Turkmenistan 

Draft Law on Public Associations 

ICNL received an anonymous copy of the draft law on public associations.  It is suspected that this 

draft came from the Ministry of Justice.  ICNL prepared a commentary to this law and shared it with 

local stakeholders and USAID.  Together with USAID staff, G.Khadyrova, ICNL's local consultant 

participated in several meetings on Draft Law on Public Associations, initiated by Turkmen 

Government. 

Cooperation with Turkmen CSSCs 

ICNL partner Elena Vasilyeva provided Ashgabat CSSC with materials on legislation regulating 

Social partnership in Turkmenistan at the coming conference on Social Partnership. 

Consultation of trainers and participants of the training  Membership organizations' 

Development  on the questions of NGO Legislation in Turkmenistan. 

Consultation for trainers of Volunteer Conference on the questions of Labor Legislation. 

Seminar on Interaction of Government Bodies with NGOs in Solving Problems of Refugees 

On June 18, 2003 ICNL Legal Consultant participated in the seminar  Interaction of government 

bodies with NGOs in solving problems of refugees  held by NGO  Bosphor  and UNHCR with 

participation of government officials from NIDHR and the Tax Service. 

ICNL Provides Technical Assistance to Counterpart Turkmenistan's Registration Attempt 

On April 2, 2003 ICNL Legal Consultant, Ms. Vasilyeva, participated in the network meeting of 

Counterpart. Issues covered by ICNL in the network meeting ranged from registration, organization 

legal forms of enterprises, tax legislation and registration of foreign technical assistance to licensing. 

Nineteen Consultations Provided to International Organizations and Local NGOs 

During the last quarter ICNL's local consultant provided 19 consultations to both international and 

local NGOs on issues of NGO law. Consultations have included the following organizations: CHAP, 

Counterpart Consortium; Civil Society Support Center of Akhal velayat; Civil Society Support Center 

of Lebap velayat;  "Arzuv", "Keik Ocara"; "Aladja";   Margiana  Youth center of Lebap velayat, 

"Altyn Asyr", "Health", "Hemayat" and others. Issues covered by ICNL in these consultations ranged 

from registration, registration requirements and procedures, taxation, social partnership, licensing to 

registration of foreign technical assistance.  

Uzbekistan 

TA Results in removal of Negative Provisions from the draft law on the Public Foundations 

Through technical assistance provided by ICNL the drafters of this law have deleted provisions 

harmful to NGOs.  The two month registration period was changed to one month, and the number of 

founders was decreased so that a single physical person may found a public foundation.  ICNL's 

technical assistance has included full and comprehensive hearings held in a round table format on 

June 6, 2003 dedicated to the discussion of the legal basis of the activities of public foundations as 

one of the legal and organizational forms of NGOs by the Subcommission on issues of civil society 

institutions, mass media, protection of citizens' rights and freedoms of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic 

of Uzbekistan.  The structure of the round table divided especially into two parts: international 

experience of regulation of foundations, presented by Vsevolod Ovcharenko, ICNL expert, followed 

by an article by article discussion of the draft law on Public Foundations. The draft law is now 

moving through the Oliy Majlis and was adopted after the first reading during the 11

th

 session of the 

Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan. 

Development of Law on State Registration of Legal Persons 

ICNL met with the Deputy Head of the Institute of Monitoring of the Current Legislation with the 

President to discuss the latest developments regarding the law on state registration of legal persons. 

The Institute and the Ministry of Justice are the responsible bodies for drafting this law. ICNL was 

invited to assist with the drafting. It is likely that the drafting process will be started in July August.  

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