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 | Call for Treasury to Withdraw Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines |
Posted by: laurakujawski on Thursday, February 23, 2006
Topic Special Features
A working
group of more than 40 U.S. charitable sector organizations and
advisors, coordinated by the Council on Foundations, requested that the
Treasury Department withdraw its revised "Anti-terrorist Financing
Guidelines: Voluntary Best Practices for U.S.-based...
charities" and endorse in their place the group's own Principles of International Charity, which includes eight principles to guide the anti-terrorism efforts of charities.
The Working Group's position is based on three principal concerns:
- The
revised Guidelines contain provisions suggesting that charitable
organizations are agents of the government. By stating that Treasury
worked "hand-in-hand" with the charitable sector to develop the
Guidelines, by suggesting that nonprofits engage in additional
information-gathering activities, and by calling on nonprofits to
report individuals "suspected of activity related to terrorism" to
Treasury or the FBI, the revised Guidelines link charitable
organizations more closely to the U.S. Government, potentially
undermining the trust between U.S. charities and foreign recipients and
creating additional concern about extremist groups targeting
humanitarian workers.
- The revised Guidelines suggest
the collection of more information on more individuals and
organizations than did the initial Guidelines. Not only would the
collection of this information impose financial and administrative
burdens on nonprofits and hinder their charitable activities, but the
information itself will have little utility in preventing the diversion
of charitable funds to terrorist purposes.
- The
revised Guidelines do much more than offer guidance to charities that
might be helpful in achieving compliance with sanctions administered by
the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Because government agencies
continue to incorporate the Guidelines into their operating procedures,
the concern is that the Guidelines will become mandatory for charitable
organizations. While the initial Guidelines were published only in an
attachment to a press release, publication of the revised Guidelines in
the Federal Register may give government agencies even greater cause to
defer to the Guidelines, even though they continue to be labeled
"Voluntary."
The Working Group's Principles of International Charity
do*****ent specifies eight fundamental principles, including the
observance of all applicable U.S. and foreign legal requirements and
the adoption of further practices, as deemed appropriate by individual
charities, that may provide additional confidence that resources and
services are provided for exclusively charitable purposes.
The
principles also emphasize that the boards of directors of charities are
responsible for complying with the law and that the organization's
commitment to fiscal responsibility–involving appropriate due diligence
on prospective partners or grantees, a written signed agreement,
ongoing monitoring and correction of any misuse of resources–must be
reflected at every level of the organization. The principles also note
that charities must be independent to carry out their activities and
cannot serve as agents for enforcement of laws or the policies
reflected in them.
The
Treasury Guidelines Working Group was formed after an April 2004
meeting at which Treasury Secretary John W. Snow indicated a
willingness to consider changes to the initial anti-terrorist financing
guidelines issued in November 2002. The diverse working group includes
non-governmental operational agencies, foundations, corporations,
watchdog groups, legal advisors and nonprofit umbrella organizations
such as Independent Sector, InterAction, Grantmakers Without Borders,
the Islamic Society of North America and the Council on Foundations.
The group developed the Principles of International Charity and originally submitted the Principles to the Treasury Department in March 2005. The Principles
and the comments submitted to the Treasury Department by the Working
Group are available on the Council's United States International
Grantmaking Web site.
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