Women's confederation insists NGOs must be independent

The Malta Confederation of Women's Organisations has grave concerns as to the aim, transparency and ambiguity of some of the legal criteria of the Voluntary Organisations Bill under which voluntary organisations are to be regulated and administered.

Parliament has given the Bill a second reading in the past days.

The confederation said in a statement that the definition in one of the articles fell short of a wide international consensus on the nature of civil society.

Although the term "voluntary" was chosen to classify organisations falling under the application of the Bill, "volunteer" was neither defined nor explored, highlighting a stark absence of any reference to the essential independence of civil society from the government, it said.

The confederation said that following consultation and discussions with numerous voluntary organisations, few of the recommendations made were acceded to.

It said that while the Bill defined voluntary organisations as "independent of government", in the same instance it ambiguously conceded the status of "voluntary organisations" to certain government-established agencies, as though they were independent of the government.

Placing government agencies on a par with civil society would enable them to compete with civil society in accessing local and EU structural and direct funds while still enjoying government benefits.

Any inclusion of public agencies in voluntary organisation legislation was out of place and went against the principle of "independence of government", it said.

The confederation referred to a proposal in the Bill that the government assigns a public officer as commissioner by direct appointment.

As a consequence, voluntary organisations would be under wide-ranging discretionary powers of a government-designated commissioner.

The Bill, the confederation said, also questioned the "duplication" of the aims and objectives of non-governmental and voluntary organisations.

If the new law included government agencies, it would leave the door open for a government-appointed commissioner to decide the structures under which an NGO could operate.

This could result in the elimination of various NGOs in favour of government agencies.

The confederation insisted that government agencies had no place in legislation concerning voluntary/non-governmental organisations.

All definitions of non-governmental organisations, it pointed out, showed that they must be independent of the state.