The term NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) was first used in the literature of the United Nations in 1945. This term was later recognized in Iran as “Civil Society Organization”, which was simply a translation of the term Non-Governmental Organization. In this sense, NGOs are expected to criticize and challenge government laws and actions, and they are different from civil society organizations. Therefore, an NGO should be non-governmental, not non-political. For this reason, being non-governmental, non-profit, engaging in participatory activities, and being accountable to the community are considered the main characteristics of NGOs.

Non-governmental organizations are essentially the third pillar of society, formed with the aim of pursuing the demands of marginalized and voiceless groups in society. In this process, they seek to empower and involve marginalized communities and demand their rights.

According to the laws of the Islamic Republic, butter is considered to be a type of fat.

Unfortunately, it must be said that there is no independent law for associations in the legal system of Iran, and we are only faced with several broken legal regulations. This itself is one of the major challenges and gaps in the legal system of Iran. Of course, this issue is also a direct and indirect result of the non-democratic and authoritarian nature of the political system ruling over Iran, and only Article 584 of the Commercial Code can be considered the first explicit provision in this regard. This article refers to organizations and institutions with non-commercial purposes, and Article 585 also refers the registration requirements for these organizations and institutions to the regulations of the Ministry of Justice.

After the Commercial Law of 1311 was passed, Article 182 of the Third Development Plan Law, passed on 17/1/1379, allocated funds to non-governmental organizations until the first regulations for the establishment and operation of non-governmental organizations were approved by the Council of Ministers on 25/10/1381. The mentioned regulations were amended in 82 and on 29/3/84 (based on the proposal of the Ministry of Intelligence on 8/5/83) were approved in order to suppress these organizations. After that, the executive regulations for the establishment and operation of civil society organizations were approved by the Council of Ministers on 8/5/84 and are currently being implemented.

By examining the existing regulations governing the activities of NGOs in Iran, not only are there numerous legal problems observed in their activities, but it is also clear that due to the authoritarian and totalitarian nature of the ruling regime, there are serious shortcomings compared to the laws of other countries. These challenges include the lengthy and strict process of establishment and registration, strict supervision by certain authorities in reviewing qualifications and declarations, legal conflicts and parallel activities in registering non-governmental organizations, lack of real functioning of NGOs as civil institutions in collective actions and decision-making, structural and legal weaknesses in the process of assistance and support of NGOs in human rights and effective monitoring of the government, inability of foreign NGOs to operate, lack of easy mechanisms for NGOs to benefit from publications, media and gatherings, and many others that cannot be mentioned in this text.

Another important and fundamental challenge is the existence of a regulation in the form of bylaws (rather than a law passed by the parliament) as the legal basis for civil society organizations, which has created various challenges due to its regulatory nature. Therefore, currently the legal basis for civil society organizations is not a law passed by the parliament, but rather a regulation in the form of bylaws. One of the main reasons for this legal vacuum in the ideology of the totalitarian and totalitarian republic of the Islamic Republic is the lack of legal and social concerns, which has resulted in the necessary platform for the participation of the people and various social groups in the sustainable development of the country.

The plan for establishing non-governmental organizations and civil society. 

In order to organize the status of laws and regulations governing the activities of non-governmental organizations in 92, a plan was prepared by members of parliament to monitor the establishment of non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations. This plan, which is still under discussion in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, not only does not solve the problem of legal vacuum, but also carries many major problems and challenges in the path of activities of NGOs and civil society organizations.

The proposal for the establishment and operation of non-governmental organizations was announced on August 30, 2010 in the eighth session of the Islamic Consultative Assembly with 34 articles, and after numerous changes in the Social Commission, it was presented with 46 articles in the open session, but the consideration of the proposal for non-governmental organizations did not go beyond article 27 and the proposal was returned to the Social Commission due to opposition from members of the Assembly and objections from non-governmental organizations to some articles of the proposal and negative international reactions. However, the proposal did not have the opportunity to be reviewed until the end of the eighth session and was transferred to the ninth session of the Assembly.

The ninth session presented the mentioned plan with 34 articles again to be submitted for approval to the presiding committee. The proposers, believing that this plan has been approved up to article 27 before, intend to review and approve the approved plan of the Social Commission (a 46-article plan).

In this proposed plan, councils at the national, provincial, and county levels are envisioned and given extensive powers such as policy-making, rule-making, oversight of assemblies, punishment of offenders, and so on. The issue with these councils lies in several aspects, primarily in their composition, as they include all three branches of government and even entities outside of them. As derived from Article 57 of the Constitution, the affairs of the country are divided among the three branches, each carrying out its own duties and having no right to interfere in the jurisdiction of other branches. Therefore, the formation of a council consisting of institutions from each of the three branches, and even those outside of them, all involved in decision-making, is in contradiction with the aforementioned principle.

Other problems in this plan include the non-specialized and unnecessary combination of the Supreme Monitoring Council, which has been given a completely governmental and authoritarian nature, which is also a result of the same dictatorial and undemocratic system governing Iran. This issue is exacerbated by the fact that representatives of non-governmental organizations must also have a very effective and influential presence in this composition.

In this plan, the system of issuing permits is very voluminous and strict, to the extent that it has caused a significant decrease in the activities of real civil organizations in the country. In this plan, the existing strictness and lengthiness of the process of registering civil organizations has been approved, and the founders of non-governmental organizations face long stages in their registration process. Additionally, in this proposed plan, we witness the creation of severe restrictions and extensive government interference in civil organizations, because with the amendments made in the proposed text in the Social Commission, the role of the government has multiplied, which is a violation of the purpose, as the cost of government presence is more than the benefit that will be gained from the presence of non-governmental organizations. Therefore, by examining the articles of the plan, we can see that this plan is actually aimed at increasing the government’s control over these organizations.

Practical approach to dealing with non-governmental organizations in Iran

It must be said that the Islamic Republic, through its laws, considers any activity of independent civil society organizations and NGOs to be a crime. Along with the legal vacuum, it should be noted that some articles of Islamic penal code also pose serious obstacles to the establishment and registration of civil and non-governmental organizations. The Parties Law restricts freedom of expression and assembly, and the regulations for NGOs are practically a tool for the government to control these organizations. The Islamic Republic has repeatedly suppressed civil society and NGOs by using vague articles of the Islamic penal code, such as actions against national security, gathering with the intention of conspiring against national security, and membership in groups opposed to national security. They use these as justification for arbitrary arrests and even declare the activities of many civil and human rights organizations illegal and subject to ambiguous and unfair crimes. Unfortunately, until there are structural changes in the entire system of the Islamic Republic, there is no hope for improvement and a move towards free and independent activities of civil society