DUSHANBE, April 22, Asia-Plus — No new international organization has been registered in the country since a new law on public associations was adopted last February, Davlat Sulaymonov, the head of the department for registration of public associations and political parties within the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), remarked at a press conference in Dushanbe on April 22.
He added that over the first quarter of this year, the ministry has refused the registration of one international organization as its documents did not meet requirements of the country’s legislation in force.
Since last February when the new law on public associations was adopted, of 145 international organizations that were active in Tajikistan, only 116 have managed to complete the re-registration process.
We will recall that during her two-day visit to Dushanbe on April 14-15, Ms. Hedi Wegener, Chair of the German-Central Asian Parliamentary Group in the Bundestag, noted that some German public associations would like to open their representative offices in Tajikistan. But with adoption of the new law on public associations in Tajikistan, conditions for activity of NGOs have deteriorated in the country, according to her.
According to a MoJ, the number of public associations in the country has reduced by two thirds. Of 3,130 public associations, 1,730 have failed to be reregistered with the ministry.
