The Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) latest Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) on India has inadvertently confirmed longstanding concerns about the misuse of anti-terror laws against civil society organizations. The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) highlights that India remains only “partially compliant” with FATF standards governing non-profit organizations (NPOs), a status unchanged since 2010, exposing FATF’s failure to prevent the misapplication of its recommendations.
FATF’s report acknowledges that measures like the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) are not specifically targeted at mitigating terror-financing risks and have a broader scope than intended. This overly broad application has resulted in the punishment and dissolution of organizations without proven connections to terrorist financing. The PUCL emphasizes how FATF-inspired laws like the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) have been weaponized to target civil society and human rights defenders.
The devastating impact of these laws is evident in the cancellation of over 20,000 NGO licenses in the last decade and the forced closure of prominent organizations like Greenpeace and Amnesty International India. FATF’s silence on this clear misuse of its standards raises serious questions about its effectiveness and commitment to protecting legitimate civil society activities.
In response, the PUCL demands urgent legal reforms, including the repeal of draconian provisions in the FCRA, UAPA, and PMLA. They call for the government to cease using these laws to criminalize civil society organizations and advocate for introducing legislation to protect human rights defenders.
