On April 15, two weeks after Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov signed the “foreign representatives” bill into law, the Open Society Foundations cited the law in its announcement that it would close its Kyrgyzstan foundation after 31 years. The Open Society Foundations, formerly the Open Society Institute, is a grantmaking network founded by George Soros. According … Read more
On April 2, Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Japarov signed a bill on foreign funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) into law. NGOs that receive funding from abroad will be registered as “foreign representatives,” and they will be subject to costly reporting and auditing requirements. In the many months it took for this piece of legislation to pass … Read more
Following a third and final reading, on March 14 the Kyrgyz parliament adopted without further debate the “foreign representatives” law, which has drawn consistent criticism from domestic civil society activists and international partners. In the wake of its passage – and amid the void between passage and signature into law – the chorus of opposition … Read more
“We decided to shut down our organization,” said Dinara Oshurahunova, a prominent human rights activist from Kyrgyzstan known for her foundation, Civic Initiatives. When she spoke to The Diplomat, Kyrgyzstan was one step away from passing a draconian law on so-called “foreign representatives.” Mirroring the 2012 Russian “foreign agents” law, the law is expected to … Read more
Technically, 83 of 90 members of the Kyrgyz parliament, the Jogorku Kenesh, were registered at the February 22 meeting at which the body passed in its second reading the controversial “foreign representatives” bill. Technically, 64 deputies voted for the bill and five voted against. 24.kg, however, counted no more than 50 deputies in the hall … Read more
Kyrgyzstan’s controversial “foreign representatives” bill is on the cusp of becoming law, even though opposition to the draft law has been loud and consistent since the idea was resurrected from the ashes of a 2016 effort in 2023 by Nadira Narmatova. The latest to voice concern are the director of the OSCE Office for Democratic … Read more
Advertisement The controversial “foreign representatives” law passed its first reading in the Kyrgyz parliament, the Jogorku Kenesh, on October 25 without debate. A bill must be passed in three parliamentary readings before being sent to the president for signature into law, a process that can move swiftly or stall indefinitely. The bill’s author, Nadira Narmatova, … Read more
Advertisement Discussions have resumed in Kyrgyzstan’s parliament over a proposed bill that would introduce additional reporting requirements for non-governmental organizations in the country, as well as add criminal liability for a failure to register as a “foreign representative.” The bill passed its first reading on October 3, amid dwindling support and sharp domestic and international … Read more
Advertisement Back in 2015, the United States and Kyrgyzstan hit a serious bump in bilateral relations. Less than a year after U.S. and NATO forces vacated the air base at Manas (June 2014), the U.S. State Department decided to give Azimjan Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek Kyrgyz political prisoner, its 2014 Human Rights Defender Award (he … Read more
Advertisement A decade after lawmakers in Kyrgyzstan first introduced an effort to force nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) receiving funding from abroad to register as “foreign agents,” late last month more than third of the 90-member Kyrgyz parliament backed a draft law proposing just that. This effort comes after the idea was resurrected in November 2022, to … Read more