Azeri NGOs Protest Denial of Registration

Non-government groups in Azerbaijan say the government is deliberately refusing to grant them legal registration, thus cutting off their access to funding and restricting their ability to work.

They say also that state-financed agencies tasked with funding non-government organisations, NGOs, deliberately pass over those which work in sensitive areas like human rights, free speech and the environment.

A coalition of 37 unregistered NGOs is campaigning for changes to the registration rules, and for state funding to be distributed more fairly.

At a July 30 press conference, coalition members announced plans for a protest outside the justice ministry in Baku, but the city authorities refused to grant permission for the event, and the activists decided against risking an open confrontation.

Jasur Sumerenli, who is coordinating the coalition, accuses the authorities of “creating and registering NGOs that are fully under their control”.

“The authorities in Azerbaijan are trying to create a monopoly in the NGO sector, as they have done with the media,” he added.

Unless they are registered with the authorities, NGOs cannot operate legally, receive funds or pay taxes. Many donors will not give grants to unregistered NGOs, and those that do risk being accused of acting illegally.

Sumerenli said the creation of the State Council for NGO Support and the Fund for Media Support, both set up in 2008 to channel state funding to recipients, was a “grave blow” to non-government groups.

“Around 15 million manats [19 million US dollars] has been distributed by these organisations. The majority of well-known NGOs have not seen a penny of this money, while some unknown, newly-created NGOs are receiving substantial sums from these funds,” he said. “There are no rules, no logic to the distribution of money.”

The head of the State Council for NGO Support, Azay Guliyev, denied his organisation channelled funds only to state-controlled NGOs. He said he had met about 20 representatives of unregistered NGOs, and had promised to help them.

A justice ministry official rejected claims that the Azerbaijani government was conspiring to stifle civil society.

Subhi Kazimov, deputy head of the ministerial department in charge of the registration process, said around 70 groups were registered in the first half of this year, and that more than 2,400 NGOs were now operating in Azerbaijan.

Kazimov said when NGOs were refused registration, it was only because their application forms were not in order.

“The justice ministry never demands supplementary documents for registration. But sometimes there are NGOs that just copy their standing regulations from another group. In such cases, we naturally send the documents back to be rewritten,” he said.

Elchin Abdullayev, a lawyer and the chairman of the Union of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, disputes this, arguing that many queries raised by the justice ministry are really a ploy to avoid granting registration.

He said NGOs should challenge rejections in the courts, and if necessary go to the European Court for Human Rights. He noted that the Strasbourg court in 2007 ruled in favour of Sheyda Nasibova, who brought a complaint after the authorities failed to grant registration to her group, the Investigative Journalism Centre.

The NGO coalition has also brought 25 cases in the national courts. In January, the Regional Centre for Human Rights and Enlightenment set a precedent by securing a Supreme Court ruling in its favour after a lower court turned it down. As a result, the justice ministry was forced to grant the group registration in June.

Oqtay Gulaliyev, co-chairman of the Organisation for Democratic Reforms, a coalition member, is among those who have gone to see Guliyev, head of the State Council for NGO Support.

“We have two routes open to us – either to wait and hope to get help from the State Council for NGO Support, or to appeal in court and end up at the European Court for Human Rights. At the moment, we are opting to take the first route,” he said.

Idrak Abbasov is a journalist with the Zerkalo newspaper and a member of IWPR’s Cross Caucasus Journalism Network.