Phnom Penh Post, Issue 15 / 22, November 3 - 16, 2006
The government's proposed law on Local Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) has drawn heavy criticism from civil society groups wary of the legislation's potential to compromise their ability to operate independently.
The complex registration processes and stringent reporting requirements outlined in the draft law could dramatically reduce the number of NGOs in Cambodia and seriously curtail their freedom from governmental interference.
"The very acronym 'NGO' means Non-Governmental Organization," said Naly Pilorge, director of Licadho, a local human rights NGO. "Obviously it is important that [NGOs] are accountable and transparent - but there are other ways of being accountable than submitting detailed information to the government which may put victims, clients and NGO workers at great risk."
Cambodia's Ministry of Interior has 1,800 associations and 300 NGOs registered with it, said Sak Sitha, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Interior (MoI), at an NGO fair in June this year. Collectively, NGOs contribute approximately $200 million a year to the economy, he said.
Although the government recognizes the valuable work NGOs undertake, they have long wanted to exercise more control over this sector, Sitha said. Concerted action to achieve this was taken two years ago when the government asked for World Bank assistance to draft a law to regulate NGOs - saying it wanted to have one in place by December 2006.
"At the moment it is quite easy to form a Cambodian NGO," said John Clark, World Bank social scientist, in the World Bank's October newsletter. "But nobody is very clear what NGOs are, and what rights and responsibilities they have."
The World Bank, aware of the trepidation within local civil society, has advised the MoI to abandon the imminent deadline for the drafting of a new law and begin instead a structured process of dialogue between NGOs and the government.
"There are many instances of bad NGO laws throughout the world," Clark said. "The outcome is only likely to be a good NGO law if the process is good and if NGOs trust the process and accept that a good NGO law will help them."
But despite attempts to create a positive dialogue between government and NGOs - Star Kampuchea, a local NGO, has established a working group of NGOs to discuss the law - NGOs remain wary of the process, largely as a result of the government's track record on NGO relations.
"The government in the past has proved itself selective," Pilorge said. "NGOs that provide welfare services and do not criticize the government are allowed to operate freely, but if there is any degree of criticism, then the government tends to use tactics to threaten or intimidate those NGOs."
There is, potentially, some need for greater regulation of NGOs in Cambodia, said Hing Channarith, founder of the Cambodian Children's Advocacy Foundation.
"An NGO I have heard of would go out into the provinces and ask people to pay to join the NGO, promising all sorts of benefits in return," he said. "Then they disappear and the people who have paid money have no way of finding them or prosecuting them."
The government says an NGO law could help to stamp out corrupt NGOs of this type, thus benefiting both the Cambodian populace and NGOs doing genuinely good work. But it also said the law would allow for greater control of NGOs deemed "inappropriate."
"There are some NGOs that take the opportunity to do inappropriate things," Sitha said. "They oppose the government to serve their own ends."
The law is intended not simply to control, but to create a positive environment for NGOs that would give them a legal basis to protect themselves, promote their work, and provide better opportunities for cooperation with the government, Sitha said.
The results of introducing NGO laws in other countries - for example, China, Thailand, and Malaysia - are mixed.
"The governments [of these countries have] used registration requirements to restrict the activities of civil society organizations critical of the government," a May 2006 Licadho briefing paper stated. "Even though these countries' laws theoretically protect freedom of assembly and association."
The World Bank acknowledges that the introduction of NGO laws can be a problem.
"Examples have arisen over the last three or four years where new NGO laws have been developed that strongly restrict the freedoms for NGOs and citizens," Clark said. "NGOs know that NGO laws can be a threat."
In October 2004, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders, Hina Jilani, tabled a report on the status of human rights defenders worldwide. The report focused on the trend by various governments to use NGO laws to restrict the activities of human rights NGOs.
"The criminalization of non-registered human rights groups, unnecessarily burdensome and lengthily registration procedures [and] state scrutiny of and interference with an organization's management, objectives and activities," can follow the passage of an NGO law, the report states.
"All of the key concerns above could well result from the passage of an NGO law in Cambodia," the Licadho briefing paper said.
"In the Cambodian context any NGO law - regardless of its particular content - poses a threat to the work of human rights defenders and other NGOs," the paper said. "The objectives of all NGOs and development agencies - both foreign and domestic - can be compromised."
One major concern is that it will not just be prominent advocacy NGOs that are targeted, but that smaller local organizations working on specialized problems will be unable to operate.
"Yes, an NGO law might result in watchdog NGOs such as Licadho being targeted, but we have some ability to highlight these issues to the general public," Pilorge said. "I worry that smaller NGOs will not even be able to go through the registration process."
Already, it is far harder for smaller NGOs to operate freely in Cambodia, as the government monitors their activities very closely, Pilorge said.
"For example, in Mondulkiri and Rattanakkiri, NGO workers from smaller NGOs have to request permission from local authorities to have meetings," she said. "At all levels of authority - village, district, commune - they confirmed that NGOs had to ask permission to meet, to move from one district to another, and then to move from that area to Phnom Penh. And then when they return to their province they are questioned.
"Recently in Sre Ambel district, Koh Kong province, NGO workers were prevented by local police from meeting people who demonstrated regarding a land concession."
Such scrutiny is simply a means of controlling these associations, and the proposed legislation would effectively serve to legalize these restrictions, she said.
"Now groups of people and some small NGOs are not able to register, they are informal groups of people [and even now] the government tries to imprison activists, for example, by charging them with disinformation," Pilorge said. "Under the proposed NGO law such groups of people could be imprisoned simply for continuing their activities without registering."
A new NGO law combined with another contentious draft law currently under discussion - that on the Freedom of Peaceful Assembly - could serve as legislative pincers closing in on NGOs' ability to operate independently, she said.
There are, however, some advantages that could come from an NGO law. It could set out clear requirements for NGOs to obtain legal status - something they lack.
"At the moment NGOs do not have a formal 'legal personality' - they are not recognized as fully legal entities," Clark said. "Hence they are not protected by the law."
Moreover, an NGO law could accord NGOs tax-free status, allowing the government to give tax breaks to companies that make donations to NGOs.
"The good thing is that Article 23 of the draft law makes donations to NGOs tax-deductible," said Channarith. "This could encourage wealthy Khmers to donate to NGOs; it could encourage a culture of philanthropy in Cambodia."
But this benefit is not necessarily dependent on the passage of an NGO law.
"It will require changes to the tax laws as well," Pilorge said. "I don't think this proposed law is about [tax-free status or] making NGOs more accountable. It is about selective control of critical NGOs - in particular the ones highlighting land grabbing by senior government officials or powerful businessmen, especially in this kind of environment."
The complex registration processes and stringent reporting requirements outlined in the draft law could dramatically reduce the number of NGOs in Cambodia and seriously curtail their freedom from governmental interference.
"The very acronym 'NGO' means Non-Governmental Organization," said Naly Pilorge, director of Licadho, a local human rights NGO. "Obviously it is important that [NGOs] are accountable and transparent - but there are other ways of being accountable than submitting detailed information to the government which may put victims, clients and NGO workers at great risk."
Cambodia's Ministry of Interior has 1,800 associations and 300 NGOs registered with it, said Sak Sitha, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Interior (MoI), at an NGO fair in June this year. Collectively, NGOs contribute approximately $200 million a year to the economy, he said.
Although the government recognizes the valuable work NGOs undertake, they have long wanted to exercise more control over this sector, Sitha said. Concerted action to achieve this was taken two years ago when the government asked for World Bank assistance to draft a law to regulate NGOs - saying it wanted to have one in place by December 2006.
"At the moment it is quite easy to form a Cambodian NGO," said John Clark, World Bank social scientist, in the World Bank's October newsletter. "But nobody is very clear what NGOs are, and what rights and responsibilities they have."
The World Bank, aware of the trepidation within local civil society, has advised the MoI to abandon the imminent deadline for the drafting of a new law and begin instead a structured process of dialogue between NGOs and the government.
"There are many instances of bad NGO laws throughout the world," Clark said. "The outcome is only likely to be a good NGO law if the process is good and if NGOs trust the process and accept that a good NGO law will help them."
But despite attempts to create a positive dialogue between government and NGOs - Star Kampuchea, a local NGO, has established a working group of NGOs to discuss the law - NGOs remain wary of the process, largely as a result of the government's track record on NGO relations.
"The government in the past has proved itself selective," Pilorge said. "NGOs that provide welfare services and do not criticize the government are allowed to operate freely, but if there is any degree of criticism, then the government tends to use tactics to threaten or intimidate those NGOs."
There is, potentially, some need for greater regulation of NGOs in Cambodia, said Hing Channarith, founder of the Cambodian Children's Advocacy Foundation.
"An NGO I have heard of would go out into the provinces and ask people to pay to join the NGO, promising all sorts of benefits in return," he said. "Then they disappear and the people who have paid money have no way of finding them or prosecuting them."
The government says an NGO law could help to stamp out corrupt NGOs of this type, thus benefiting both the Cambodian populace and NGOs doing genuinely good work. But it also said the law would allow for greater control of NGOs deemed "inappropriate."
"There are some NGOs that take the opportunity to do inappropriate things," Sitha said. "They oppose the government to serve their own ends."
The law is intended not simply to control, but to create a positive environment for NGOs that would give them a legal basis to protect themselves, promote their work, and provide better opportunities for cooperation with the government, Sitha said.
The results of introducing NGO laws in other countries - for example, China, Thailand, and Malaysia - are mixed.
"The governments [of these countries have] used registration requirements to restrict the activities of civil society organizations critical of the government," a May 2006 Licadho briefing paper stated. "Even though these countries' laws theoretically protect freedom of assembly and association."
The World Bank acknowledges that the introduction of NGO laws can be a problem.
"Examples have arisen over the last three or four years where new NGO laws have been developed that strongly restrict the freedoms for NGOs and citizens," Clark said. "NGOs know that NGO laws can be a threat."
In October 2004, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders, Hina Jilani, tabled a report on the status of human rights defenders worldwide. The report focused on the trend by various governments to use NGO laws to restrict the activities of human rights NGOs.
"The criminalization of non-registered human rights groups, unnecessarily burdensome and lengthily registration procedures [and] state scrutiny of and interference with an organization's management, objectives and activities," can follow the passage of an NGO law, the report states.
"All of the key concerns above could well result from the passage of an NGO law in Cambodia," the Licadho briefing paper said.
"In the Cambodian context any NGO law - regardless of its particular content - poses a threat to the work of human rights defenders and other NGOs," the paper said. "The objectives of all NGOs and development agencies - both foreign and domestic - can be compromised."
One major concern is that it will not just be prominent advocacy NGOs that are targeted, but that smaller local organizations working on specialized problems will be unable to operate.
"Yes, an NGO law might result in watchdog NGOs such as Licadho being targeted, but we have some ability to highlight these issues to the general public," Pilorge said. "I worry that smaller NGOs will not even be able to go through the registration process."
Already, it is far harder for smaller NGOs to operate freely in Cambodia, as the government monitors their activities very closely, Pilorge said.
"For example, in Mondulkiri and Rattanakkiri, NGO workers from smaller NGOs have to request permission from local authorities to have meetings," she said. "At all levels of authority - village, district, commune - they confirmed that NGOs had to ask permission to meet, to move from one district to another, and then to move from that area to Phnom Penh. And then when they return to their province they are questioned.
"Recently in Sre Ambel district, Koh Kong province, NGO workers were prevented by local police from meeting people who demonstrated regarding a land concession."
Such scrutiny is simply a means of controlling these associations, and the proposed legislation would effectively serve to legalize these restrictions, she said.
"Now groups of people and some small NGOs are not able to register, they are informal groups of people [and even now] the government tries to imprison activists, for example, by charging them with disinformation," Pilorge said. "Under the proposed NGO law such groups of people could be imprisoned simply for continuing their activities without registering."
A new NGO law combined with another contentious draft law currently under discussion - that on the Freedom of Peaceful Assembly - could serve as legislative pincers closing in on NGOs' ability to operate independently, she said.
There are, however, some advantages that could come from an NGO law. It could set out clear requirements for NGOs to obtain legal status - something they lack.
"At the moment NGOs do not have a formal 'legal personality' - they are not recognized as fully legal entities," Clark said. "Hence they are not protected by the law."
Moreover, an NGO law could accord NGOs tax-free status, allowing the government to give tax breaks to companies that make donations to NGOs.
"The good thing is that Article 23 of the draft law makes donations to NGOs tax-deductible," said Channarith. "This could encourage wealthy Khmers to donate to NGOs; it could encourage a culture of philanthropy in Cambodia."
But this benefit is not necessarily dependent on the passage of an NGO law.
"It will require changes to the tax laws as well," Pilorge said. "I don't think this proposed law is about [tax-free status or] making NGOs more accountable. It is about selective control of critical NGOs - in particular the ones highlighting land grabbing by senior government officials or powerful businessmen, especially in this kind of environment."
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