The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, called on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to improve its cooperation with civil society and consider it’s valuable contribution to the fight against terrorism. He commended FATF on its decision to revise its controversial Recommendation 8 (R8), which requires FATF member states to ensure that nonprofits are not used to fund terrorism. In recent years, oppressive governments have used R8 to crack down on dissent.
“Counter-terrorism measures contribute to the current trends of shrinking space for civil society or the non-profit sector,” Kiai said in his written statement to FATF. He added that “civil society’s contribution to finding solutions, though often overlooked and underutilized, is indispensable.”
FATF met April 18 with representatives of nonprofit organizations to discuss revisions to R8 as well as its Interpretive Note.