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Sri Lanka is considering a sweeping set of new laws aimed at non governmental organisations receiving foreign funding, which critics have warned as being heavy handed.
New laws could see NGOs registering under one authority appointed by a government minister. The central authority, known as the competent authority, could have greater powers to demand information, enter premises without a judicial warrant, monitor projects, issue directions, suspend organisations and deregister them.
‘While governments have a legitimate interest in promoting transparency and preventing financial crime, Sri Lanka ’s draft NGO law goes well beyond the targeted, risk-based measures contemplated by international standards and could significantly restrict the ability of civil society organisations to operate independently, the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law told Alliance .
The Right To Life Human Rights Centre, a Sri-Lankan based organisation, said that surface level attempts at centralisation hid political motivations.
‘The concern is not where NGOs register. The concern is what the government can do after registration,’ the Right To Life Human Rights Centre said in a statement.
‘The problem is that the present NGO draft law, and its predecessors, have sought to transform registration into the beginning of an extensive system of supervision’.
The centre warned that new laws ‘could also suspend a human rights monitor or election observer group weeks before a national election, leaving it no independent tribunal to appeal to before the damage to its work is done’.
‘The nature of the proposed NGO law can reinforce claims by governmental critics that it has authoritarian instincts. On the other hand, this is not the first time that NGOs are facing the prospect of heavy-handed government control,’ the centre added.
Back in 2010, previous proposals back then were attempts to ‘intimidate and control’ NGOs, says Rohan Edrisinha, a lecturer at the Faculty of Law for the University of Colombo . A variety of factors behind the push include ‘a growing authoritarianism in general, the tsunami of December 2004, the insecurities of the majority community, and since 2005-2006, the election of a Government that essentially adopted a militaristic response to the island’s civil war’.
NGOs faced similar problems under the previous government between 2015 and 2019.
Shafi Musaddique is the news editor at Alliance magazine
With thanks to Shazia Amjad , Alliance south Asia representative.
Tagged in: Regional representatives
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