Civil society protests against the reactionary amendments

The Committee to Protect Civil Society held a roundtable discussion in the Media center IRFS .

The participants discussed the situation after the signing of changes to laws by President Ilham Aliyev, which will greatly restrict the activities of NGOs.

These amendments give the government complete control over NGOs, but  civil society does not intend to put up with it and will continue to fight for the abolition of the changes.

The fact that the President ignored an appeal from 90 NGOs asking him not to sign the amendments to the law, has shown contempt for public opinion.

The participants believe that the application of severe financial sanctions against NGOs for technical errors proves the intention of the authorities to put an end to the activities of independent NGOs.

According to members of civil society, the changes contradict the Constitution and one of the participants offered to apply to the Constitutional Court .

The changes also contradict Azerbaijan's commitments to international organizations. A bid was announced to apply to international organizations, as well as to hold actions of protest. For a more extensive discussion an NGO Forum was suggested.

The head of IRFS Emin Huseynov said that the largest NGO in the country is the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. "So far the activity of this body is unclear, so how do the authorities require transparency from anyone else?" he said.

The head of the Election Monitoring Centre,  Anar Mammadli was arrested for tax evasion, but have similar requirements ever been nominated for the Heydar Aliyev Foundation?

Recall that changes in the laws regulating NGOs were adopted by Parliament on December 17, 2013. On February 4 the President approved them. -05C04-