{"id":90031,"date":"2019-06-07T16:20:54","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T23:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=90031"},"modified":"2019-06-07T16:25:54","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T23:25:54","slug":"non-governmental-organisations-and-sri-lanka-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/06\/07\/non-governmental-organisations-and-sri-lanka-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS AND SRI LANKA Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The term Non-governmental organization\u201d (NGO)\ncame into existence in 1945 when the United Nations was set up. The UN granted\n\u2018observer status\u2019 to approved \u2018International non-state agencies\u2019 (INGOs) and\npermitted them to   attend UN assemblies and meetings. In July 2018, there were 5,081 NGOs in\nconsultative status with ECOSOC. These consisted of 134 organizations in\ngeneral consultative status, 3,974 in special consultative status and 973 on a\nthird list known as Roster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several categories of NGOs. Some\nNGOs are funded by foreign governments   and act like extensions of\ngovernment (GONGOs). It is alleged that they are   used for hidden political\nagendas. USA\u2019s National Endowment for Democracy is said to be a CIA front.  Some NGOs, such Berghof Foundation are\nquasi\u2013government (QUANGOs).   They\nreceive state subsidies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NGOs\nsuch as \u2018Human Rights Watch\u2019, \u2018Transparency International\u2019 and \u2018Amnesty International\u2019,\nare international NGOs, with branches worldwide ((INGOs).  These NGOs are funded by private\nfinanciers having strong links to the US government, such\nas Soros,\nRockefeller, and Ford Foundation. These\nfunding agencies are considered warmongering agencies and the grants\ncarry political agendas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018International Crisis group\u2019, \u2018Human Rights\nWatch\u2019, and the \u2018Open Society \u2018  have\nbeen  described as \u2018shady INGOs\u2019  funded by George Soros.George Soros started Human Rights Watch\nwith specific instructions to develop field offices staffed by local operatives.\nHe gave a   fresh grant of 10 million to \u2018Human Rights\nWatch\u2019 in 2010.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are other NGOs, registered as private,\nbut they too are set up and funded from outside the country they work in. Some\nNGOs have misleading names. \u2018Asian Human Rights Commission\u2019 suggests a\ndignified supra government organization set up by sovereign states. Instead it\nis a   Hong Kong based, private NGO. Rajiva Wijesinha referred to it as\nthe \u2018bizarrely named\u2019 Asian Human Rights\nCommission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today,\npractically every sovereign state has a huge number of GONGOS, QUANGOS and\nINGOS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

working\ninside it. They have been introduced into these countries by the west. This sudden\nrise of NGOs is a part of the western policy of world dominance, say analysts,\nwhich starts with interference in the internal politics of countries.  NGOs\nintervene in domestic politics and help to install puppet governments. NGOs\nare used to brainwash people, to make them revolt against democratically\nelected governments, to cause regime changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\nencourage citizens to challenge elected government, usually under the guise of\n\u2018protesting\u2019 against something.   They\nclamor for foreign intervention and work toward changing public opinion.\nThey charge governments with corruption and human rights violations on flimsy\ngrounds.They draw media\nand political attention onto selected countries, which are fighting to maintain\ntheir territorial integrity. They find HR abuses in these countries and clamor\nfor western government intervention through the UN. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\nare also used for intelligence gathering, to obtain data against national governments. NGOs are also used to support\nterrorism against legitimately elected democratic regimes. Some dubious NGOs\nhave been front groups for weapons purchases.  Many countries have found that the NGOs create\ndifficulties for the government, by their conduct, their mission, methods of\nwork and sometimes through their connections to government.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NGOs funded by\nthe west have been used to topple governments and destabilize countries.\nCritics say NGOs helped to split Sudan and create South Sudan in 2011. Foreign\nfunded NGOs were thought to be fomenting revolution in Russia and many believe\nthey did so successfully in Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Kyrgyzstan. .  NGOs in Mozambique are accused of ruining the\nlocal health system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmedia reported in 2016 that more than 100 countries, from Algeria to Zimbabwe,\nhave started to register and monitor NGOs. These countries accuse the US and\nEuropean countries of using NGOs to support political unrest in the guise of\nsupporting democracy, rule of law and Human Rights.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armenia,\nIndia, Egypt, Cambodia, Russia, China, Israel and Uganda in the past year have\nenforced draconian laws to regulate NGO activities, the media said in2016.\nMostly on suspicion that they are agents of foreign governments interfering in\ntheir internal affairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2012, UAE shut down the local office of the\nNational Democratic Institute, a US based NGO, whose mission is to promote\ndemocracy around the globe. It also\nshut down Conrad Adenaur Stiftung office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egypt, in 2012, arrested members of a number\nof NGOs promoting democracy saying they were meddling in Egypt\u2019s internal\naffairs.  Egypt said that three US NGOs,\n\u2018National Democratic Institute\u2019, \u2018Freedom House\u2019 and \u2018International Republican\nInstitute\u2019 had received USD 65 million to influence Egypt\u2019s politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ALBA bloc in Latin America issued a\nstatement in 2012 to say that USAID (US Agency for International\nDevelopment) openly meddles in\nsovereign countries domestic affairs, sponsors NGOs and supports activities\nintended to destabilize legitimate governments. The statement was signed by\nBolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Venezuela. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cambodia has some 5000 NGOs, many providing\nkey services to the country. In 2015\nCambodia passed a controversial NGO law, which said all domestic and\ninternational NGOs must report their activities and finance to government. NGOs\ncan be disbanded if they jeopardize peace, stability, public order or harm\nnational security, unity culture and traditions of Cambodian society. The law\nwas passed, despite boycott by opposition and protests by NGOs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2017, Hungary passed a law where NGOs that receive\nmore than 23,000 euros ($24,000) annually from a foreign source had to register\nas a “foreign-supported\norganization.” The law, first mooted in January, had been\ndelayed after widespread criticism, including opposition by the European\nCommission and United Nations experts who urged its withdrawal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia said that the west is using NGOs to\ndestabilize Russia.  USAID was ordered\nout of Russia In 2012 on charge of distributing grants to anti-Putin political\ngroups in order to influence politics. UNICEF was also\nasked to leave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015 Russia passed the Undesirable NGOs Law\nwhich gave Russia the power to declare any NGO as undesirable, if it acted\nagainst Russians interests.\nNGOs receiving finances from abroad would now be known as, \u2018Foreign government\norganizations\u201d (FGO). All monies beyond a certain sum must be\nreported to Russian authorities.  If they engaged in political activities they would be treated\nas spies. Russia blacklisted seven US based NGOs as\n\u2018Undesirable\u2019 in 2016. ( continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS The term Non-governmental organization\u201d (NGO) came into existence in 1945 when the United Nations was set up. The UN granted \u2018observer status\u2019 to approved \u2018International non-state agencies\u2019 (INGOs) and permitted them to   attend UN assemblies and meetings. In July 2018, there were 5,081 NGOs in consultative status with ECOSOC. These consisted of 134 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90031\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}