Word: ngo
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When Iraq's provincial elections in January ran smoothly, observers touted the outcome as a positive step toward a freer society. But elections alone don't make a democracy. A draft law to regulate nongovernmental organizations was approved this week by the Cabinet, unsettling elements of the nascent local NGO community, who say that parts of the law raise concerns about how free and fair the new Iraq will...
...have seen in previous years how some government grants have been given to NGOs with political ties to parties in government," says Hashem Assaf, spokesman for the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq, an umbrella group that represents 52 international and national bodies, including Oxfam and Mercy Corps, as well as more than 200 local affiliates. "We, as NGOs, are trying to remain independent." (See TIME's 2005 Persons of the Year: The Good Samaritans...
...draft law imposes provisions legalizing monitoring of the finances and accounts of NGOs, as well as their activities. The government must be notified of, and approve donations to civic organizations, giving it leverage over groups that often depend on contributions to survive. Hussain al-Safi, director general of the NGO Directorate, sidestepped a question about why the government should have its fingers on an NGO's purse strings, saying he hadn't read the 12-page draft law in detail. "I've been waiting for the opportunity to have a spare minute to read it," he says, thumbing through...
...biggest oil and natural-gas reserves. The country's jade is the world's finest, and its largely untouched rivers promise plentiful hydropower for its neighbors. "Multinationals are getting rich off Burma, and so is the military regime," says Ka Hsaw Wa, co-founder of EarthRights International, an NGO that sued U.S. energy giant Unocal, which eventually provided out-of-court compensation to villagers who are believed to have toiled as slave labor for the Yadana gas pipeline from southern Burma to Thailand. "It is the local people who are suffering and dying," says Ka Hsaw...
...Others argued that the international community would mobilize around this indictment, justifying Ocampo’s actions. This cold calculation of politics for blood was wrong. Instead of increasing aid or taking multilateral action against Darfur, the UN remains silent about NGO expulsion. Why? China is unwilling to retrench its support for Sudan. It blocked a basic press statement from the UN Security Council that would have condemned Khartoum for this retaliatory injustice. The African Union and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, two potential sources of international support in the region, remain silent, and are unlikely to act against...