Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Mozambique will create and propose a law regulating non-profit organizations in the country. The proposal will follow a nationwide public consultation.

The idea was presented today, and the NGOs demand the revision of the law that regulates non-profit organizations approved by the Council of Ministers on September 6th. According to the Executive, the law aims to combat money laundering and terrorism financing.

According to the Executive Director of the Civil Society Learning and Capacity Building Center, Paula Monjane, civil society organizations want to see freedom of association respected.

"We, civil society organizations, intend to carry out a national campaign for the approval of a law on non-profit organizations that respects the freedom of association, within the constitutional dictates for that purpose, with due public participation in the process of production and approval of the law in question. What we are saying here is that this law [of the Executive] cannot be approved and be in force in the Mozambican legal system in the way it has been drafted," he explained.

In his turn, Advocacy Director of the Foundation for Community Development (FDC), Joaquim Oliveira, said that the law approved by the Executive is at odds with several aspects, among which the principle of constitutionalism and the democratic state patent in the Constitution of the Republic.

"This proposal presents the prerogative of the extinction of the institutions [NGOs] in case of failure to present reports for two consecutive times. We are faced here with a contradiction and serious violation of this right and fundamental freedoms, namely that which is recommended in Article 52 of the Constitution on the freedom of association. On the other hand, we are surprised that this right to terminate is granted to the same body that gives the right to recognize associations," he said.