Elections & governance

Uganda: Do not legislate away a vibrant and strong NGO sector

2006-04-19, Issue 251

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/elections/33598

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In Uganda, the Coalition on Non-Governmental Organisations (Amendment) Bill ("CONOB") notes with much concern that on Friday, 7 April 2006, the parliament of Uganda passed the Non-Governmental Organisations Registration (Amendment) Bill ("NGO Bill") without taking into consideration the grave concerns expressed by the NGO community. They have issued a press release outlining these concerns.

PRESS STATEMENT

IMMEDIATE RELEASE 12TH APRIL, 2006

A VIBRANT AND STRONG NGO SECTOR IS NECESSARY FOR THE COUNTRY: DO NOT LEGISLATE IT AWAY

The Coalition on Non-Governmental Organisations (Amendment) Bill ("CONOB") notes with much concern that on Friday, 7 April 2006, Parliament passed the Non-Governmental Organisations Registration (Amendment) Bill ("NGO Bill") without taking into consideration the grave concerns expresses by the NGO community.

With the passing of NGO Bill what now remains is its presentation to the President for assenting so that it then becomes an operating law. The NGO Bill which seeks to regulate the operations of NGOs was first presented in Parliament in 2001. From the onset CONOB raised concerns over certain provisions within the NGO Bill whose effect they felt would undermine the operations of NGOs and usurp their independence and autonomy. When the NGO Bill was first presented in Parliament in 2001 certain provisions raised serious concern within the NGO community and these were raised by CONOB from the very onset.

As part of the effort to ensure the enactment of a progressive NGO law, CONOB came up with an alternative bill as a basis for dialogue with government. It is self-evident from the spirit and letter of the alternative bill that NGOs needed a law that would serve to create values of partnership, monitoring and dialogue between the NGO sector and Government. Indeed while the NGO sector agrees with the need to have an administrative and regulatory framework within which they can carry out their activities in a responsible manner, it still remains imperative that any laws creating this framework must not usurp the independence and autonomy of NGOs. It will also be noted that NGOs are institutions that have and must exercise their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, indeed the very right to exist. NGOs do play an important role in Uganda's society; far from being enemies of the state they seek to work with and complement Government in many ways, while also ensuring that Government remains committed to its obligations to the people and accountable for its actions.

The NGO sector remains willing and prepared work in partnership with Government and an enabling law is the starting point to forging such partnership for the development of our country. A strong and vibrant civil society is critical for the development, good governance and
democratization of our country. Ugandans should be wary of any attempts to stifle and weaken the NGOs which undeniably are a vital component of the civil society.

It is noted that when Parliament finally passed the NGO Bill on Friday, 7 April 2006, a few changes had been made to the NGO Bill in a bid to address the concerns of CONOB and so a number of objectionable clauses have been retained in the law.

The concerns identified from the original Bill and the final NGO Bill include the following:
a)The first concern is the composition of the National Board set up to monitor NGOs and develop policy guidelines for Community Based Organisations. This Board would, save for only two members selected from the public, be composed of Government representatives, including security organizations, while there was no representation of NGOs
whatsoever. NGOs were being excluded from participate in the
regulation of their operations. Such a Board which excluded NGOs it is felt will not be able to operate independently but end up as a mere instrument of the Government used to frustrate or deal with any NGOs that were disliked by Government.

The final NGO Bill has simply reduced the number of members of the Board from 18 to 15. Of these fifteen members, thirteen are drawn from Government institutions and two from the public. NGOs remain totally excluded from membership.
b)The second concern is the provision that NGOs will only be
able to operate after being granted valid permits which had to be renewed after one year. While NGOs will now be allowed to continue to operate while the Board made its decision on the granting or renewal of a permit NGOs still feel that because a permit can in the end be denied means that NGOs could be forced to stop operations mid way, only after a year of initiating them. The Board, which will be controlled solely by the Government, can thus use this threat of refusal to renew a permit to control NGOs and get rid of those that they feel are against Government.

c)The third provision that was of concern was one which stated that NGO whose objectives contravened any government policies, plans or public interest would be denied registration. The concern was that all NGOs that sought to make Government accountable for its actions, its failure to come up with and execute sound policies or its violation of human rights would find themselves being denied registration and effectively being put out of existence.

This provision has however been changed in the final Bill to state that those NGOs whose operation contravene the law will be denied registration. This new provision is more reasonable and fair than the first, though the concern would be whether these "laws" that should not be contravened remain just laws.

CONOB therefore calls upon the President of the Republic of Uganda to seriously take note of and consider the above noted concerns and particularly refrain from assenting to the law in its current form.

Uganda Debt Network (UDN),
Community Development Resource Network (CDRN),
Anti corruption coalition Uganda (ACCU)
Human Rights Network Uganda (HURINET-U),
Development Network of Indigenous Voluntary Associations (DENIVA),
Uganda Women's Network (UWONET),
Uganda National NGO forum,
Transparency International (TI)
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