Foreign humanitarian assistance to be possible only with Lukashenka

According to the new draft decree, any humanitarian program or project must be agreed personally with Aliaksandr Lukashenka.

In the country 29 non-profit and non-governmental organizations sent a collective address to the Department on Humanitarian Affairs with proposals to simplify the procedure for obtaining foreign aid. These are such organizations as the International Public aAssociation "Vzaimoponimanie", Belarusian Children's Hospice, Centre of ecological decisions and others, Radio Svaboda reports.

The document says the main aim of foreign aid is the implementation of social projects and programs in health care, educational and cultural spheres - those sectors of economy, which above all require funding. Thus, the gratuitous foreign assistance will reduce pressure on the state budget of Belarus.

Collective address was made up in response to the call of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs to make suggestions regarding procedures for obtaining foreign aid. However, while proposals were discussed, non-governmental organizations got a developed draft decree, prepared by government agencies before submitting proposals. A member of the Center Legal Transformation Volha Smalianka says:

"We have prepared an assessment of the draft decree. Unfortunately, it is not aimed to simplify acquisition of gratuitous foreign assistance. On the contrary, it provides additional state regulation. It is not clear in what way this control will be exercised. Besides, any humanitarian program or project must be agreed personally with the head of state. Thus, the Decree contains the numerous bureaucratic approval procedures - both the receipt of funds, and purposes on which they will be used.

International practice proves that the less a state regulates foreign assistance, the bigger and better this assistance is. For example, such countries as Armenia, Georgia are the biggest receivers of foreign aid because they have the lowest level of the government regulation. Besides, there can be even more small organizations than large ones which provide assistance. And it may be uncomfortable for small organizations to operate in a mode of endless approvals and they can leave Belarus as humanitarian aid donors. Therefore, we do believe that it is not the final version of the decree and the Department on Humanitarian Affairs will take into consideration proposals of non-governmental organizations".

Non-profit and non-governmental organizations, among other things, offer:

- to abandon the system of compulsory registration of foreign donations, replacing them with permissive principle of registration.

– to exclude from legislation a list of objectives for which the foreign gratuitous aid can be provided.

-to exempt recipients from the income tax and customs duties, determine the minimum size of funds that are not subject to registration.

- provide a possibility of a single registration of long-term projects based on the entire amount.