OWASP and US Government Sanctioned Countries

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Andrew van der Stock

Friday, October 30, 2020

Recently, our lawyers have reviewed all of our bylaws and contracts. You’ll see the improvements coming through as we bring them online. However, the lawyers found that we had no provisions to prohibit participation or funding from US Government Sanctioned Countries. Once notified, we had to act, as ignorance is not an excuse. The Board has taken action to resolve this issue, and in the process, we have lost a chapter and refunded one member.

Please read on for more details, and more details about future content here.

As a US Not For Profit, we must obey US laws. This goes without saying. After being alerted to the issue, the Board has reluctantly decided to terminate the participation of individuals from Sanctioned Countries. As a result, we lost the Tehran chapter, and one member. A Sanctioned Country provision is now in the bylaws as a result of the Board vote. This is a sad day, one that I hope we can reverse soon.

THe Board has asked me to investigate methods by which we can allow participation from these countries, but I am not hopeful. Many of the same countries are sanctioned by the EU as well, so simply changing to re-home such members or chapters is at best not going to fly. Plus, it might be seen as sanction busting, which is also illegal and has significant criminal penalties. I hope that a future administration will review these sanctioned countries and remove them at some point in the future, but that is entirely out of my control.

Let’s hope for a brighter future, where international politics doesn’t get in the way of achieving our global mission.

Andrew van der Stock Executive Director

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