Kyrgyzstan “Foreign Representatives” Law and risk to the ADB operations
Май 02.2024To: ADB Governors from G7 countries
ADB President, Masatsugu Asakawa
ADB Executive Directors (US, Japan, EU)
Kyrgyzstan “Foreign Representatives” Law and risk to the ADB operations
May 1, 2024
On April 2, 2024, Kyrgyzstan’s President signed the Law on “Foreign Representatives” (known officially as the Law on Amendments to the Law of the Kyrgyz Republic on Noncommercial Organizations). The full-scale implementation of the Law is expected to start after May 15, 2024, when the Ministry of Justice approves its implementing regulations.
The law requires CSOs that receive foreign funding and engage in broadly defined “political” activities to join a public register of “foreign representatives” and label their publications as produced by a foreign representative, thereby falsely stigmatizing them as foreign-controlled. They must also submit to costly financial reporting requirements and extensive state oversight that UN special rapporteurs[1] said “may amount to almost unrestricted administrative control.” Authorities can suspend nonprofits for up to 6 months and freeze their bank accounts without a court order for violations, and they can then be shuttered by a court. Disrupting foreign funding will endanger the existence of an independent civil society because foreign funding is the only source of funding for many CSOs in Kyrgyzstan. Urgent Interim Opinion from the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)[2] states that “the law would silence critical voices in the country and have a stifling effect on society as a whole.”
The Law on “Foreign Representatives” goes against the objectives of the ADB’s Environmental and Social Standard 10: the Stakeholder Engagement and Information Disclosure Policy (EES 10) to provide stakeholders with safe, accessible, and inclusive means to raise questions, proposals, concerns, and grievances, without the threat of reprisal. Yet, the law creates a climate of fear, preventing people, including CSOs, from speaking out due to fear of reprisals. Therefore, it will threaten future projects financed by the ADB, severely limiting the ADB’s ability to carry out safe and meaningful stakeholder engagement. Ongoing and future projects that the ADB might have in Kyrgyzstan would be at a much greater risk of corruption if civil society is gutted, thereby ending its role as a watchdog and key contributor to public accountability. The ADB further runs the risk of potential social and environmental harms going unnoticed because whistleblowers, human rights defenders, and CSOs remain silent out of fear. This will enable the government to operate with little attention given to accountability measures or prevention and mitigation of social and environmental impacts of investment projects and minimal engagement on anti-corruption issues.
We approach your institution because the law poses a serious threat to the success of your future operations in the country and because we hope that your institution can help prevent further deterioration of civic space by reaching out and expressing concerns to the Kyrgyz authorities. We urge the ADB to:
- Publicly express your opinion of the Law on “Foreign Representatives” and its implications on your operations, considering that the law undermines the ADB’s ability to implement its EES 10, which requires meaningful stakeholder engagement undertaken in an atmosphere free of intimidation and threat of reprisal.
- Make it clear that the Law on “Foreign Representatives” is contrary to the principles and objectives of the development assistance programs of the ADB in the country.
- Raise concerns over shrinking civic space with the government of Kyrgyzstan to ensure that space for civil society and independent media remains open in the Kyrgyz Republic in accordance with the recommendations of international human rights bodies.
With best regards,
- Coalition for Equality (40 Kyrgyzstani CSOs), coordinator Lira Asylbek
- Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan, director Tolekan Ismailova
- Initiative group “Bishkek SMOG+,” coordinator Bermet Borubayeva
- Green Alliance.KG, director Ilgiz Kambarov