Counter terrorism measures and NPOs Why should we care? Hanna - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Counter terrorism measures and NPOs

Why should we care?

Hanna Surmatz, 2016 Hanna Surmatz, 2016

Shrinking Space for Civil Society

Increasing trend of restrictions What is the motivation for governments?

• Governments concerned about civil unrest
• Control foreign funding flows / state sovereignity
• Enhance aid effectiveness for development aid
• Business interests
• Fighting money laundering and financing of terrorism

What is FATF ?

• Inter-governmental body, established by G7 in 1989
• 36 Member States (and EC) with 22 observers
• One year presidencies: Now South Korea – end June Spain
• International standard setter for fight against ML and TF
• Mutual Evaluations/Peer Reviews – non compliance

negative impact on countries

• Not a legislator but a very powerful global framework

setter!

What makes the FATF policy framework?

40 recommendations endorsed by over 180 countries

Recommendation 8 on NPOs: NPOs are “particularly” vulnerable and countries should review adequacy of laws to ensure no abuse happens

What makes the FATF policy framework?

The R8 interpretative Note (IN) Recommended measures for countries according to IN: Domestic reviews of NPO sector Outreach to the sector Supervision or monitoring Effective information gathering & investigation Capacity to respond to international information requests

Does FATF know the NPO sector?

• Delegations involved in FATF are mainly made up of civil

servants from Treasury, Police and other law enforcement agencies, Financial Intelligence Units, Tax authorities, Home Affairs.

• Only two Governments currently have NPO regulators (Canada

and UK)

Where does FATF draw justification for targeting NPOs?

• Typologies report (2014) – 102 cases of NPO abuse

Key Findings include:

• The NPO sector has interconnected vulnerabilities, and terrorist entities seek to

exploit more than one type of vulnerability

• Different risks at sectoral and organisational level
• The NPOs most at risk appear to be those engaged in ‘service’ activities, and that
• perate in a close proximity to an active terrorist threat
• National and regional (EU) risk assessments cover also NPO risks

Abuse happens but actual number of abuse cases very low

Implications for civil society?

• Recipe for overbroad civil society regulations in some cases
• With current evaluation system, countries want to be compliant
• Or restrict the sector – so used as justification
• Registration procedures, reporting requirements, due diligence controls, etc.
• Banks are becoming more risk averse
• Less funding to certain regions
• Affects both human rights and development actors

What are we/NPOs doing?

• NPO coalition to advocate for change (under lead of ECNL,

EFC, HSC and CSN) - online platform: http://fatfplatform.org

• Seeking reform of R8 regime and influencing policy:
• More engagement of NPOs at national level in risk assessment and FATF

evaluation processes (NPO coalition created guidance for NPOs)

• Change of Best Practice paper in 2015
• Formalize dialogue between FATF and NPOs (announced at June 2015 Plenary)
• Revision of R8 Interpretative Note in line with a risk based approach – FATF did
• nline consultation with NPO sector
• Revision of R8 itself – NPO coalition organized sign on letter to FATF President

Review of guidance

The 2015 revised R8 Best Practice Paper (BPP) Guidelines for governments on how to implement Recommendation 8 NEW –

• counter-terrorism measures should not apply to the entire NPO sector

(since not all NPOs are at risk of abuse)

• government over-regulation of the NPO sector is not a desirable
• utcome of implementing the FATF standards.
• importance of outreach to NPOs and regular dialogue to develop

collaborative relationship is emphasised.

Review of R8 IN and R8

• FATF held online consultation and a one day consultation with NPOs

in April – draft revised R8 Interpretative Note

• Following April consultation meeting, an online consultation took

place on revision of R8 itself

• NPO coalition now asked to receive revised draft texts of R8 and R8 IN

– decision expected at June plenary!

How can you get involved?

• Join the NPO coalition and encourage your clients to join
• Disseminating information / get statements signed by many
• rganisations etc
• Research, alert and report /as information hubs / gather stories from

different members on effects on the ground / help monitor developments / comparative perspective;

• Advocacy at national and global level/ access to policy makers /

advocacy outreach capacity

Next steps

• June 2016 – Plenary
• Then, ensuring matching up methodology update for Mutual

Evaluations – following finalised IN and R8

Evaluations

All countries up for evaluation – list on FATF website

• 1. One/two years ahead on-site visit
• National / NPO risk assessment?
• Targeted approach / measures?
• 2. Six months ahead on-site visit - concrete preparation
• Government prepares input on technical compliance with R8 and

effectiveness

• 3. One site visit – evaluators talk to NPOs and other stakeholders
• NPO perception of risk?
• Effectiveness of current measures?
• 4. Drafting evaluation report (MER)

Evaluation in Belgium in 2014

• Partial compliance with regard to R8 (technical compliance) – Belgium

compliant last round

• Short comings in awareness raising from government and NPO side.

Lack of control and transparency of parts of the sector.

• Moderate level of effectiveness.
• Belgium will have to do so called progress-reports