During a parliamentary session, Deputy Iskhak Masaliev stated that he mistakenly voted for a bill on non-commercial organizations. He is against it. Today, the Jogorku Kenesh approved changes to the Law on NGOs, introducing the concept of "foreign agent."
66 deputies voted in favor, while only five opposed, including Chingiz Aidarbekov, Dastan Bekeshev, Elvira Surabaldieva, Emil Toktoshev, and Seidbek Atambaev. The parliamentary committee on constitutional legislation, state structure, judicial-legal issues, and regulations held an extraordinary closed-door session and passed the NGO bill in the third reading.
This rush is allegedly due to the deputies going on holiday from March 18 to April 1. Earlier, a group of 15 organizations, including the human rights movement "Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan," sent a letter to four international financial institutions expressing serious concerns about the bill on "foreign agents."
The organizations urged financial institutions to take action and call on the Kyrgyz authorities to immediately withdraw the bills on "foreign agents" and mass media, stating that these initiatives contradict the principles and goals of international financial institutions' development programs in the country.
They also called for concrete measures to ensure that space for civil society and independent media in Kyrgyzstan remains open in line with international human rights recommendations. The letter proposed the establishment of a platform involving representatives of civil society for collaboration on addressing significant social issues in the country.
The letter emphasized that if the bill is passed, it would pose a serious threat to the successful development activities in Kyrgyzstan. Recall that on February 22, deputies in the second reading approved changes to the Law on NGOs, introducing the concept of "foreign agent." 64 parliamentarians voted in favor, while 5 opposed.
