Legal and fiscal developments
Russia moves to ease legislative burden on NGOs, Azerbaijan postpones vote on potentially punitive legislation
1 July 2009
www.alliancemagazine.org
Amid fears in the non-profit community of a crackdown on NGOs, Azerbaijan’s parliament has decided to postpone indefinitely a vote on legislative amendments that would place severe restrictions on the country’s NGOs. The news follows representations by the Azeri ombudsman Elmira Suleimanova, acting at the request of non-profit groups, to parliament to stop or to push back to the autumn a hearing on the changes. Among other measures, the amendments would require NGOs to limit their foreign funding to 50 per cent of their entire budget and would ban foreigners from setting up NGOs.
