US and EU express concern over plan in Peruvian Congress to increase control over NGOs

The United States, the European Union and 14 other nations expressed concern about a reform proposal circulating in Peru’s Congress to increase control over the financing received by non-governmental organizations that carry out “political activism.”

In a joint statement released on Monday, the embassies indicated that “democracies are more inclusive, equitable, stable and prosperous when civil society is fully empowered to protect human rights and respond to the needs of citizens.” He added that the proposed changes would “restrict the ability of civil society to operate in an enabling environment.”

On June 5, the Foreign Relations Commission in Congress approved a bill for the Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation to register for the first time non-governmental organizations that carry out “political activism” work, which is defined in the proposal as anything that “seeks to modify national public policies or electoral results in favor of the interests of private foreign entities.”

The proposal classifies as a serious infraction, punishable by fines exceeding $600,000 or even the loss of registration, the allocation of international cooperation resources towards activities declared as “acts that affect public order, public or private property, citizen security , national defense and internal order.”

Peruvian lawyer José Ugaz, former president of Transparency International, told local radio RPP that the proposal – approved in a commission chaired by the Fuerza Popular party of the right-wing Keiko Fujimori – “has a very clear political motivation.”

He recalled that the control of non-governmental organizations “is not a Peruvian invention” because it already happens “in Russia, it is happening in Georgia, it happens in Venezuela, in Nicaragua and in other places and in other countries where it is intended to control the work of the civil society”.

Ugaz indicated that conservative legislators are bothered by the actions of non-governmental organizations, particularly those dedicated to mobilizing society in favor of the climate changestrengthening democracy and fight against corruption.

The embassies that signed the joint statement in Lima are those of Germany, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Spain, the United States, Finland, France, Ireland, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland and the European Union.

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