Withdraw restrictive law on NGOs: HRW

The Bangladesh government has proposed a law that would impose draconian restrictions on already beleaguered nongovernmental organisations, Human Rights Watch in a statement said on Saturday. Bangladesh’s donors should publicly express concerns about restrictions that are aimed at silencing government critics. The draft law is to be presented to the parliamentary standing committee for consideration. The Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Act, 2014, would regulate operations and funding for any group with foreign funding as well as Bangladesh offices of foreign and international organizations, the statement stated. The NGO Affairs Bureau in the prime minister’s office will have approval authority over foreign-funded projects. It will have the authority to ‘inspect, monitor and assess the activities’ of groups and individuals and to close groups and cancel their registration if it sees fit. The draft law can easily be misused to limit perfectly legitimate activities of NGOs and to attack critics,’ Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy Asia director, said. ‘Corruption is flourishing in the government and the private sector, so it is more than odd that the government is spending its time passing tough laws that target NGOs,’ he observed. The law should be withdrawn. But if it moves through parliament, the standing committee needs to amend the most problematic provisions so groups won’t be starved of funding and subjected to arbitrary restrictions, he added, according to a news agency.