-governmental organizations must re-register with the
Ministry of Justice, free of charge, by January 2008. Muatar
Kahdirova, of the International Center for Non-Profit Law noted
that the new law took into account many of the comments conveyed
to the parliament by her organization and others. However, she
anticipated that some of the wording would leave international
NGOs open to greater scrutiny by the Ministry of Justice and the
Ministry of Interior.


5. (SBU) COMMENT: Although local organizations did little to
advocate for themselves, Post worked very hard to make the Tajik
government understand the ramifications of the restrictive draft
law for international groups. We are pleased the government
incorporated a number of suggestions into the final version, but
the NGO saga is far from over. The overall operating
environment has not changed; nor have many of the ministries
making life hard for our implementing partners. We anticipate
we will need to continue to engage the government on the
importance of non-governmental organizations for strengthening
civil society and promoting economic stability. END COMMENT.

JACOBSON