Re-registration deadline for foreign NGOs

The deadline for the re-registration of foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in Uzbekistan expired on Thursday. Although some have registered, the fate of others remains unclear. Internews, an international non-profit organisation aimed at supporting open media worldwide, is among those organisations which have recently complied with the ruling. "We re-registered on 18 March. As far as I know, some 40 organisations have passed re-registration as well, including us [Internews]. I think that the majority of them [international NGOs] have done so," Khalida Anarbaeva, head of the NGO's country office, told IRIN from the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. "We re-registered last week," Allison Gill, a researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), told IRIN from Tashkent, noting, however, that not all foreign NGOs had completed the process, including the Open Society Institute (OSI), an international humanitarian organisation supporting the development of a democratic, civil society in the country. Concurring, Anarbaeva of Internews said: "The Soros Fund (OSI) in Uzbekistan hasn't re-registered yet. And their deadline for re-registration is 1 April." This could be problematic. Tashkent issued a decree in December 2003 stipulating that all foreign NGOs present in the ex-Soviet republic were to re-register with the justice ministry instead of the foreign ministry, as they had done in the past. But Ilkhom Zakirov, foreign ministry spokesman told IRIN earlier that it was just a technical issue based on a law adopted in 1999. And while the initial deadline for registration was 1 March, the government extended it until 1 April, explaining that some international NGOs simply hadn't had enough time to comply. Meanwhile, some of those who had already registered were concerned. "The new law on registration, a Cabinet of Ministers decree from December, has some provisions that are very worrisome. One of the provisions says that international NGOs must coordinate the agenda, timing and content of all seminars, conferences, trainings, meetings and activities and things like that with the registering body, which is in this case, the Ministry of Justice. And it is a very burdensome regulation for an NGO," Gill highlighted. "For us it's not a step forward. It's two steps backward because before this change we were free to operate and now we are no longer quite that free," the rights activist stressed, adding that NGOs shouldn't be subject to governmental approval of their work. "The regulation states that the ministry of justice officials have the right to attend all of those events. For example when I went to receive my registration certificate they [government officials] warned me of this regulation and said we would be working very closely together." In accordance with the new regulation, she maintained, an NGO had to provide prior notice to the registering body as well. "It's an open question whether that notice also means approval. I've had conflicting reports from different ministry officials." And although it remained unclear how the new regulations would be implemented, she hoped for the best. "But I think it's an open question and the international community should be watching it very closely," she said.