CARACAS.- The National Assembly (AN) Chavista announced that he will begin this Friday the public consultation of a questioned bill to supervise and regulate the functioning of NGOs in the country and which is widely rejected by these organizations who consider that authoritarianism will deepen in the South American nation.
This was reported by the president of the illegitimate AN, Jorge Rodríguez, who called on the rest of the legislators to join the consultation process of the “legal instrument” that was already approved in the first discussion on January 23, 2023.
“I want to inform and order the honorable deputies to join the consultation process that begins next Friday, of the law already approved in the first discussion,” said Rodríguez in the session of the Chavista AN last Tuesday.
The project of Law on Supervision, Regularization, Performance and Financing of Non-Governmental and Related Organizations has been heavily criticized by ONG who warn that if approved and come into force it would contribute to the closure of civic space in Venezuelain addition to having the objective of “criminalize” NGOs, a similar measure approved by the Daniel Ortega regime.
According to the bill, NGOs will be prohibited from receiving contributions intended for organizations with political purposes, carrying out political activities, promoting or allowing actions that, according to the regime, threaten national stability and the institutions of the Republic.
“Prohibiting the carrying out of ‘political activities’, and preventing ‘actions that threaten national stability’, are two dangerous concepts that threaten the rights to association and participation,” warned the NGO Provea shortly after the approval of the project in first discussion.
The legal regulations contemplate fines of up to $12,000 for NGOs that do not register in the Unified Registry of Obligated Subjects before the National Office Against Organized Crime and Financing of Terrorism, a “control” entity. Likewise, it obliges NGOs to declare the identity and origin of the donations they receive.
It is “an unconstitutional act, of legal overreach and serious breach of international standards for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms,” declared Provea. And he added that the Venezuelan authorities are deepening “their policy of criminalization, persecution and eventual suspension and illegalization of autonomous and independent civil society organizations.”
Likewise, he warned that the support provided by different social, humanitarian and human rights organizations in Venezuela will be diminished by the effects of the law.
Source: WRITING
