22 April 2021, 15:18
Rights defenders are sceptical about Aliev's decree on state support for NGOs
By establishing the agency for state support of NGOs, President Ilham Aliev plans to take their activities under state control, Azerbaijani human rights defenders have suggested. The country's authorities are selectively financing certain NGOs, while others have limited access to grants, they believe.
On April 19, Ilham Aliev issued a decree on improving the state support for NGOs and ordered to set up an agency for state support for NGOs to be governed by the Supervisory Board of 11 members, appointed by the President of Azerbaijan.
The creation of the above agency should not be just a change of the title, Bashir Suleimanly, the head of the Civil Rights Institute, has noted, adding that authorities were forced to issue a new decree on NGOs due to pressure from the West.
Authorities should not interfere with the work of NGOs; otherwise they will not be able to develop freely. State funds should be distributed transparently, under public control, said Alesker Mamedli, a member of the Civil Society Platform.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 22, 2021 at 10:16 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Author: Faik Medjid Source: CK correspondent
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