New Toolkit Aims to Inform and Protect UK Charities

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An online toolkit was launched on Nov. 10, 2009 to help United Kingdom trustees protect their charities from harm and abuse. Produced by the UK Charity Commission, the first chapter from the Compliance Toolkit: Protecting charities from harm  provides information about relevant terrorism laws, identifies risks from terrorism or other financial crimes and encourages best practices of self monitoring for charities.  The remaining three sections will be released by March 2010.  

The toolkit’s introduction states:
 
“Charities make a vital contribution to society and the national economy, as well as having a wider impact around the world, addressing many of the underlying causes of disaffection that may lead people to turn to violent extremism or terrorism. The Commission fully recognizes the importance of enabling charities, operating within the law, to undertake valuable and essential humanitarian and other work in the UK and overseas. In this context the guidance is intended to assist charities to be aware of legal obligations, and to provide best practice advice.”
 
The creation of the toolkit fulfills one of the commitments from the Commission’s July 2008 Counter-terrorism Strategy that recommended developing:
 
a ‘toolkit’, in partnership with the sector, to assist charity trustees and their advisors in undertaking risk assessment to better identify and minimize the risk of terrorist abuse and to disrupt those that seek to exploit charities for terrorist purposes. This will build upon already embedded good practice within the sector and learn from those charities that already have significant experience of managing these risks in their activities. (emphasis added)
 
The first chapter, “Charities and Terrorism,” outlines how charities and their work are affected by “key aspects of the UK’s counter-terrorism legislation” and helps charities work to manage “their own risk measures and procedures.” The first chapter is divided into 11 modules:

• What this guidance is about and how to use it
• Background information on the Commission's and UK Government's counter-terrorism strategies
• How might a charity be abused for terrorist purposes
• Counter-terrorism legislation - an overview
• Proscribed organisations  
• Designated individuals and entities  
• Terrorist financing  
• Charity law duties and responsibilities  
• Reporting requirements  
• The international dimension  
• Further information  

Andrew Hind, Chief Executive of the Charity Commission, said, “Charities make a vital contribution to society and building community cohesion. We fully recognize the importance of enabling charities to undertake valuable and essential humanitarian and other work in the UK and overseas. This guidance is designed to help them do just that whilst managing the risk of harm or abuse.”

More information about the compliance toolkit will be provided by the Charity and Security Network as it becomes publicly available.