Letter to the Government from 22 civil organizations

HCLU and another twenty-one civil organizations are protesting against the draft Lobby Act, which will be in front of the Parliament for enactment in the next days. The draft Lobby Act that was proposed by the Government contains discriminatory regulations towards civil organizations.

The new law provides various rights for profit oriented lobbyist organizations in lobbying, as opposed to the non-profit organizations, which are still deprived of the possibility to influence efficiently the social issues they represent.

The new law if enacted will preserve the existing situation that only the financially strong groups have the power to influence public affairs, and the non-profit organizations are deprived of such possibility. Moreover, according to the new law, non-profit civil organizations might need to face certain serious consequences in the future, in case they intend to take part in such lobbying activity.

The twenty-two civil organization demand that the Government amends the draft law so that also non-profit civil organizations can take part in influencing public affairs and can take part in democratic public life without any discrimination.

A lobby act that gives further rights exclusively to those lobbyist organizations that are already in power and excludes democratic participation of other organizations is unacceptable.

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