NGO activists accuse Azerbaijani MoJ of protracting grant registration

The slowness of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) of Azerbaijan, which was supposed to develop, with account of recent legislative changes, a mechanism for registration of grants in the country, is in fact paralyzing the work of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), their activists assert.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the gaps in the regulatory framework, caused by the recent changes in the legislation of Azerbaijan, provoked suspension of the online-edition "Media Forum".

The mechanism for enforcing the novelties is still missing; and the MoJ has suspended registration of grants, said Ilham Safar, founder and the CEO of the organization "Internews Azerbaijan". It was his (NGO) that implementing the "Media Forum" project.

The "Internews Azerbaijan" expects that by early March, all the legal issues will be settled; and the website will resume its work.

In the opinion of Gyunay Ismayilova, a lawyer of the Institute of Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS), frequent changes in the legislation and late development of the respective bylaws have virtually paralyzed the activities of NGOs in Azerbaijan.

Because of gaps in the legislation, in practice there were cases of NGOs’ evasion from taxes, misuse of grants and embezzlement of them. This was stated by Ali Guseinli, the head of the committee on legal policy and state building issues, during the parliamentary hearings.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.