UN body in charge of NGO-accreditation fails to dismiss application from major Bin Laden, Hamas supporter

A terrorist front organization is seeking formal UN NGO status. On January 30, 2015, the Islamic African Relief Agency's (IARA) deferred application came before the UN Committee in charge of NGO accreditation. NGO accreditation provides NGOs with real benefits, such as attending international conferences and events, making written and oral statements, organizing side events, entering UN premises, and having opportunities to network and lobby.

At a 2013 UN NGO Committee session, the US representative said that the IARA was designated as a terrorist organization by the US Treasury Department in 2004 "for providing support to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, Hamas and other terrorist groups. They were involved in terrorist financing ... and have provided hundreds of thousands of dollars" to terrorist organizations. The UN press release, on the other hand, described this terrorist patron as an organization "focused on humanitarian relief, rehabilitation and development".

On January 30, 2015 at the UN Committee the US delegate questioned Sudan-based IARA "about funding provided by the organization and its American partner, the Islamic American Relief Agency, to other countries." The representative of Sudan - a member of the UN NGO Committee - stepped in to defend the IARA on the grounds that "the organization had been asked that same question in the past, and that it had submitted a detailed response". Rather than being dismissed as clearly incompatible with "the spirit, purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations", consideration of the application will continue.