On the Draft Law on the Public Work of Non-Profit Organizations

Or perhaps it means that all above-mentioned problems should not be mentioned in public- so it is important to silence all independent voices in society? If we remember that the Law on Public Peace and Order ( which defines the Internet as a public place of special interest to the police monitoring) has recently been adopted in silence, and that the adoption of the Law on Public Gatherings (which further narrows the possibilities of deceived workers, farmers and others to protest) is in progress- it is clear that the current government using all available legal means wants to prevent critical thought and activism of citizens (individual and group). Let us explain, very soon it will not be able to influence the adoption of better laws because it will be regarded as ‘political activity’, and it will not be able to protest against injustice (non-payment of wages, lack of medical treatment, unfair privatization and etc.) except in the park or woods-far from the sight of public or other people (read: voters) to whom your criticism of the government can have a negative impact.

Therefore, the work of NGOs is not the issue here; this represents an attempt to slowly abolish the RS Constitutional guarantee of the rights to equality, freedom of speech, thought and public expression       (the Articles 10 and 25), as well as the right to publicly express opinions on the work of the state bodies and institutions and the right to submission of petitions and proposals (the Article 32). It encourages the clientelism and corruption instead of competence and responsibility. In one word, the society closes in order to prevent expression of critical thought as a basis for a dialogue and progress, and the day when we will probably have the same hairstyles is not far away…

Rather than comment the content of the draft Law,

Dear members of the caucus of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, Democratic National Alliance, and the Socialist Party, we citizens elected you (and other members) as our representatives in October 2014. We elected you to implement reforms and reduce the above-mentioned problems. Instead, because of your work, the business sectors threatens to leave the RS (and to further increase the number of unemployed people which has already been huge), and our (civil) Constitutional rights against public institutions have been brought into question. On the other side, we do not see your initiatives towards better education, faster EU integrations and reforms of the public sector and services.

Also, you should have in mind that participation of citizens (and other stakeholders) in decision-making processes and adoption of laws (through cooperation/advocacy/ petitions etc.) represents a cornerstone of democracy, which contributes to greater efficiency and accountability of public institutions. For that reason your intention to limit those rights opposes to common sense and to the EU legislative (although in your statement you pointed out that conformity assessment with the EU acquits is not applicable in this case).

Last but not the least- the above-mentioned the RS Constitution in its Article 31 strictly PROHIBITS political activities which threaten democracy and violate constitutional guaranteed rights- is something which you need to keep in mind considering the content of the draft Law on Public Work of Non-Profit Organizations that you have created.

We, the organizations gathered in Re: action, are actively engaged in advocacy of greater transparency in the work of NGOs, and we publish on our websites the reports as well as the information on our donors of our projects, which you are clumsily trying to mystify.

Re: action Banja Luka

The Agency for Development and Cooperation Cerebra

Centre for Environment

Centers for Civic Initiatives

Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Banja Luka

Youth Communication Centre

PERPETUUM MOBILE – Center for youth and community development

Transparency International BiH

Association “Agricultural Information Center”

Association of Citizens ‘Sharp Zero’

Citizens Association ‘Tender’