We Still need a Regulatory Impact Assessment before a Religious and Faith Based Organisations Policy (RFBOP)

On Saturday 19.01.2019, I had the privilege to moderate a conversation on the aforementioned proposed Religious and Faith Based Organisations Policy.  The conversation was organised under the auspices of the Fellowship of Christian Unions (FOCUS).  It was held at Piato Restaurant. FOCUS normally has monthly meetings and this was one of them.

The main presentation was made by Mr. Shem Byakagaba who has been hired as a Consultant for the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity. Rev. Canon Aaron Mwesigye under whose docket this policy falls, was also in attendance. The discussants were Pr. Michael Kyazze and Mr. Edward Sekabanja (President Emeritus of the Uganda Christian Lawyers Fraternity).We then had a plenary.

Various reasons were given for the need to have this policy. Key amongst these was the fact that Section 2.2 of the NGO Policy 2010, mandated the State to come up with a policy. It states -

Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) which until now have been obliged to register as NGOs, shall not fall under the ambit of NGO Policy. However, where an FBO is engaged in NGO – type activities as defined herein, the FBO shall be required to comply with the provisions governing the activities of NGOs in Uganda. Until Government takes measures to provide an appropriate separate framework for promoting coordination of the spiritual activities of Faith Based Organizations in the country, the existing arrangements shall obtain.

These reasons were also stated in a document entitled “CONCEPT NOTE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL POLICY ON RELIGIOUS AND FAITH-BASED ORGANISATIONS IN UGANDA, 2016.”[1]  Namely; that there was need for one law under which the RFBOs should operate (so as to make it easier to coordinate and monitor them);  that there is “significant disharmony within and among various RFBOs and, therefore, the need to regulate RFBOs in order to protect citizens’ rights and promote harmonious co-existence.”  It was also stated that “there has been reported lack of accountability and transparency in the management of RFBOs which if not mitigated could lead to gross exploitation and manipulation of the citizens”[2] thus making it “practically impossible to harmonize, regulate and monitor the operations of RFBOs under the current legal framework.”[3]

Alot of comments were made from those in attendance and I will highlight a few  -

         §        Must there be regulation by government or shouldn’t there be self regulation? In any case, what exactly is the need for “engagement with government” and what forms will it take?

         §        What exactly are the reasons for the policy?  Is lack of co-ordination amongst the RFBOs the actual problem or can lack of a single law be a problem?

         §        How will GOU be able to coordinate spiritual activities, let alone  regulate conduct which is really part and parcel of spirituality?

         §        Who is pushing for the Policy? Isn’t it an up down concept and yet it should be a down up policy? (Meaning that the stakeholders should be the ones to push for it and not the government)

         §        Who finally decides what the policy should contain? Government or the stakeholders? How will it be implemented in any case when most legislation is hardly ever implemented?

         §        Matters of faith and religion remain with my heart. State will not be able to regulate them

         §        Criminal laws are wide enough to cover any criminality

         §        What exactly is the definition of a religious and faith based organisations?

         §        Will it cater for the Uganda traditional healers, e.g Mama Fiina, or cults like Bishaaka, etc? What about “traditional” religions like the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church? The Orthodox Church? etc

         §        Have there been complaints from the stakeholders? What exactly are the complaints?

         §        How will government be able to legislate against conduct and not against faith yet the two go hand in hand?

         §        Are  Faith based organisations the same as Religious organisations?

         §        Were the ministries under which the current registration is being done consulted first? Is NGO Board complaining?

         §        Freedom of worship includes obnoxious worship and the same goes for freedom of speech. It must protect all – even the most obnoxious.  Freedom of association includes the freedom not to associate – the smallest church has the right not to associate.  There will always be good and bad churches. Beware about the separation of church and state vis avis the push for  a state religion

         §        There is dishonesty in the way the policy is being fronted. There is even a Private members Bill on the same issue in the corridors of Parliament

         §        Freedom of Religion ICCPR and UDHR and – includes monist, theistic, atheistic beliefs – has that been considered yet?  There is a distinction between freedom of thought and belief and their manifestation in Article 18. The manifestation is what is subject to regulations and policies.  There is need to clarify between the two;

         §        The most important form of government is self government. The bigger the government, the more trouble. There is sufficient law in this country – Government is silent about the traditional religion –

The above views, are but a summary of many other views that were expressed during the plenary session. I am sure there will be a proper record of the same.

                         

However, the above views, and the largely unsatisfactory responses to them simply reiterated my previous opinion/blog that there is need for a Regulatory Impact Assessment that clears the air on many of these issues.  As long as it is not done, it will be very difficult for the stakeholders to have a buy in on this proposed policy and equally difficult for the proposers to not only convince their stakeholders, but also themselves about the way to package this Policy.

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[1] The document is allegedly prepared by: The Directorate for Ethics and Integrity, Office of the President, P. O. Box 7142, Kampala dated April 2016. However, Rev. Canon Aaron Mwesigye seemed to indicate that this concept note was not the final version. He noted that the additional documents availabe are the Draft Policy 2015, a Consultation Report of 2017, a  Study Research Report 2018 and a Retreat Report 2019 which is yet to be released

[2] ibid

[3] ibid