Rights groups worldwide should be given greater organizing leeway, UN told

Human rights groups should find it simple to become legal entities, uncomplicated to appeal government rejection, easy to raise money, not difficult to take part in a wide range of protest activities, so long as their actions are transparent, a United Nations human rights expert says.

In a report to Secretary-General Kofi Annan for transmission to the General Assembly, Mr. Annan’s Special Representative on human rights defenders, Hina Jilani, says whereas she “recognizes that States can regulate freedom of association, she encourages them to adopt regimes of ‘declaration’ or ‘notification,’ whereby an organization is considered a legal entity as soon as it has notified its existence to the relevant administration by providing basic information.”

Access to funds to defend human rights should be facilitated by the law, even if the sources are foreign, she says.

“No restrictions should be imposed on the types of activities that human rights defenders carry out in the defence of human rights, provided they respect the principle of transparency and non-violence,” she says, including furthering democratic rights, advocating constitutional reforms and government accountability and publicizing opinions and facts critical of government policies and actions.