Legislation going before the Kyrgyz parliament would be restrictive of NGOs’ activities, barring them from any activity that brings them too close to politics, civil rights activists warn. When the package of amendments to the Law on Non-Commercial Organizations was proposed in February, an accompanying statement said that it would ‘ban non-profit organizations from any engagement in political activity and in elections’. Such matters, argued its proponents, should be left to political parties. Opponents of the bill say it is intended to clamp down on election monitoring groups, in particular, in the run-up to the presidential election expected later this year.

Source

IJCSL Newsletter, April 2009