In February, the Charity & Security Network and the Human Security Collective sent recommendations to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) calling for adherence to principles of effectiveness and proportionality as they review their Typologies of terrorist abuse of nonprofits. The FATF is an intergovernmental body that sets policy recommendations for governments to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. FATF has come under some scrutiny for its characterization of nonprofit groups as “particularly vulnerable” to terrorist abuse—an argument that has been used by some governments as an excuse to crack down on civil society.
Click Here for a PDF of the Recommendations
The recommendations urge FATF to take an evidence based approach to formulating terrorist abuse typologies. These typologies—categories of the ways in which terrorist abuse of an organization can occur—are used to guide FATF’s “Best Practices” for governments formulating counterterrorism laws and regulations. It is vital for FATF to use appropriate and nuanced typologies to ensure that civil society groups are not unduly impacted by anti-terrorist financing laws around the world.
The recommendations were created based on input from the Transnational NPO Working Group on FATF (which CSN and the Human Security Collective co-chairs) in addition to meetings with FATF representatives, a literature review and a survey of the nonprofit sector. The specific recommendations made to FATF state: