In at least five countries, legislation passed to meet a G7 Financial Action Task Force's standards was used by authorities to investigate journalists, NGO workers and lawyers, Reuters finds — the first account of unintended consequences from the mandate
The Financial Action Task Force, established by the G7 group of advanced economies to protect the global financial system, had written to Uganda's government eight years earlier telling it to do more to combat money laundering and terrorism financing or risk being placed on a "grey list" of deficient countries, according to a top Ugandan official who described the private letter to Reuters.
In particular, a focus at the FATF from the early 2000s on tackling terrorist financing through non-profit organizations has allowed some governments to pursue legitimate civic groups under the cover of enforcing international standards, according to researchers. "Non-profit organizations can get caught in those crosshairs," said Tracey Durner, a director at the Global Center on Cooperative Security in New York.
Uganda's top anti-money laundering official, Sydney Asubo, who reviewed the letter at the time, said Opiyo's arrest was a police matter and declined to comment on the merits of the case.Terrorist financing experts consulted by Reuters said the FATF has limited the funding of groups like al Qaeda by making banks more risk averse and giving authorities more powers to investigate an entity's finances.
NGOs' vulnerability to terrorist financing has been challenged in studies by Keatinge and other researchers, including in a 2019 report by the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism. The report warned the FATF "lent a veneer of legitimacy" to states that used its provisions to regulate civil society.
Maja Stojanovic, director of Serbian nonprofit Civic Initiatives, which was named in the letter, told Reuters she believes the government is using the data for smear campaigns to undermine NGOs' work. She cited the example of a senior lawmaker from Vučić's party who in a speech this March attacked NGOs as foreign-funded coup-mongers and referenced transfer details which groups had not disclosed publicly.
Several of the NGOs, including Delhi-based relief organization Charity Alliance, denied the agency's claims. They said they were either providing humanitarian aid or researching alleged rights abuses committed by security forces deployed in Kashmir – work which was supported by several UN special rapporteurs. One of the Kashmir-based NGOs told Reuters that during the raid officers seized documents and hard drives with sensitive information on victims of torture.
Nicholas Opiyo, the lawyer later arrested, was nervous about how authorities could use the unit, having represented individuals detained during a government crackdown on opposition members two years earlier. His human rights organization, Chapter Four, organized a conference to voice concerns, but few people attended.
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