Bid to corner India at FATF for 'targeting' non-profit outfits

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, October 31

Coinciding with India’s strained ties with Canada, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is trying to corner New Delhi on the issue of targeting non-profit organisations (NPOs) for prosecution. The issue will come up during the FATF’s special country review of India, known as “mutual review”, which will most likely be initiated in November.

US bar Association centre at forefront

A report by the American Bar Association’s Centre for Human Rights analyses the alleged misuse of counter-terrorism financing legislation to target human rights defenders and non-profit organisations.

The ball was set rolling at the FATF Plenary Committee meeting that ended on October 27 when it agreed to “clarify measures applying to NPOs”.

India had been trying to stave off a concerted bid by overseas-based “human rights organisations” to encourage the FATF to amplify its Recommendation 8 of 2001, which “aims to protect NPOs from potential terrorist financing abuse while also ensuring that focused risk-based measures do not unduly disrupt or discourage legitimate charitable activities”.

In the latest of these efforts to pin down India at the FATF, the American Bar Association’s Centre for Human Rights has sought to provide the theoretical underpinning. Its report analyses five cases of Indian NPOs and human rights defenders in India, which it says, “highlight the misuse of counter-terrorism financing legislation to target human rights defenders and close civic space”.

The report concludes with recommendations for the Indian government to “stop its abuse of its counter-terrorism laws, which will impact India’s credibility as an international partner on counter-terrorism”. It was in October 2001 that the FATF had created “Eight Special Recommendations on Terrorist Financing” (later expanded to nine) in which the eighth one specifically states that “measures to protect NPOs from potential terrorist-financing abuse should be targeted and in line with the risk-based approach”.