{"id":31815,"date":"2014-07-11T18:13:22","date_gmt":"2014-07-11T22:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=31815"},"modified":"2014-07-11T18:13:22","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T22:13:22","slug":"opposition-leader-ranil-wickremesinghe-castigates-govt-for-issuing-circular-circumscribing-independence-of-non-governmental-organizations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=31815","title":{"rendered":"Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe Castigates Govt for Issuing Circular Circumscribing Independence of Non -Governmental Organizations."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ashwin Hemmathagama <\/strong><\/p>\n

The circular limiting the NGO operations to their \u201cannual action plans\u201d and strictly \u201cprohibiting press conferences, workshops, training for journalists, and dissemination of press releases,\u201d came under heated debate in Parliament yesterday.<\/p>\n

Highlighting the circular number MOD\/NGO\/mon\/4 dated 1st July 2014 1.7.2014 the Director\/ Registrar of the National Secretariat for Non-Government Organizations has issued, Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe pointed out lack of legal provisions. \u201cAt the very outset we wish to point out that neither the Ministry nor any organizations operating under it has the power or authority to issue such directions to NGOs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1980 the Government passed the Voluntary Social Service Organizations (Registration and Supervision) Act to regulate and supervise enterprises commonly called Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO). Section 15 of the Act required promulgation of regulations and accordingly regulations were promulgated on 15 October, 1999 (Gazette No. 1101\/14). These regulations dealt mostly with the setting up of a \u201cBoard of Inquiry\u201d to inquire into complaints in respect of any allegations of fraud or misappropriation of funds. It is clear therefore the regulation of NGO\u2019s has to be within the four corners of the Voluntary Social Service Organizations (Registration and Supervision) Act and the Regulations made therein,\u201d said Wickremasinghe.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo authority outside these parameters has the right, power or authority to exercise any form of regulation or supervision of NGOs. Furthermore, this action of the National Secretariat for Non-Government Organizations is a blatant violation of the Constitution more particularly Article 14 thereof which guarantees to all citizens \u2013 freedom of speech, expression, publication, assembly and association. The 1980 Act has not placed any restrictions on the operation of Article 14 of the Constitution of the Republic. <\/p>\n

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights also incorporates the rights of association, opinion and expression including the right to impart any ideas through any medium and the Right of Peaceful Assembly and Association (Article 19 and 20). Workshops and Training are a part of the freedom of association while the holding of media conferences came under the freedom of expression. This is a blatant attempt by the Government to control all non-governmental organizations. An attempt to negate the rights conferred under the Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,\u201d added the Opposition Leader requesting a reply from the Government.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne giving the reason for issuing such circular, which is \u201cnot a violation of the constitution\u201d held that as \u201cnational intelligence agencies provided information shows some mala fide acts brewing with a few NGOs,\u201d the Government wanted to nip at bud.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:DailyFT<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ashwin Hemmathagama The circular limiting the NGO operations to their \u201cannual action plans\u201d and strictly \u201cprohibiting press conferences, workshops, training for journalists, and dissemination of press releases,\u201d came under heated debate in Parliament yesterday. Highlighting the circular number MOD\/NGO\/mon\/4 dated 1st July 2014 1.7.2014 the Director\/ Registrar of the National Secretariat for Non-Government Organizations …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe Castigates Govt for Issuing Circular Circumscribing Independence of Non -Governmental Organizations.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31815"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31816,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31815\/revisions\/31816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}