Civil Society Organizations: Flexing their Muscles

Over the last five years, the government has been putting more pressure and restrictions on civil society organizations, as a large number were refused license by government. According to the law, citizens have the right to open organizations and no restrictions nor conditions exist, except that its practices do not go against the Yemeni law. However, the current actions by government have restricted these organizations more than ever before. HOOD Human Rights Organization came up with a plan and a draft law to secure that civil society organizations work freely and for the best of the country. This draft law will be soon handed to parliament for approval.

Chapter One

Terms and Definitions

Article (1)

This Law shall be referred to as (Law of Civil Society Organizations).

Article (2)

For the purposes of enforcing this law, the following terms and phrases shall carry their corresponding meanings unless suggested otherwise in the context:

The Law: Law of Civil Society Organizations

Civil Society Organizations:  Every nonprofit entity or structure, voluntarily established for a specific or unspecific period of time by one or more natural or legal persons with the objective of accomplishing a public welfare in any life aspects or protecting constitutional, legal, or human right, without targeting to acquire authority.

The Committee: The National Committee concerned with sponsoring and supporting civil society organizations.

Register:       The National Register in which data of civil society organizations is recorded, and according to which a certificate of deposit is given.

Contract of Establishment: The contract by which two or more persons agree to establish a Civil society Organization.

Articles of Association: The internal law that regulates the organization’s work.

Deposit:        A procedure under which the organization’s data is recorded in the register of the committee.

Chapter Two

General Objectives and Principles

Article (3)

This law shall aim at the following:

1)Ensuring the citizens’ right to establish beneficiary, scientific, cultural, social and other organizations and national unions in accordance with the achievement of the constitutional objectives, and enabling them to exercise this right.

2)Ensuring the freedom and autonomy of civil society organizations.

3)Supporting and sponsoring civil society organizations.

4)Simplifying the procedures of establishing civil society organizations.

Article (4):

The civil society organizations shall be considered a primary partner in setting general policies and they shall have the right to discuss all public issues and defend the rights and freedoms endorsed by the constitution.

Article (5):

The civil society organizations shall have the right to conduct all activities that are in accordance with their objectives and the purposes they were established for in such a way that does not contradict with the constitution.

Article (6):

Civil society organizations shall enjoy full autonomy in their establishment and practice. The State shall ensure sponsoring them and motivating citizens to practice their constitutional rights to establish and join these organizations. The State shall refrain from funding any activities or events that aim at abusing civil society organizations, distorting their image, limiting its role, or hindering its activities.

Article (7):

The civil society organizations’ democracy, institution, major, experience, transparency of financial and administrative procedures, publicity of meetings of general assemblies, and conduct of their duties shall be according to written rules as standards of preference among them.

Article (8):

Unless otherwise contrary to the law and constitution, the documents of the organization such as the contract of establishment, articles of association, statement of declaration and its regulative and individual decisions shall be binding for it, for its founders and for its members.

Article (9):

Civil society organizations shall have the right to establish links, alliances, unions, networks and all entities, and to internally and externally coordinate their efforts with others in any forms and in such a way that accomplishes their objectives.

Chapter Three

Establishment, Declaration & Deposit

Article (10):

Civil society organizations shall be established according to the provisions of this law.

Article (11):

Civil society organizations shall assume their work in accordance with the statement of declaration, contract of establishment or articles of association in which the following shall be stated:

•Organization’s name, geographical range, location of headquarters.

•Organization’s objectives.

•Administration mechanism.

•Financial resources.

Article (12):

Civil society organizations shall gain its character upon signing its contract of establishment, statement of declaration by its founder/s or upon holding its establishment conference according to its contract of establishment or its articles of association.

Article (13):

The statement of declaration shall be conducted in any form that achieves the organization's publicity of establishment or its objectives, including holding a press conference, distribution of notifications, a statement or publishing news in any means of media or publication including publishing its website.

Article (14):

Once the application for depositing the documents of the organization are complete, the organization shall have the right to obtain management of public welfare facilities, obtain government cash support or other to implement its programs competitively, enjoy exemptions stated by law, and protect its intellectual property rights.

Article (15):

Depositing shall be made in a written application enclosed with the establishment documents. The same shall be faxed, e-mailed, directly delivered, through registered mail, or through judicial record to the committee. Rejection of submission in case of direct delivery shall be proved by all means of proving or a notification on the legal record or by the mailman.

Article (16):

The committee, once received the deposit application, shall record it in a register for deposited applications and notify the organization of the same.

Article (17):

1.The committee shall decide upon the deposited application within a period of 15 days from the date of receiving the application. Otherwise the application shall be considered accepted and the organization shall be considered to have deposited the same by the force of law.

2.The committee shall grant the organization a deposit certificate upon accepting its application or its state as deposited by the force of law.

3.The organization shall have the right to obtain irrevocable judicial order concerning the grant of deposit certificate once the submission of the deposit application with its attachments is established. The competent court shall have to decide upon this order within 24 hours. The judicial order, after being published in one of the publication means, shall be considered as a deposit certificate if so announced by the committee and did not issue it within the 24 hours from the date of being notified of the judicial order.

4.The organization alone shall have the right to appeal about denying it the certificate of deposit according to the system of appeal stated in the Civil Procedure Law. 

Article (18):

The committee may not reject a deposit application except for the following cases:

•If the organization's contract of establishment, articles of association, statement of declaration, or any of its objectives or activities are in violation of the Constitution.

•Shortage of documents to be attached to the deposit application without completing the short documents within the time given for deciding upon the application and after notifying the organization of the same.

• If the name of the organization is identical or similar to the name of another deposited organization which results in confusion between them even if their purposes are not alike.

Article (19):

With due consideration to the text of the previous article, the decision shall be issued on the rejection of the deposit with reasons of it being explained in writing. The organization shall be notified of the same according to the notification rules stated in the Civil Procedure Law. The committee shall publish the decision in one of the daily government newspapers issued within the geographic location of the organization requesting the deposit.

Article (20):

If two or more organizations apply using the same name, the approval shall be given to the application submitted first. The other organization shall be given a chance to select another name.

Article (21):

The concerned organization may file a claim to appeal the application rejection at the legally competent primary court within sixty days from the date of notification of the rejection or the date of its publication according to the text of the previous article. The claim must be decided upon according to the rules of urgent adjudication. The organization alone shall have the right to challenge the decision of rejection according to the general rules of appeal.

The appeal to the decision of deposit application rejection shall be within two months.

Article (22)

Branches established by the organizations shall not be subject to deposit rules states by the law.

Article (23)

a)The committee shall keep a copy of the documents of establishment of the organization which have been deposited and announced. For this process, a special place shall be assigned for the preservation of documents and records.

b)The committee shall publish the contract of establishment or articles of association or both in the official gazette of the deposited organizations according to the law and based on its request after paying the relevant publication fees.

c)Whoever is concerned may have the right to know the data of the organizations and obtain copies of establishment documents after paying the relevant fees.

Chapter 4

Organization Management & Financial Resources

Section 1

Organization Administration

Article (24)

Organizations shall be managed according to the texts of their documents and literature.

Article (25)

The Board and staff members of the organization shall be legally responsible for their actions during their work in the organization. 

Article (26)

Profits, revenues and assets of the organization may not be utilized by any of the board or staff members for personal gains whether directly or indirectly.

Article (27)

a)The organization shall have the right to open an account in an accredited bank. This procedure is a must after being registered.

b)The registered organizations must deposit all of its revenues in its bank account once collected.

Article (28)

a)Non-Yemeni organizations may open branches or offices in the Republic of Yemen provided that none of their objectives or activities is in conflict with the Constitution and law.

b)The offices and branches of foreign organizations shall be deposited and decided upon according to the rules applied to Yemeni organizations.

Article (29)

Organizations shall come to cessation subject to the texts of their documents or based on final judicial decision to dissolve it.

Section Two

Financial Resources

Article (30)

The basic documents of the organizations shall determine their financial resources.

Article (31)

The registered organizations, shall be granted the following privileges:

1.Exemptions of all of their activities, resources, and revenues from all different fees and taxes including income tax on their employees.

2.Exemptions of all goods, equipment, tools, spare parts and required imported materials to achieve their objectives and activities from tax and custom charges.

3.Exemptions for half of charges of water, electricity, phone and all public services provided by the State.

4.The right to obtain assistances, donations, endowments or grants in kind or in cash directly from individuals and private sector institutions as well as the exception on their tax provided that they do not exceed 25% of due tax.

5.The right to manage public facilities whose management is assigned to civil society organizations based on general and public competition, on pre-set conditions and with the same standards applied in the Bidding & Tenders Law.

6.The practice of economic, trade, and investment activities to achieve their objectives and programs.

Article (32)

The organizations may reject grants, donations, assistances, endowments and other types of direct or indirect in kind or in cash support and obtain loans whether local or foreign.

Article (33)

Civil society organizations shall commit to finical transparency in declaring their resources and publishing statements of accounts and their balance sheets in such a way that enables the pubic to view them.

Article (34)

The properties of the organization, in case of liquidation or dissolution, shall be assigned as stated its documents. Otherwise, they shall be assigned to similar organizations practicing similar activities based on a challengeable decision from the committee at court.

Chapter Five

Section One

The National Committee for Sponsorship of Civil Society Organizations

Article (35)

Under this law, a national committee shall be formed and named “The National Committee for Sponsorship and Support of Civil Society Organizations".

Article (36)

The committee commit to sponsoring and supporting organizations in such a way that does not limit their autonomy or freedom.

Article (37)

The committee shall enjoy a public artificial personality and full administrative and financial autonomy.

Article (38)

The headquarters of the committee shall be based in the capital Sana’a. The elected local committee in governorates and districts shall be entitled to assume the duties of receiving deposit applications and registering local organizations founded within the jurisdiction of the entitled committee and in accordance to the stipulations of law.

Article (39)

The committee shall assume the following tasks and duties:

A)Setting up a strategy for sponsoring and supporting civil society organizations.

B)Receiving and registering deposit applications in the register and issuing deposit certificates.

C)Providing technical assistance to the organizations so that they can efficiently and professionally perform their roles.

D)Setting up and endorsing a draft budget of the organizations as they shall all be included as one total figure within the general budget of the State.

E)Monitoring public welfare facilities whose management shall be assigned to civil society organizations.

F)Supervising the implementation of the civil society organizations’ programs funded by the general budget.

G)Setting up and endorsing civil society organizations’ institutional, financial, and administrative regulations, structures, plans, and action plans in such a way that does not contradict with the law.

H)Setting up rules and regulations of competition between civil society organizations to obtain management of public welfare facilities and government’s support for their programs.

Chapter Two

Formation of the National Committee

Article (40)

A)The National Committee shall be formed of eight persons who enjoy independency, efficiency, and experience.

B)The candidate to membership of the National Committee shall:

1-Be a Yemeni national.

2-Not be less than thirty years old.

3-Have at least a university qualification.

4-Have at least five years experience in civil work.

5-Not have had a final judicial verdict against his/her honor, integrity unless rehabilitated. 

C) The Parliament shall announce the opening of membership candidacy to the committee for a period of no less than a month.

D) The Parliament shall examine the candidates’ files to ensure conformity to membership requirements.

E) The Parliament shall announce the applicants who meet the requirements in the official media.

F) The Parliament shall form a special committee from its members to assume the tasks of receiving candidacy applications, ensuring that the candidates meet the conditions, receiving applications of appeal and objection to the candidate applications from the public after announcing and deciding upon the list of accepted applicants and reporting on the same to the Parliament.

G)  The Parliament shall hold public hearing sessions for the competing candidates to discuss with them and examine their capabilities and experiences and confronting them with the objections and appeals filed against them.

H) The Parliament shall hold a private session to elect members of the committee by means of direct secret balloting.

 I)  Members of the committee shall be the ones who won the majority of votes by Parliament.

Article (41):

A)Committee members shall perform the official oath before the Parliament before assuming their duties.

B)Duration of members of the committee shall be six years inextensible and they shall not be re-elected. This period shall commence from the day following the performance of oath. The Parliament shall renew half of the committee members in accordance with the procedures stipulated in the law.

C)In exception to the duration of membership stipulated in (B), the authority period of the four members, who won the least votes in the first committee elected after issuance of the law, shall be only three years so that the Parliament elects replacement members for a period of six years.

D)The first session of the committee shall be held and presided by the eldest member. In this session, the members shall elect a chairman, a deputy, and reporter for three years.

E)In case the position of the committee chairman becomes vacant for any reason, the deputy shall occupy the position until a new chairman is elected by the members.

F)Unless there is a great violation of his/her duty and conviction through a final judicial decision, a committee member shall not be dismissed from the committee.

G)In case the position of any member of the committee becomes vacant, he/she shall be replaced by the candidate who won majority of vote after members for the remaining period.

Article (42)

The members of the committee shall present a financial estate statement to the Higher National Anti-corruption Committee according to the provisions of Financial Estate Law. 

Article (43)

a. The committee shall have an executive body in line with the size of the committee activities.

b. The committee shall select its executive body transparently from experienced, efficient and honest people through competition.

c. The conditions of civil servant employees shall apply to the staff of the executive body.

Article (44)

The committee shall perform their tasks and duties in a fully transparent and neutral manner according to the law

Chapter Six

Final Provisions

Article (45)

The civil society organizations or their executives shall be subject to the civil and criminal laws according to their provisions.

Article (46)

Premises of civil society organizations shall not be subject to inspection and surveillance except through a judicial decision. The inspection must take place in the presence of a representative of the organization and another one from the committee.

Article (47)

The court of law in whose jurisdiction is the location of the organization shall be the competent court alone to settle all disputes arising from the enforcement of the law.

Article (48)

Whoever is concerned may file a case to the competent court against any organization for any low-violating act. The organization may not be closed or suspended unless there is a final judicial decision to this effect.

Article (49)

a. All societies, organizations and institutions established prior to the issuance of this law shall be considered as civil society organizations and have been registered according to the provisions of this law.

b. All records and documents of civil society organizations established prior to issuance of this law to the concerned authorities to the committee. 

Article (50)

The law may not be interpreted or applied in a way that harms the autonomy of the civil society organizations.

Article (51)

The provisions of Societies & Institutions Law No (1) of 2001 and its regulation and any other provision in contradiction with this law shall be revoked.