The Results of Public Opinion Poll.
Conducting The Public Opinion Poll we had pursued
some objectives, in accordance with them we made up our poll forms. Thus we
are glad to familiarize you with those objectives and Questioning results.
The major goal was to identify the level of population's interest in Great Britain.
And as the Poll revealed, 22.8% of interviewed people are extremely interested
in Great Britain, 48.3% have average interest, 26.9% are low interested, and
only 2% are absolutely uninterested. Also the Poll defined that majority of
interested people are females, and we want to underline the fact of absence
of females amongst uninterested. The other aim was to clarify the fields of
interest amongst the respondents. So the respondents older than 36 are mostly
interested in the history, culture, arts, literature and traditions of Great
Britain. But the younger respondents beside the history and culture are interested
in sports, music, English and economy of Great Britain as well. English is distinguished
as the most popular sphere.
The Poll defined that almost half of the interviewed people, to be exact - 48.8%,
refer TV, radio and movies as prior information basis. The second place, 20.9%,
belongs to books and special reference publications. The youth prefer radio
and World Wide Web for getting the news. A part of respondents noted that the
source of their knowledge relating Great Britain were relatives and friends
residing there.
Most of the interviewed people, 70.4% prefer to read and listen the information
in Azeri, 27% in Russian, 1.7% in English. The age difference manifests itself
again, thus people of elder age prefer Azeri and Russian, accordingly youngsters
beside those two languages for getting news are relating English and other foreign
languages as more positive fact. The final conclusion after accomplishing the
Poll is that the people are extremely interested in the expansion of informational
flow, and 84.4% stressed the necessity of additional means of special information.
Females display more attention to creation of these means. Referring to the
variety of means 86.2% think that special references, booklets etc., 92,4% that
web site and CDs' creation is mandatory. The youth is particularly interested
in creation of special reference in Azeri, web site and CDs.
CREATION of NGO
The Law on Non-governmental organizations, which uses
the terms 'social community' and 'foundation', states in Art.2 Sec.2 and 3,
' a social community is a voluntary, self regulating non-governmental organization
formed by the initiative of a number of people associated on the basis of objectives
specified in constituent documents and common interests, and which neither intends
to gain profit as a main goal of its activity, nor shares gained profit among
its members. A foundation is an NGO with no members, set up by a number of natural
persons and (or legal persons) on the grounds of voluntary endowments, to carry
out civic, charitable, cultural, educational or other socially useful objectives.
"Article 2 identifies three distinctive features of a social community:(1)
it is creation by a number of persons with shared interests; (2) it is self-regulating;
and,(3) the main goal of its operation is not to make profit. The main characteristics
of a foundation are that it has no members and natural and/or legal persons
create it to achieve socially useful goals. Unfortunately, some specific features
defined in materials issued by international organizations are not reflected
in these definitions. Article 2-4 of the new Law fails to give an adequate definition
of these organizations. Article 4 of the law stipulates, 'Non-governmental organizations
may be established in any legal organizational form'. However, it is difficult
to characterize a wide range of different, multi-faceted organizations using
the features enumerated above.
About 1.400 various types of NGOs (foundations, charities, children and youth
organizations) registered and functioning in Azerbaijan, may be classified from
theoretical and practical point of view. The absence of legal classification
results in disputes, disagreements between citizens and government bodies in
charge of registration.
The organizational legal forms have not been specified in the 'Law on Social
Communities' either. The Law o Social Communities provides a rather primitive
definition of the concept a 'social community'. On one hand, by not indicating
organizational legal forms, the law allows a variety of NGOs. On the other hand,
by specifying the main forms and features of social communities, the law contributes
to confusion for those who intend to form a NGO.
The Decision of the founders and the adoption of the organizations statutes
(or bylaws) is required to establish an NGO. (Art. 12 of the Law on NGOs). The
Law on Social Communities does not provide for creation by a single person nor
does the Law on NGOs because under Art.2, an NGO is an organization created
by the initiative of a number of people. One person cannot establish an NGO.
In practice the Ministry of Justice requires the presence of at least three
founders.
REGISTRATION
The 'Law on Social Communities' (1992/368)(Article5-11),
as well as the 'Law on Public Registration of legal persons' (1996/17-1Q)(Article2)
and the Civic Code (1999-779-1 and Article25-1) require the registration of
all legal entities. Under these laws, to obtain the status of legal entity,
the Ministry of Justice must officially register the organization within 10
days.
Though the law does not provide for an inordinate number of reasons by which
an application for registration can be rejected, in practice a high percentage
of applications are rejected. The Ministry subjects many applications to an
inappropriately strict examination. Some are rejected outside the cope of the
law and in many cases the ministry does not provide written explanations. A
large number of applications are rejected due to hidden political reasons, rather
than for violations of the registration procedure. This places heavy burdens
on the exercise of freedom of association and inhibits the growth and development
of the third sector in Azerbaijan.
Though the Ministry of Justice does not ensure access to the information on
the percentage of rejection cases, nevertheless it can be determined by indirect
means. More than 60% of 240 Ngo's that are members of the NGO Forum are not
registered. Most, if not all, have applied for registration.
According to Article 14 of the 'Law on Public Registration of Legal Persons"
(1996/17-1Q) and other afore mentioned norms, a certificate of public registration
is the primary document that enables an organization to have its own seal, stamp,
letterhead and commodity or trade mark. These allow the organization to open
a bank account and be registered with the governmental tax authorities.
While it is true that an unregistered NGO can operate, the absence of seal,
stamp, bank account, registration by tax and social security authorities deprive
the organization from operating as a legal entity with powers. This puts heavy
burden on the founders of the organization.
Currently, the economic situation in Azerbaijan is not good, and most citizens
live in very poor conditions. As a result, grants from foreign organizations
and foundations are the main source of support for NGO's functioning. It is
almost impossible for unregistered organizations that are willing and able to
operate from private financial sources find it difficult to carry out financial
transactions. They do not receive any of the tax exemptions that an official
registered NGO enjoys. The founders are under constant threat of bearing responsibility
for any illegal action, such as, operating without registration. This prevents
unregistered organizations from undertaking any wide-scale or high profile activities.
The best solution is to rescind all formal registration principles and recognize
the legality of unregistered organizations. Even if the formal registration
requirement is retained, the law should reduce the possibility arbitrary review.
The process should be simplified so that is more a notification and less a seeking
of permission. it would be better to use protocols of intentions to establish
an organization rather than an application for registration. The powers of review
should be limited in both scope an duration, and the recognition of legality
should become automatically effective if the Ministry does not approve the protocol
within the fixed time frame.
Given the heavy bureaucracy and the discriminative attitude involved in the
registration of NGOs, the authority to review the protocols and the NGOs activities
of the third-sector ought to be granted to the courts. It is true that the courts
are not quite able to operate independently of other branches of government,
but they are less political than the Ministry. In the contrast with the 'Law
on Social Communities' (1992/368), the new 'Law on NGOs' provides for two ways
of legalizing NGOs:(1)Notification on the formation of a social community (Article15);
(2) Public registration of NGO(Article16). Under the first procedure, the Ministry
of Justice must receive a written application within 30 days after adopting
the decision to form a social community. The application, signed by NGOs leader,
is to be supplemented by a protocol of the constituent meeting. On the day the
written notice is received, the Ministry of Justice must provide or post a document
confirming submission of the notice to the leader.
It is hard to believe that notification procedure will succeed in practice.
red tape in the operation of the Ministry of Justice gives no ground to suppose
that on the day of submission of notification the representative will be presented
the document confirming submission. Furthermore, notification does not give
the unregistered NGO the status of a legal entity, and so is not of considerable
significance to NGOs.
DOCUMENTS NECESSARY FOR REGISTRATION OF YOUR NGO
List of Founders
Addresses of Founders
Passport Numbers
Phone Numbers
Work PLaces
All These Docs Need to be Confirmed by Notary.
The Charter
Code from Comitee of Statistics
Juridical Address
Receipt from Bank Confirming that You Payed the Appeal Tax (11000 manats)
Copyright © 2002 Open Friendship Society of Young People of Azerbaijan and Great Britain - azerbritish@aznet.org