In the past there have been meetings and discussions organised that have brought together the heads of various NGOs in the region, says Hoshyar Malo, a lawyer and human rights activist who consults for the International Centre for Not-For-Profit Law in Iraqi Kurdistan. At these meetings the various needed amendments were identified by the NGOs themselves.
“The law is not suitable for contemporary conditions in Iraqi Kurdistan and it needs modification,” Malo confirms. “It should be more open. Lawyers also need to study it more because the law seems to be putting a lot of obstacles in the NGOs’ way.”
Funding is a particular problem, Malo explains, because the law doesn’t oblige the local authorities to help fund the NGOs nor does it specify how exactly NGOs are allowed to obtain funding from other sources. “In Article 9 the Law mentions revenues but it doesn’t talk about where the revenues come from,” Malo concluded.
One of the biggest problems with the current law is the fact that it enshrines government intervention in NGO activities. This is a reflection of the era in which the law was first written, Malo explains. The first version of the law actually appeared in the 1960s and it was amended in the 1990s.
“The essence of the law remained as it was first drafted and it is high time to change it, to make it more responsive to the spirit of modern society,” Malo argues, adding that after the next consultative conference on the topic is held in Erbil, a draft law should be ready to submit to the Iraqi Kurdish Parliament.
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