Thursday, November 10, 2005

SWC introduces new Code of Conduct for NGOs

Kathmandu, Nov 10 -The Social Welfare Council (SWC) today launched the controversial Code of Conduct for all national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) despite their protests.
Speaking at the program organized to release the newly formed Code of Conduct Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare Durga Shrestha claimed that the code of conduct was issued with the aim of systematizing the NGOs rather than controlling it.Minister Shrestha also appealed all for help to implement the new Code of Conduct.
The new Code of Conduct stipulates that the office bearers of the social organizations should not be involved in the political activities.National and International NGOs should work in coordination with the local organizations and made their activities transparent.
Those organizations should make all their activities transparent and should publicize their progress report and balance sheet every year.
The new fiat also bars executive committee members of the organization from drawing salaries and other benefits.
It also limits the term of the Chairman of the organization to two terms. All the organizations have to submit their reports and financial statement to District Administration Office, District Development Committee, SWC and the donor agencies.
Local bodies should be informed in advance about the implementation of the project running under foreign assistance. Organization should clearly distribute the proportion of the budget for the administrative and program expenses.
There are 18,727 NGOs affiliated to the Social Welfare Council and 133 INGOs are also active in Nepal. Some unofficial data say there are as many as 30,000 NGOs working across the country.
Referring to dissatisfaction of different quarters of life about the new Code of Conduct, Member Secretary Sharma said, “The new code of conduct was formed after extensive discussions with NGOs, United Nations’ agencies and the general people so there is nothing to panic about it."
Earlier, in an open letter to the Ministry for Women, Children and Social Welfare two leading international human rights groups Amnesty International (AI) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) have also protested the new Code of Conduct saying it will violate some of the basic rights contained in the international human rights treaties to which Nepal is party.
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