A draft law regarding foreign financing of Venezuelan NGOs has many people, both in Venezuela and abroad, preoccupied about the future of NGOs here in Venezuela. The proposed Law on International Cooperation (Ley de Cooperación Internacional) passed a first reading in 2006 and is currently before the National Assembly as a draft law. Observers are preoccupied about the continued existence and independence of NGOs. The most worrisome aspects of the law are as follows. First of all, the government of Venezuela, through this proposed law, will be able to limit the areas in which NGOs are active. To receive funding under this new legislation, NGOs must be involved in fields of activities that have been identified by the government as being of primary importance to the development of the country. Although under Article 4(2) of the draft law, democracy and human rights are included amongst the principles guiding the development of international cooperation in Venezuela, they are not repeated in Article 9, the article that enumerates the focus of international cooperation in the country. This list contains worthwhile undertakings such as science and technology, culture and education, but there is a lack of any mention of democracy, human rights or social justice. The ability for NGOs in Venezuela to continue to be active in such sectors neglected by the government is put into peril by the proposed law. Secondly, the creation of the government administered Fund for International Cooperation and Assistance, through which all foreign donations will be channeled, places a tremendous amount of discretion in the hands of the government in terms of which NGOs will receive funds. It will enable the government to stifle the activities of NGOs whose activities are not aligned with the government´s predetermined areas of interest. This distribution mechanism will create a barrier to access to funding and will enable the government to create a void in essential areas that it disfavors. Furthermore, the essence of an NGO is that it be autonomous and independent from the government; the creation of this Fund will establish a dependency between NGOs and government which previously did not exist. From the point of view of foreign donors, the Fund will render them unable to choose to whom their financial support is directed. This is a disincentive to their continued support of NGO activities here in Venezuela and will probably eliminate much foreign funding of Venezuelan NGOs. As funding from national sources is limited, reduction in foreign funding will have devastating effects on the many NGOs who rely solely on international donors. A third preoccupation with the draft law is the creation of a registry for NGOs. To benefit from legal status, and be included in the registry, NGOs will have to comply with requirements established by a Regulation, which will be drafted by the President of the Republic. This is alarming as it leaves much discretion in the hands of the President, resulting in uncertainty with regard to which NGOs will receive legal status. The details of the requirements for legal status should be set forth in the law itself, to increase transparency and avoid ambiguities which will otherwise be filled in by bureaucrats in a discretionary manner. Furthermore, under the proposed draft law, the Executive will have the power to subsequently alter the requirements through regulations, which allows them even greater discretion to restrain NGOs from benefiting from legal status and accessing financial support through the Fund. The registry creates a further level of administrative bureaucracy with which NGOs must comply. If the objective of the draft law is a better supervision of NGO activities, it is important to signal that NGOs in Venezuela are already subject to various forms of registration and regulation, for example under the Civil Code, labor and tax laws, laws regarding social security and donations, as well as the Penal Code. NGOs operate with a fair degree of transparency; they are registered as civil organizations and financial data is collected as they pay rent, taxes and salaries and incur operating expenses. Through its various ministries, the government already holds much of the information it will be soliciting through the registry and therefore this added level of bureaucracy is largely redundant.
A fourth point to highlight with regard to the proposed law is the disequilibrium between the regulation of NGO activities and the regulation of the Venezuelan government’s activities as an international aid donor. The proposed law will set in place legal requirements to be followed by NGOs, although they are ambiguous at present. In comparison, the State´s foreign aid activity is determined by regulations passed by the President and it is not subject to any other form of regulation or social control. Legally, it is uncertain whether it would be possible to exert a similar control over the government and stipulate the disclosure of the details of their foreign aid programs.
Taking into consideration the above preoccupations, the principle detrimental effect of the draft Law on International Cooperation is that it will severely restrict civil society´s right to participate freely and directly in public affairs, a right guaranteed by Article 62 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Should this draft be signed into law by the National Assembly, there is a grave danger that the heightened control and discretionary power of the Executive would silence many of the organizations currently striving for human rights, justice and democracy. This would be in direct contradiction of the right to freedom of association and the right to participate in the political life of the country. It would also be a breach of Venezuela´s human rights obligations under the international conventions to which it is signatory. For example, Article 13 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders recognizes that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to solicit, receive and utilize resources for the express purpose of promoting and protecting human rights.”
Finally, it is important to note that multiple government officials, in particular deputies from the National Assembly, have declared to various media outlets that the approval of this legal instrument is imminent. They have also indicated that the draft approved on its first reading on June 13, 2006 is forming the base of the current discussions. To date those parties who will be most affected by the law, namely NGOs, have not had an opportunity to participate in the process and have been denied the ability to properly voice their concerns.