NGO group: ZBCG initiative a potential threat to human rights

They said that it is clear from the statement of the ZBCG that the goal of that coalition of Serbian nationalist parties in Montenegro is to declare at least the most vocal NGOs in the country "agents of foreign influence" just because they receive donations from abroad, according to the statement of eight non-governmental organizations

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Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

The initiative of the Coalition for the Future of Montenegro (ZBCG) to adopt the law on foreign agents is a potential threat to human rights and the integration of Montenegro into the European Union (UN), eight non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have assessed.

In the announcement of the Action for Human Rights, the Center for Democracy and Human Rights, the Center for Women's Rights, the Center for the Development of Non-Governmental Organizations, the Center for Democratic Transition, the Media Institute, the Association of Lawyers and the Association for Responsible and Sustainable Development, it is stated that Montenegro is seriously through politics and fundamental improvement of the rule of law, peace and economic security, it must fight to preserve its future.

Those NGOs assessed that this future is also threatened by such initiatives, which, as they said, are reminiscent of medieval announcements of witch hunts.

NGOs welcomed the decisive and urgent reaction of all other parliamentary political parties who, as they said, recognized the danger of this proposal and advocated for the defense of a free and democratic society and decisively and publicly refused to support the proposal.

They said that it is clear from the ZBCG statement that the goal of that coalition of Serbian nationalist parties in Montenegro is to declare at least the most vocal NGOs in the country as "agents of foreign influence" just because they receive donations from abroad, although this is not what the Law on Registration of Foreign agents (FARA) in the United States of America (USA).

"That law applies only to organizations and individuals who work in the US under management and control from abroad and does not equate such management with receiving foreign donations, as the ZBCG coalition apparently understood," the statement said.

It is stated that the establishment and work of NGOs in Montenegro are already fully regulated by the current Law on Non-Governmental Organizations, which is in accordance with European standards and the EU acquis communautaire.

"In addition, every NGO is obliged to, in accordance with the Law on Accounting, submit annual financial reports to the competent authorities, including the Tax Administration, and in accordance with the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism, they are obliged to perform the registration of the "beneficial owner". the statement said.

Eight NGOs said that these obligations ensure transparency in the work of the NGO sector and that any deviation or non-compliance with the law entails legal sanctions.

"Given that the ZBCG coalition that proposes the introduction of such a law is made up of politicians with a pro-Putin orientation, it is reasonable to fear the negative effect that the adoption of the law on foreign agents had in Russia, especially on organizations that bravely fought against corruption and advocated for clarification murders of journalists", the announcement states.

Eight NGOs said that such a proposal casts serious doubt on the declaratively European orientation of that coalition and indicates the possibility that some other agenda is hidden behind such a proposal in order to silence the non-governmental sector.

Such laws, as they said, are typical of totalitarian systems, and Montenegro, on the contrary, strives for a democratic and European future.

"The experiences of applying such laws in Russia, Hungary, Georgia, Slovakia, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan show that the states abused them in order to stifle criticism and create terror in organized civil society, the media, and among individual citizens," the statement said.

As stated, the common feature of those laws is that all those who receive donations from abroad and who engage in broadly defined "political activities" are registered as "foreign agents", "foreign representatives" or "organizations that serve the interests of foreign authorities".

"The law applies regardless of whether donations come from state or private sources, as well as regardless of whether organizations or informal groups or even individuals carry out activities on behalf of a foreign donor," the statement said.

It is stated that the laws contained strict reporting obligations and administrative obligations, the slightest violation of which entailed serious penalties and bans.

Eight NGOs said that the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice, as well as the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the OSCE and the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, have concluded that foreign agent laws violate human rights to freedom of association, expression and privacy, and prohibition of discrimination against non-profit organizations, groups and media.

"Since the European Court of Justice has already condemned Hungary once for the original version of such a law, a new one was adopted, which is now the subject of a new lawsuit initiated by the European Commission against Hungary," the statement said.

Eight NGOs recalled that, because of such a law, the process of joining Georgia to the EU was stopped.

"Under intense domestic and international pressure, the authorities of Republika Srpska withdrew in May of this year the proposal for such a law, which was modeled after the Russian law," the announcement says.

It is said that in Bulgaria, the pro-Putin right wing has been trying to push through such a law since 2022.

"Certainly the loudest NGOs, and probably an incalculable number of others, which are obviously targeted by the controversial initiative, advocate exclusively for the faster and better fulfillment of the requirements for EU membership, which boil down to the rule of law and the mandatory protection of human rights," the statement says. .

As they said from eight Montenegrin NGOs, the laws on foreign agents in Hungary, Slovakia, Georgia, and Russia were used precisely against human rights, which represent the foundation of a community such as the EU.

"Nowhere were those laws used to promote democracy, but to hide the truth that people from those countries are moving en masse to Western Europe, not to China and Russia," the announcement states.

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