Astana. July 14. - Interfax- Kazakhstan. Minister of Justice of Kazakhstan Zagipa Balieva is convinced that the laws on Activities of NGOs adopted by the Parliament are in full compliance with the Constitution.

"The laws are in compliance with the Constitution, and do not contain any single norm which would be in contradiction with the Constitution"- she declared on Thursday, during a press conference in Astana, answering questions from journalists.

At the same time, these laws "by no means violate any international standards".

Z. Balieva also noted that the government "does not interfere in the activities of non-governmental organizations with these laws". "Laws relating to non-commercial organizations-are not interference, but rather regulation of activities," - she stressed, adding that "all of us in society-are in support of transparency, for openness in financing in relationship to governmental bodies as well as to non-commercial organizations."

In addition, the Minister stressed with confidence that laws, if enforced would increase liability of non-commercial organizations to comply with the Kazakhstan legislation".

As previously announced, the Constitutional Council received the draft laws from the President of Kazakhstan for consideration whether these laws comply with the constitution. According to the Law on the Constitutional Council, the appeal by the head of the country shall be considered at an open hearing within one month.

The laws were adopted by the Parliament on June 29.

The main requirement of the Law "On Activities of International and Foreign Non-commercial Organizations" is that international and foreign non-commercial organizations shall carry their activities on the territory of Kazakhstan exclusively through their branches and representative offices.

According to the law, branches and representative offices of NGOs cannot be established for expressing the political will of citizens and different social groups.

In addition, the law prohibits the activities of branches whose goals and activities are directed at violent change of the constitutional order, weakening of the country's defense, escalation of inter-national and inter-confessional conflicts, mass disorders, disorganizing activities of government bodies, and decreasing the country's governance. The law introduces the obligatory accreditation of branches which shall be carried by the Ministry of Justice.

In accordance with the requirement to accredit, the document requires all active branches and representative offices of international and foreign non-commercial organizations to go through this accreditation and re-register with the bodies of justice within three months from the date of the enactment of the law.

The law also requires branches to annually publish in mass media information about their activities, including about their founders, assets, sources of formation of assets and of expenditures.

In addition, Kazak and international NGOs are required to notify local executive bodies about their requests for funding and received funding.

At the same time, the laws facilitated a wave of criticism by local and foreign NGOs, a number of political parties and mass media. For example, NGO representatives believe that adoption of these laws would impose unreasonably strict control over Kazak NGOs and would force international organizations to close down their activities in Kazakhstan.

Over 5,000 NGOs are registered in Kazakhstan.

Source: Informational Agency Interfax- Kazakhstan.
http://www.interfax.kz