Preamble
Since the end of 2016, a number of measures have been taken to address the restrictive amendments to the legislation on non-governmental organizations and to improve the NGO legislation in general. These measures mainly cover the following.
Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On Application of the One-stop shop Principle in the Procedures for Allocating Grants in the Territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan by Foreign Donors”, dated October 21, 2016, is issued.
The Decree envisages: 1) Application of the One-stop shop Principle in the procedures for allocating grants by foreign donors in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan; (2) Possibility for grant recipient, along with the donor, apply to obtain opinion on the financial and economic viability of the grant; 3) Relevant instructions to the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan (The Cabinet of Ministers) regarding the simplification of the procedure for obtaining opinion on the financial and economic viability of grant.
In accordance with the Decree, many amendments have been made to the “Rule for Registration of Grant Agreements (Decisions)” by the Cabinet of Ministers’ Decision, dated January 11, 2017, and to the “Rule for Obtaining the Right of Allocating Grants by Foreigners in the Territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan”, by the Cabinet of Ministers’ Decision, dated 24 January 2017.
By the amendments, the One-stop shop Principle in the Procedures for Allocating Grants by Foreign Donors was applied, possibility for grant recipient, along with the donor, apply to obtain opinion on the financial and economic viability of the grant was determined, the scope of the documents to be submitted, including of notarized documents, was considerably reduced, the option to register a grant contract as a service contract was enabled and procedures were simplified.
At the same time, the “National Action Plan for the Promotion of the Open Government for 2016-2018” was approved by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, dated April 27, 2016, and the “Preparation of Proposals related the Development of Favourable Conditions for Activities of Non-Governmental Organizations” was envisaged, as one of the key activities.
At the same time, numerous grant contracts, which were concluded with foreign donors but not registered by the end of 2015 and in 2016, were registered and successfully implemented.
Furthermore, it was envisaged in the “2016-2018 National Action Plan for the Promotion of the Open Government” adopted in 2016 to “Prepare Proposals for the Development of Favorable Conditions for the Activities of Non-Governmental Organizations”, as one of the key activities.
The Government-Civil Society Dialogue Platform on the Promotion of the Open Government, by characterising positively the measures taken, puts forward the following proposals to the Government and the Parliament on the development of favorable conditions for activities of non-governmental organizations:
- It is proposed to make the following amendments to the legislation concerning the establishment and functioning of non-governmental organizations, as well as ensuring financial sustainability:
1). The following articles shall be deleted from the Law “On Non-Governmental Organizations (Public Associations and Foundations)”:
- Article 9.1-1 containing: “Foreigners and stateless persons entitled to permanently live in the Republic of Azerbaijan may become a founder and a legal representative of a non-governmental organization in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan”;
- Article 24-1.5 containing: “The non-governmental organization, as well as the branches and representative offices of non-governmental organizations of foreign states shall provide information on the amount of donations received and the donated persons to the relevant executive authority in accordance with the procedure established by the relevant executive authority. Bank transactions with respect to donations for which no information is provided and any other transactions cannot be made.”
- Article 24-2.1. The provision containing: “A contract on the provision of services or works on account of foreign funding sources shall be submitted by the non-governmental organization to relevant executive authority for registration.”;
- Article 24-2.2 containing: “Non-governmental organization providing services or works with no contract or without registration shall be held liable under the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Azerbaijan”;
- Articles 31.3., 31.3.1., 31.3.2. and 31.3.3., which stipulate the termination of non-governmental organizations’ activities as a measure of responsibility for non-governmental organizations;
- Article 29.4. “Non-governmental organization shall submit its annual financial report to the relevant executive authority of the Republic of Azerbaijan no later than April 1 of each year. The form, content and manner of submission of such reports shall be determined by the relevant executive authority.”
- Article 31.8. If a non-governmental organization fails to submit its annual financial report within the period specified in Article 29.4 of this Law, the relevant executive authority shall instruct the organization with a written notification to submit a relevant report within 30 days. A non-governmental organization that does not submit a report within this period shall be liable under the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
- Article 30-1. “Scrutinize if the activities of non-governmental organizations, as well as of branches or representative offices of non-governmental organizations of foreign states comply with their statutes (regulations) and the legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan”.
2). The following articles shall be deleted from the Law “On Grants”:
- Second paragraph of Article 5 of the Law: “… can act as donors upon obtaining the right to provide grants in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan. In order to obtain the right to provide grants, the opinion of the relevant executive authority on the financial and economic viability of the grant shall be required” and Article 5.1: “Rules to obtain the right to allocate grants by donors as provided for in Section 5 of this Article shall be determined by the relevant executive authority.;
- In section 5, paragraph 2, Article 3 of the Law, the requirement of “(those recipients can receive grant only from donors envisaged in paragraphs 2 and 4 of Article 2 of this Law as well as branches and representations of foreign legal persons not being aimed at profit registered in the Republic of Azerbaijan (branches and representations of foreign NGOs registered in the Republic of Azerbaijan on the basis of the agreement which is envisaged in the in the Law of Non-Governmental organizations (Public Associations and Foundations) of the Republic of Azerbaijan)”:
Article 4, paragraph 4; 4-1 and 5:
“4. Agreements (decisions) on giving grants to foreign recipients by donors, being legal or natural entity of the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as branch office or representation of legal entity of the Republic of Azerbaijan shall be submitted for registration by donors. Agreements (decisions) on receiving grants of recipients of the Republic of Azerbaijan shall be submitted to registration by the same recipients. Relevant information on the grant given on the base of state budget shall be submitted to the body, registering grant agreement (decision) by the donor.
4-1. Requirements on grant agreement (decisions) in this article apply to annexes agreements on grant agreement (decision), as well as the term of agreements (decisions), changes of aims, amounts.
Rules of registration of the grant agreements (decisions) shall be defined by the relevant executive authority body.
- Non-registered agreements (decisions) on giving and receiving of grants cannot be subject to bank or any other operations.
3). The following amendments are proposed to the Law “On State Registration and State Register of Legal Entities”:
- The registration of non-governmental organizations and registration of subsequent changes recorded in constituent documents shall be done electronically;
- the “… within 40 days” in article 8.1 shall be replaced with ““… within 3 days”;
- the “… within 30 days” and the sentence “In exceptional cases, when there is necessity for further investigation during the check, the period can be prolonged for additional 30 days.” in article 8.2 shall be deleted.
- The “Registration of Amendments to Further Changes in Facts Recorded” shall be deleted from Article 9;
- Article 6.1.2-1 containing the “Agreement on State Registration of Branches or Representative Offices of Non-Governmental Organizations of Foreign States in the Republic of Azerbaijan” shall be deleted;
- Article 11.3.1., which contains the “ when documents submitted to the relevant executive power body of the Azerbaijan Republic contradict the Constitution of the Azerbaijan Republic, this Law and other legal acts;” shall be deleted;
- 3.2., which contains the “when purposes, targets and forms of activity of the institutions that wish to obtain the legal entity status contradict the legislation;” shall be deleted.
- It’s proposed to implement the following measures in the field of strengthening the participation of non-governmental organizations in decision-making and public oversight processes:
- Non-governmental organizations should be involved in the legislative process. For this purpose, representatives of non-governmental organizations should be represented in the working groups of standing committees of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and in the structures of the Cabinet of Ministers and central executive bodies of the Republic of Azerbaijan dealing with legislative issues;
- In the working structures of standing committees of the Milli Mejlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan, structures dealing with legislative issues of the Cabinet of Ministers and central executive bodies of the Republic of Azerbaijan should discuss with non-governmental organizations the normative-legal acts of public importance, their projects and decisions;
- Amendments to the legislation on non-governmental organizations or new normative-legal acts should be adopted only after discussion with non-governmental organizations;
- Non-governmental organizations should be widely represented in all Public Councils established by central and local executive authorities;
- Broader opportunities should be created for non-governmental organizations to conduct monitoring of public services.
- The following are proposed for strengthening the participation of non-governmental organizations in services:
- Tax and other privileges should be identified to stimulate entrepreneurial activities of non-governmental organizations;
- Participation of non-governmental organizations in public procurement should be enhanced;
- The involvement of non-governmental organizations in social services should be strengthened;
- The orders of the private sector to non-governmental organizations should be encouraged.
- The following are proposed to enhance technical capacities of non-governmental organizations:
- Non-governmental organizations should be provided with offices on preferential renting terms;
- Involvement of volunteers into the activities of non-governmental organizations should be encouraged;
- One hour weekly program should be aired on ITV to cover non-governmental organizations’ activities.
- The Non-Commercial Law subject of should be taught in humanitarian faculties of higher education institutions;