Iran: Bill Threatening Independent Civil Society Sent Back to Committee

On the recommendation of a group of Iranian parliament representatives, the bill for the “Establishment and Supervision of NGOs” has been dropped from the agenda of the assembly and sent back to committee for review. The articles of the bill which had already been approved by Iran’s parliament will stand.

The recommendation to send the bill back to committee for a 3-month review was passed with 156 affirmative, 20 negative, and 10 abstentions .

The representative who initiated the vote, Seyed Kazem Delkhosh, criticized the bill for its ambiguities, saying, “A large group of representatives believe that this bill must be modified and returned to the agenda after some basic changes.” Zahra Elahian, the principal proponent of the original bill and member of the assembly’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, criticized the postponement. She told the IRNA news agency, “Foreign media are angry that this bill is being passed into law in the Islamic Republic of Iran because their plans were to revive these organizations in order to confront the state and bypass it — something that failed to materialize.”

In recent months Arseh Sevom and Amnesty International embarked on a broad campaign against this bill, warning of the death of the country’s civil society if it were to become law. The bill would give the government a freer hand in controlling civil society organizations, legalizing the interference of security and military offices.

Nine civil society organizations and Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi issued a joint statement which calls on the Majlis to reject the bill and prevent its acceptance as law. The groups that signed the statement are: Amnesty International, Arseh Sevom, Education International Education (EI), HIVOS, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), accomplished in the framework of their joint program to oversee the support of defenders of human rights affiliated with FIDH, the Iranian League for the Defense of Human Rights (a member of FIDH), and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.