GUIDLINE OF ASSOCIATION REGISTRATION

Associations

Associations are the bridge of communication between the people and the government, which play an important and valuable role in various social, scientific and cultural fields according to the law in a non-political, non-governmental and non-profit way.

Article 35 of the Constitution of Afghanistan is clear in this regard as such: "Citizens of Afghanistan have the right to establish Association in order to ensure material and spiritual purposes in accordance with the provisions of the law."

Also, the term ‘Association’  is defined in the second article of Associations Law as follows: "Association: social, non-political and non-profit organization of natural and legal persons including (association, union, council, assembly, foundation, organization and institution including their union such as federation and confederation that is established as a legal person for professional, guild and specialized purposes.

It is worth mentioning that the civil institutions under the title of Association have obtained their activity license from the Ministry of Justice and had remarkable and significant achievements in various fields of providing excellent and quality services of awareness, mobilization, public awareness and solving citizens' problems in a transparent and responsive manner.

The statistic of the list of active Associations of the Directorate of Association Affairs and Social Institutions of the General Directorate of Coordination of the Ministry of Justice in the center and provinces is summarized.

Guidelines for applying for Association Registration

1- Applicants submit their application in the printed application for registering the Association in the title of the Ministry of Justice.

2- After going through the administrative procedures, three tables are distributed to the applicant under the title of the identification of the founders, the board of directors and financial affairs officials by the Association documents registration officer and in provinces the Directorate of Coordination.

3- There are at least (10) founding members, of which three are elected as the board of directors and three are elected as financial officers.

4- The applicant is obliged to accurately enter the names of the founders, the board of directors and the financial officers of the Association in separate tables and provide along with the citizenship ID cards in color and the logo of the Association, along with describing it in a computerized form, specifying the director, deputy and secretary to the Association documents registration officer and in the provinces to the administrative sub-directorate of the Directorate of Coordination.

5- The applicant is obliged to write accurately the contact number, age verification, ID number, registration number, page, volume and describe the founding members.

6- The presence of the founding members in the center to the Directorate of Association affairs and in the provinces to the sub-directorates and general managements of the Coordination Directorate of Justice Directorate is mandatory in order to implement the ID card and their signature.

7- Applicants are required to refrain from choosing titles that contain (political, commercial, exclusive, national and unfamiliar) words in order to obtain a license.

8- The reviewing board is obliged to choose clear, specific and meaningful titles and objectives with mentioning the geographical area in agreement with the applicants.

9- Applicants who want to establish a general and comprehensive institution, at least from (18) provinces of Afghanistan, the founding members in their respective communities, who have the permanent and current residence of the same province.

10- Applicants who register scientific, specialized institutions, scholars' councils, have at least a bachelor's degree related to the subject of Association , and their educational documents are valid after the approval of the relevant authorities.

11- It is mandatory to have the statute with the Association logo along with its description and the specific address of the Association’s office.

12- The supplies and equipment of the Association’s office are reviewed by the members of the supervision board before obtaining the activity license.

13- Applicants for the license of Welfare Association are obliged to have at least (2) million AFs as a guarantee in the bank account of the relevant Association.

14- Submitting an inquiry letter from the Finance Department in order to obtain an Identification Number (TIN).

15- Submitting an inquiry letter to Attorney’s office in order not to be convicted of a crime and deprived of the civil rights of the founding members.

16- Submitting an inquiry to the honorable Ministry of Borders, People and Tribes in case the applicants want to register Association in the name of the tribe.

17- Applicants for the license of unions, assemblies, federations and confederations are obliged to meet the following conditions according to this guideline:

- Assembly: consisting of legal institutions and persons that can be set up of (4) official institutions which have an activity license.

- Union: It is a social organization of legal persons, with at least (6) official licenses that have the statute of governmental administrations.

- Federation: consists of unions, councils and assemblies that have similar goals and provides at least 10 official licenses.

- Confederation: consists of at least (5) federation licenses that have official licenses and statute of governmental administrations.

Note:

Applicants for Association activity licenses are required to consider the followings:

- The applicant is obliged to provide complete information before obtaining of activity license in writing about the location of the office, bookkeeping equipment and movable and immovable property of the Association for the purpose of registration to the appointed representative of the Directorate of Association Affairs, who is officially appointed through inquiry letter.

According to Article (18) of the Association Affairs Law, the holders of the activity license are obliged to provide their movable and immovable property and income and expenses according to the specified format within three months to the Directorate of Association affairs in the center and to the Sub-directorates of Coordination of Directorate of Justice in the provinces at the end of the fiscal year.

- Activity license holders are obliged to provide their original activity license and the three-year activity report separately during the renewal of the license, the decision of the general assembly with a majority of two-thirds of the founding members, the inquiry letter of the attorney's office for not being convicted of a crime, and their tax bill to the Directorate of Association Affairs in center and in the provinces to the Sub-directorates of Coordination of the Director of Justice.

- Whenever there is a change in the board of directors or founding members, social institutions are obliged to provide written information about this to the Directorate of Association Affairs in the center and to the sub-directorates of coordination of the Directorate of justice in the provinces within 10 days.

- The activity license of the community is renewed after three years.

- The activity license is renewed 30 days before the expiry of its validity period for the amount of (5000) thousand AFs every three years.

- The activity license will be renewed if the Association has not violated the provisions of the Law on Associations, the regulation on the establishment and registration of Associations, and the statutes in its activities.

- If the license is not renewed within three months, the Association is obliged to pay (2,500) AFs in addition to paying the mentioned amount.

- If the activity license is not renewed within six months, the name of the Association will be removed from the registry office.

- If the Association continues to operate after removing its name from the registry office, it must submit a request for re-registration to the Ministry of Justice according to the provisions of the Association Law.

- If the Association activity license is lost, after announcing in one of the public media, the duplicate of Association activity license will be granted for the remaining period by (10,000) AFs.

- Whenever a dispute arises between the founding members of the Association, the first step is to resolve the disputes between themselves through dialogue and negotiation; If the differences are not resolved, they should submit the matter in writing to the Directorate of Association  Affairs in the center and to the Directorates of Justice in the provinces, and if they are not satisfied, in order to resolve the Association’s  differences, according to the law, the case will be referred to the nearest relevant court.

- Whenever the Association is canceled according to the law, its property will be handed over to its similar institution.

Note:

It is brought to the notice of the applicants that the process of registering the activity license until its issuance, considering the clarity of Article (411) of the Civil Law, takes a period of (60) days, during which they should not disturb the employees of this office.

Documents related to the Association:

Table of founders

Table of Board of Directors

Table of financial officers

Guarantee Letter

Association’s  address

Monitoring checklist

Applicant complaints form

Sample of annual presentation of Association report

Registration form and process of Association license

The process of administrative procedures of documents

Sample of statute

For more information, contact Halim "Shams", the administrative and database manager of the Directorate of Association Affairs of the General Directorate of Coordination.

Contact number: 0781312386

 Email address: Halimahmadi11@gmail.com