Bangladeshi Civil Society Urges Lawmakers to Amend the Draft of a New NGO Bill

Country: Bangladesh
October 17, 2016
News
Bangladeshi civil society leaders call for amendments
to the NGO bill at the Oct. 9 press conference (photo source: The Daily Star).
On October 9, Bangladeshi activists convened a press conference to criticize a draft bill introduced by the parliament called the Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Bill. Under Section 14 of the Bill, the government’s NGO Affairs Bureau (NGOAB) would be given the authority to ban, or limit, a foreign-funded NGO engaging in “anti-state activities.” Those activities include “inimical and derogatory remarks on the constitution and constitutional bodies,” made by foreign funded NGOs, and are left undefined in the draft. In addition, the Bill would extendNGOAB’s supervisory powers over NGOs including pre-approval of activities before they are able to receive foreign grant money, approval of hiring foreign employees, and intrusive oversight of their day-to-day activities.
 
 At the press conference, activists from 18 organizations urged the president to reject the Bill until Section 14 is amended. Sultana Kamal, Chairperson of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) and human rights lawyer, explained that the vague language would encroach on freedoms of expression and association. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, “urged the Bangladeshi Parliament to not adopt the Bill” in an appeal to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) last year. Kiai is also a member of the World Movement for Democracy Steering Committee.