Exploring this trend was the aim of my Master thesis, undertaken while working at the Human Rights House Foundation.
In this work, I analysed the European and international human rights norms and standards relating to the right to access foreign resources. The thesis considers the obligations of States with regard to allowing foreign funding, and explores the many restrictions placed on this funding.
This research comes at a time in which civil society receives little support from local donors in their own countries. It has been recorded that since 2012, more than a hundred laws have been enacted with the aim to restrict the registration, activity, operation and funding of non-governmental organisations. International funding is considered to be a lifeline for organisations operating on sensitive and complex issues, such as human rights advocacy, election monitoring, and anticorruption work, for which domestic funding is rare and insufficient.
We have seen restrictions and proposals in Russia, Belarus, and Azerbaijan, and now in Hungary, and noticed a contagion effect in which restrictive measures introduced in one country are copied by neighbours States, leading to a regional shrinking of civil society space.
Hungary, for example, followed the trend and in April 2017 proposed a bill to force NGOs receiving more than 7.200.000 HUF (approx. €24,000) per year from an international source to register as “civic organisations receiving foreign funding”. Just like the Russian Federation or Belarus, Hungary now threatens civil society by imposing more and more administrative burdens on organisations receiving donations from abroad.
Restrictions on the access to foreign resources are part of a broader crackdown against independent civil society and political opposition. At the United Nations General Assembly in October 2015, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, Miklós Haraszti, called the progression of restrictions to the right to access foreign funding in Europe the new Berlin Wall.
Through financial restrictions, the true and wider objective of many of those holding State power is to silence dissent, silence negative reporting, and silence those holding the State to its international obligations: the very aim of human rights defenders.
Legal argument
The right to access foreign resources is not prescribed in any international legally binding instrument.
International bodies have however developed an indirect obligation through the right to freedom of association for States to allow civil society access to international funding. In a report from 2013, Maina Kiai, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to peaceful assembly and of association, affirmed that Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights contains the ability of NGOs and individuals to seek, receive and use resources, be it human, material and financial from public and private, domestic and foreign, sources.
The Human Rights Council has called on States to ensure “that reporting requirements (…) do not discriminatorily impose restriction on potential source of funding.” Numerous other UN human rights bodies have stressed the importance of free access to funding for civil society. The Human Rights Committee observed that “the protection afforded by Article 22 extends to all activities of an association,” therefore including fundraising activities.
The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe has also published opinions concerning national laws on the access to foreign funding and pointed out that they would constitute violations of the right to freedom of association.
Responses of international community – crucial role of international donors
Not only are NGOs facing limitations to access foreign funding by their own government, they are also confronted with restrictions imposed by international donors themselves. International donors are able to play a major role in the evolution of the process of funding and its simplification. International donors would be able to counter or at least minimise restrictive national laws by adapting their granting methods for local NGOs.
Private and public donors are committed to support independent civil society, but their response to the multiplication of restrictions on foreign funding are diverse and sometimes inadequate.
Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) is preparing a report that explores general principles on the behaviour of international donors and provides a guide for international donors, governments and civil society. The general principles point out recommendations and best practices that can be used by international donors to facilitate the granting process for civil society. The recommendations have been developed by analysing the current situation faced by Human Rights Houses and member organisations.
The international community needs to find a collective approach that matches the depth and the difficulties faced by civil society organisations in the access to foreign funding. This report will help international donors to better react and maybe change their response to the continued shrinking space for civil society and human rights organisations.
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Documents:
- The access to foreign resources for civil society
The access to foreign resources for civil society – Master thesis by Léa Meindre-Chautrand
