In Azerbaijan, compromise amendments to NGO law are offered

The expert group of the Board of State Support of NGOs of Azerbaijan has prepared a compromise version of amendments to the legislation on NGOs.

In particular, the proposals of the expert group assume to increase the admissible limit of the volume of foreign sources in forming the property of an NGO from 50 up to 80 percent, as reported by Sakhib Mamedov, a member of the Board, on June 24, when he spoke at the debates on amendments to the NGO legislation.

The version of the expert group also suggests lifting any restriction on operation of foreign NGOs. The provision about the need of concluding interstate treaties will cover only the foreign NGOs, funded from state budgets of respective foreign countries.

As to financial reporting, according to the version of the expert group, it should only cover the NGOs, having annual grant turnover above 150,000 manats.

Human rights activists, however, assert that even this draft, if adopted, will essentially complicate the "third sector" work in the country. "The innovations are obviously against the civil society," explained Erkin Gadirli, a member of the coalition of NGOs "Committee in Defence of Civil Society.