Liberalization in the field of NGOs is only talked about

Baku/18.08.21/Turan: On August 4, Presidential Assistant ide Hikmet Hajiyev met with a group of human rights defenders. Human rights activists reported that the meeting also discussed the problems of the sector of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country. They announced that there would be a softening on the NGO issue.

Then the representatives of the Agency for State Support of NPOs reported that NPOs had prepared and submitted to the relevant structures a package of proposals for improving the legal framework. Some human rights activists, however, believe that the changes will be purely cosmetic. What changes are expected in the non-state sector? Will there be a softening of the legislation toughened in 2014?

Gunel Safarova, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Agency for State Support of NGOs, told Turan that the government organized several meetings with non-governmental organizations last year before the war. “At that time, there was also a possibility that some changes would be envisaged, but during the war, for obvious reasons, this issue stopped. Later, the Agency for State Support to NGOs was created. There are people on the Supervisory Board of the organization with quite diverse and different positions, just one of the factors that unites us in one position is that the environment associated with non-governmental organizations should improve and substantial changes in legislation should take place."

The representative of the department noted that they made their proposals on this issue. "The proposals relate to the lifting of the bans that were in 2014. There is also a proposal to facilitate the registration of NGOs. Because the law does not have the problem of registration of NGOs, it is just that the environment is such that the registration of NGOs is postponed or not registered."

According to Safarova, proposals were prepared and presented to facilitate financing of international organizations and funds.

In his opinion, there will be mitigations in this area. “And there is a political will for this. Without this political will, there would not have been so many meetings, events, and preparation of a package of proposals. Mitigations are provided. Of course, looking through the prism of an NGO representative, I want all the bans to be lifted; some issues still require discussion, in particular, the issue of foreign funding."

The head of the Civil Rights Institute, Bashir Suleymanli, also believes that the government will make certain changes.

He said the government is forced to do this. "Because the current conditions dictate it. Restricting the activities of civil society at one time harmed the authority of the state. Perhaps the new government team plans to develop a new political design, including in relation to civil society."

According to him, the process related to the changes began 1 year ago. “The presidential aide met with representatives of civil society, we presented certain proposals. However, this process is not carried out in a specific plane. They meet with certain people, messages are transmitted, but we do not see the results yet."

Suleymanli noted that not only positive changes are being introduced, but also the same problems remain. "They continue to be subjected to illegal checks of civil society activists, lawyers while entering and leaving the country."

The expert noted that there are no public discussions on this issue. “The package of changes has been prepared. What is reflected in the report on these changes is therefore not disclosed. It would be nice to organize a public discussion of the prepared draft law, proposals, and in accordance with this, representatives of civil society will submit their proposals."

The human rights activist believes that the changes will be made in connection with the receipt of grants by NGOs, the activities of international organizations in Azerbaijan. -0—