A joint effort by civil liberties, human rights and nonprofit sector organizations coordinated by the Constitution Project has published its Liberty and Security Recommendations for the Next Administration and Congress.

It includes specific recommendations for Charities and Foundations. The Introduction states:

  • At a time when the humanitarian aid and development programs and conflict resolution and human rights training offered by charities and foundations are needed the most, the combined effect of two U.S. laws has made it far more difficult for nonprofits to provide critical international aid and services. Rather than distributing aid on the basis of where the need and potential for positive impact are greatest, current counterterrorism measures have caused some nonprofits to avoid the very global hotspots that would benefit the most from their work. Indeed, in some cases these measures have damaged charities’ relationships with the communities they serve, damaging the international goodwill and promise for stability that these relationships had helped to create. These laws are the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) of 1996, amended by the USA PATRIOT Act, which bars material support for terrorism, and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which allows the government to designate U.S. charities as supporters of terrorism based on secret evidence and lacks due process protections. Funds of designated charities are frozen indefinitely.[i]

Specific recommendations include:

  • Improve the national security regulation of charities by ending the use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to regulate charities and allowing the Department of State to develop a more effective and appropriate framework.

  • Withdraw the Treasury Department’s ineffective “Guidelines” and replace with real guidelines that help charities continue to meet critical needs while ensuring their scarce resources are used for legal and charitable purposes:

  • Direct the Secretary of State to use his or her authority under 18 USC 2339B(j) to waive the material support prohibition for technical advice and assistance, training and personnel where no violent activity is involved.

  • Amend the “material support” statute to include intent and make it consistent with Red Cross standards for humanitarian aid
  • Ensure charitable funds frozen by the Treasury Department are ultimately released and used for charitable purposes