NGO Forum

By Mathieu Duchâtel & Agatha Kratz, European Council on Foreign Relations

Chinese government agencies are working towards establishing the first law on NGOs which would cut to the heart of China’s relations with the West, and Europe in particular, according to a new publication by ECFR.

In “China: Waging ‘Lawfare’ on NGOs”, Mathieu Duchâtel, Senior Policy Fellow and Deputy Director of the Asia and China Programme, argues that recent events such as the Arab Spring and the emergence of the Ukraine conflict have persuaded Beijing that the West is pursuing a strategy of “regime change” that will ultimately target the Chinese Communist Party.

By Joanna Moorhead and Joe Sandler Clarke, The Guardian 

A hurricane is blowing through the world of international development and when the dust settles, the landscape is going to look entirely different. At the centre of the storm is a mix of acknowledgement and fear around a simple principle, which is that to be effective and meaningful in the 21st century, NGOs have no business continuing to hole up in headquarters in the north.

Disintermediation, power-sharing, relocation, centre-shifting: call it what you will, but here’s the reality: the world’s largest NGOs, most of which were established in very different economic and political times in the middle of the last century in the global north, are now heading south.

India has canceled Greenpeace International’s license to operate and given the environmental organization 30 days to shut down, citing fraudulent dealings and falsification of data. Greenpeace says the move is an “assault on free speech.”

The order was issued by authorities in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, where Greenpeace is registered. The local government said it had found the organization had violated the law by engaging in fraudulent dealings.

A government official confirmed to Reuters that the order had been issued on Wednesday, but declined to provide further details.

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The Israeli authorities are planning to toughen working conditions of the non-profit organizations in the country if more than half of their budget comes from abroad, media reported.

If the law is adopted, employees of NGOs will be required to report foreign financing in all types of documentation, including letters and reports. They will also have to wear special badges, and any organizations that breach the new rules will have to pay a fine of 30,000 shekels (about $7,700).

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