Guatemala: Over 200 organizations demand halt to controversial NGO law

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Over 200 social organizations in Guatemala on Thursday, May 13, called for a halt to a controversial reform of the law on NGOs endorsed by the Constitutional Court, the highest court in the country, considering that the law restricts freedom of association.

The organizations, among them the NGO and Cooperatives Coordinator (CONGCOOP), the Committee of Peasant Unity (CUC) or the Unit of Human Rights Advocates of Guatemala (UDEFEGUA), demanded “a stop to this reform and all the current government’s attempts to restrict rights.”

In their joint statement, which gathered a total of 212 signatures, they recalled to the highest Court that “its role is to protect the constitutional rights of the population and not to favor those who placed them in the magistracy.”

The reform “grants the Executive an almost absolute power to decide who can and who cannot express and organize themselves,” which “partially violates the rights of the entire Guatemalan population,” the NGOs pointed out.

They also emphasized that the regulation “hinders the fundamental freedom of every person to participate in public affairs, raise their voice, demand accountability and join efforts to provide services that meet the needs of the population.”

The reform to the NGO Law “will enable the closing of organizations without a court decision, thereby paving the way for arbitrariness and eliminating the independence of powers,” they said.

The reforms to the regulation, known as the Non-Governmental Organizations Law, had been objected at the time by local social organizations and also by high officials in the United States and the United Nations (UN).

Source: DW