Azerbaijan Establishes Total Control over NGOs

Q: After 2013, about 26 changes in the law on NGOs have been made in Azerbaijan. What is the nature of these changes, and what category do they fall into? Do the authorities use these changes to limit or to expand the activities of NGOs?

Alasgar Mammadli: The answer is in the question itself. In 2013, the legislation in connection with the NGOs was made 22 changes. Four more changes were added in October 2014. However, these changes affected not only the law on NGOs. At the same time they touched the following laws: "On Grants", "On Registration of Legal Entities and the Registry", the Code of Administrative Offences, the laws relating to religious associations, and the Penal Code. Those 26 changes, of which I speak, concern only one law. In the 8 laws governing this sector changes have been made aimed at narrowing the activities of NGOs to the extent possible, increasing control over them, minimizing voluntary joint activities. With regard to the division into categories, until 5 February 2014, that is, when the law entered into force with the changes, the legal regime that registered NGOs and civil society organizations and local representatives and branches of international organizations was uneven. Activities of international organizations were governed more by interstate agreements. In particular, this applies to US organizations. Moreover, to coordinate their activities with the Cabinet a humanitarian commission headed by Deputy Prime Minister Ali Hasanov acted. Recent developments have subjected these structures, as well as NGOs, to the general procedure, and also introduced a mandatory conclusion of agreements with the Government, which was not done before. The Government explained to these organizations that they cannot carry out activities which are not entering into the agreement. The legislation was introduced such a question, as the donor registration. Previously, it was a simple registration procedure for grants. If grants were received by an NGO, they were registered by the Ministry of Justice; if they were received by a commercial entity, they were registered by the Ministry of Economy, and if they were received by a religious organization, the registration was arranged by the State Committee for Work with Religious Bodies. However, the law did not provide for the registration of donors. Then changes were made to the agenda and the issue. Another change concerns the registration of service agreements during the implementation of grants financed from foreign sources. Thus, subject to registration is a grant agreement and a service agreement, as well as the donor itself. This, in turn, means the creation of a total control system and submission of NGOs to political management. That is, if the Ministry of Justice gives permission, then you can work, but if it does not, then you cannot. The legal procedure has come to depend on the policy, and the NGO liquidation process has been simplified. Two warnings are enough for the court to start the process of liquidation of NGOs.

In 2014 and 2015 it was impossible to receive a grant from foreign companies. Since the crisis engulfed Azerbaijan, the volume of grants coming to the country has decreased.

Q: Can, according to the current legislation, non-governmental organizations operate freely or does it require appropriate changes in the legislation?

Alasgar Mammadli: The current legislation restricts the rights of NGOs, and does this in an unbalanced way, more than it was necessary. This has led to the fact that under the current legislation, civil society is no longer able to work as before. That is, with such activities, NGOs will not be able to contribute to the civil society or to carry out the control function. Any NGO has no independent financial source and the question cannot be solved by donations from its members. Under present conditions and possibilities it is virtually impossible to monitor the election process or to carry out other control functions. If an NGO is under the control and dictation of the power, it can neither control anything, nor make a contribution to the development of civil society. Currently, the Ministry of Justice has defined rules for checking the activities of NGOs, appropriating the powers of the Parliament. These regulations have created new and complex obligations of NGOs to the government. The ministry dictates the requirements, despite the fact that there are none of them in any law or in the Charter of the body. The Ministry of Justice does not have such rights or powers.

Q: Officials say that Azerbaijan has changed the attitude towards NGOs to facilitate their activities. Is it felt really?

Alasgar Mammadli: Statement on the establishment of an acceptable activity for NGOs can be interpreted in two ways: in terms of legislation and in practice. The most recent change in the legislation took place in December 2015. This change is even more restrictive. All the changes made before it remain in force. There were no legal initiatives, or the so-called faith, or parliamentary debates, or any exemptions in the law. The cause of all these problems is the criminal case instituted by the Investigative Department for Serious Crimes of the Prosecutor General's Office in 2014. This criminal case is still in force and the part of the case with respect to international organizations is in force, too. In this regard, the bank accounts of 38 individuals and legal entities have been arrested, and these arrests are still not removed - they continue to exist under the pretext of tax evasion, though the concluded interstate agreements stressed that they are exempt from VAT. Even though arrests of several accounts were removed, payment of taxes remains in force, which can not be regarded as a mitigating. As to the statements, they bear an imitation character. However, there are several mitigating measures - it concerns the NGO Transparency Coalition in the mining industry, as well as the return of documents and equipment to several NGOs, seized from them by the investigation. But these exemptions are not intended to close criminal cases or to bring to justice those, who artificially opened a criminal case.

Q: International donors have allocated grants. What percentage of them has been allocated to the government, and what – to some so-called independent NGOs? Several grantees are prosecuted. In others, either liabilities are not monitored, or they have stayed away from the control.

Alasgar Mammadli: With regard to the distribution of international grants, the final data are not available. One can cite as an example a report of two years ago by the USAID. At the time they noted that more than 85% of the grants were allocated to public entities. Institutes of civil society were allocated 15%. The talk is about more than 300 million USD, which means that 250 million USD was transferred to the government. I have mentioned only a single donor - in addition to it, there are also the European Commission, the German Development Agency, and other international donors. With regard to the government's attacks, they were not carried out in all directions, but only in the sphere of the development of democracy, human rights and freedoms, and freedom of the media.

Question: How can the “fifth column” theme once again looming on the agenda be viewed?

Alasgar Mammadli: Those who distribute information about the likelihood of revolution to the media know that in reality there is nothing of the kind. Neither Azerbaijan has got such a situation, nor there is any strong pressure on the power. Donors are in a constant dialogue with the government. Biased media try to present the situation in the country as hard. In fact, everyone knows it is a game. If this were the case, then the situation would have been investigated not by the media, but by the law enforcement agencies. All the detainees at the time were released. It is more reminiscent of friction between Russia and the West, the effects of which affect Azerbaijan. The main reason for problems of civil society is the relationship between Russia and the West.

Q: What should be done to restore the international donors to the state until 2009, when the first attack on the NGOs took place?

Alasgar Mammadli: It is necessary to exclude the illegitimate rules from the legislation or create new legislation. In this issue political will is required. Civil society, along with the control function, also implements the facilitating function and brings to the agenda topics that the government does not see. A normal government should understand that civil society helps it.

Q: The Government also allocates grants to NGOs through the State NGO Support Council. Does this affect the expansion of the activities?

Alasgar Mammadli: When creating the NGO Support Council, I believed that the state in any form should not interfere with their activities. It is necessary to create legal conditions for the activities of NGOs. Wrong is the approach that the government should direct the budget for more important things, rather than for the activities of NGOs. Either this approach should be revised or allocation of funds to them should be stopped.