Financial Action Task Force

Letter from the Editor

The International Journal
of Not-for-Profit Law

Volume 14, Issue 1-2, April 2012

In the name of national security, governments around the world have imposed new forms of surveillance since 9/11. Anti-terrorism surveillance has hindered civil society and freedom of association in myriad ways. In this issue, Ben Hayes provides an in-depth examination of one of the most consequential forms: surveillance of the finances of civil society organizations. Hayes is Project Director at Statewatch and a Fellow of the Transnational Institute.

We also address a range of other topics. Douglas Rutzen, President and CEO of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, categorizes some of the major constraints imposed on civil society in 2012 and earlier. Mahammad Guluzade and Natalia Bourjaily of ICNL assess Azerbaijan’s NGO Support Council. Eugene H. Fram, a Professor Emeritus at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s E. Philip Saunders College of Business, considers whether the appointment of “lead directors” would enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of not-for-profit organizations’ boards. Finally, Matti Muukkonen, the Chief Municipal Officer of Suomenniemi, Finland, traces the roots of freedom of association in that country.

We’re grateful to the Transnational Institute and Statewatch for their kind permission to reprint excerpts of Ben Hayes’s study; and, as always, to our authors for their cogent analyses of challenges facing civil society today.

Stephen Bates
Editor
International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law
sbates@icnl.org