A human rights day march in Phnom Penh. A draft law requiring NGOs working in Cambodia to register has proved controversial. Photograph: Samrang Pring/Reuters

Monday 19 December 2011
Celeste Hicks
guardian.co.uk

The fourth draft of a controversial proposed law covering the activities of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Cambodia has been rejected by a number of local and international organisations.

The latest draft of the law on associations and non-governmental organisations (Lango) was published by the Cambodian government last week. But already an umbrella group of prominent Cambodian NGOs and civil society groups have indicated they will not take part in a consultation session scheduled for Monday, saying the changes do not go far enough and claiming they have had insufficient time to review the draft properly.

"This new draft raises more questions than it answers," says Naly Pilorge, director of Licadho, the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights, one of the human rights organisations eschewing the consultation. "The stakes are too high to simply wait and see. These questions need to be answered before the law is passed, not after."

The Lango, first proposed in December 2010, is a government attempt to regulate civil society groups and NGOs operating in the country. Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen expressed concern earlier this year that certain groups could be corrupt or supporting terrorism.

"Every NGO wants the government to have transparency, but NGOs themselves don't have transparency," he said. "Which source does the money come from? [On] what and where do they spend the money?"

Civil society groups concede the current draft of the law has been improved, for instance by reducing the minimum number of people required to register a group to three, and by eliminating the need for NGOs to notify local authorities of their proposed activities. But campaigners remain unhappy at the central requirement for NGOs to register. Licadho and civil society groups such as the Coalition of Cambodia Farmers Community and the Farmers and Nature Network argue the existing law is adequate and say further legislation is unneccesary.

International organisations, also concerned that their activities could be affected, are calling for intervention from donors.

"The billions of dollars of development aid which has been spent building the capacity of Cambodia's civil society could be rendered null and void by this law," said Simon Taylor, director of UK-based NGO Global Witness. "International donors have one final chance to take a stance. They must persuade the government to delay the consultation on the fourth draft until January and make sure they do not adopt a law which threatens to severely restrict civil society's right to freedom of association and expression."

Three previous attempts to rewrite the draft law over the past year have drawn widespread criticism, not least from the UN special rapporteur to Cambodia, Surya Subedi. In August, 10 NGOs – including Global Witness and Human Rights Watch – wrote to the British foreign secretary, William Hague, calling on donors to reassess aid programmes in the light of the proposed law.

The international watchdog Freedom House described an earlier draft version as "vague in scope and containing ambiguous language", something which has not been remedied in the fourth draft, according to Pilorge.

"There are contradictions and serious gaps throughout the law," says Pilorge. "Article five says that organisations can be 'freely established' without registration, but Article 32 flatly requires existing groups to notify the government of its intent to continue operations."

Numerous attempts were made by the Guardian to contact representatives of the Cambodian government for a response, but no one was available for comment.

Cambodia receives between $50m and $70m a year from the World Bank. It is looking increasingly to China for aid and development. China is Cambodia's biggest source of foreign direct investment, with stated plans to spend $8bn on 360 different projects during the first seven months of 2011.