The behavior of the ordinary committees of the Congress, led by parliamentarians of the Fuerza Popular (FP), when they prepare and approve the opinions of their bills, they do not pay attention to the observations presented by the different institutions.
This Wednesday Legislative Foreign Relations CommissionAlejandro Aquinaga, president of the Fujimori Congress, was no exception: they recognized an idea that defied the rules. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)Despite the observations received.
Commission, with 12 votes of Fujicerronism parliamentarians and their coalition groups Alejandro Aguinaga The Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation (APCI) was given the go-ahead for this proposal, which involves NGOs and presents a series of requirements and constraints.
If the bill is approved by the plenary session of Congress, APCI will monitor whether NGOs use their funds appropriately and prepare a registry of organizations that, in its opinion, carry out political activities with their funds.
“Any organization or organization that fosters political activity is considered one that seeks to change public policies or election results in favor of the interests of foreign entities,” the initiative states.
For Fujimoriism and its allies, these organizations should consider it a grave violation to “allocate resources to activities administratively or judicially declared to be acts affecting public order, public or private property, citizen security, national security, and internal order.” This is a reference to marches and mobilizations.
The Aguinaga Commission’s ruling empowers the APCI to file complaints against NGOs with the Ministry of Public Affairs and apply sanctions ranging from fines, suspension and revocation.
The opinion is based on six bills, one by Aquinaga and the others by Jose Cueto, Honor and Democracy; Maria Aguna, from the Alliance for Progress (APP); and Juan Burgos, from Podemos Peru.
Congress observes itself
On Tuesday the 4th, the bill was approved despite Andrew Ng, charge d’affaires of the Canadian Embassy, sending a letter to Assemblyman Aquinaga requesting a meeting and sending him his observations against the bill.
According to the embassy, these legal proposals “raise many concerns due to the confusion they create in how donors and civil society organizations operate in Peru, and how these provisions relate to international obligations and standards.”
The proposal “affects freedom of association, creates confusion for donors and NGOs about its requirements, establishes imprecise powers for an administrative unit of a quasi-judicial nature of administration (APCI) to force the dissolution of organizations and the approval of their officials.”
Furthermore, it warns that it encourages misinformation and stigma about the work and contributions of international cooperation and civil society actors and donors.
But the Aguinaga Commission did not take these observations into account. Again the vote prevailed.
Letter from the Canadian Embassy to Alejandro Aguinaga
