© Photo used with permission of ONG Acción Solidaria
Civil society groups are united in rejecting the bill that seeks to limit NGOs’ ability to access resources including foreign funding.
ISHR is pleased to join the statement issued by 500 Venezuelan and international civil society organizations in which we strongly reject the bill currently being discussed in the Venezuelan National Assembly that would affect NGO access to foreign funding.
The bill aims to create an “Integrated Compulsory Registration System” for NGOs which could provide the government with the means to authorise which have and do not have access to resources. The bill also provides for the implementation of a mechanism designed to “prohibit, suspend, restrict or definitively eliminate” any NGO at the discretion of the Executive.
The bill was one of several current and potential pieces of legislation that a group of UN experts who wrote to the Venezuelan government to express concern about last year. Discussion about the bill has recently been reactivated, heightening concern over threats and attacks on defenders in the country.
The Coordinator of the Venezuelan NGO Provea, Rafael Uzcátegui explains this bill within the context of the successful efforts by civil society to ensure accountability for victims through international bodies.
“What is being charged here is a bill for the organizations that succeeded in getting an investigation activated at the International Criminal Court,” he noted.
The proposal undermines key rights that enable and protect the work of defenders, in the view of ISHR’s Eleanor Openshaw.
“NGOs have the right to receive funding, both from national and international sources. This is a key aspect of the right to freedom of association. States should encourage, not constrain, the critical and constructive voices of civil society,” Openshaw commented.
ISHR joins organizations from across Latin America and beyond in condemning the adoption of an 'anti-NGO' law in Peru that represents a serious threat to independent NGOs in the country.
During the session of the NGO Forum preceding the 83rd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), a panel focused on the enduring impact of colonial-era laws on vulnerable populations across Africa was organised. The panel brought together human rights defenders and advocates to examine how outdated legal frameworks continue to marginalize communities, particularly LGBTQ+ individuals and sex workers, and to discuss pathways toward decriminalization and justice.
Our new report sheds light into the lived realities of HRDs in six often-overlooked countries: Cape Verde, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Sao Tome and Principe, and Seychelles. One thing is clear: human rights defenders in these countries are active, courageous, and committed to building more inclusive and just societies.
