The proposed law follows a further deterioration of the situation of NGOs in the country, including the launch of a smear campaign aimed at damaging the credibility of groups critical of the human rights record of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and its government.
(CIHRS/IFEX) – 16 November 2011 – Thirty-nine human rights and development organizations have drafted a new law to regulate NGOs and sent a copy to Prime Minister Essam Sharaf. The proposed law provides for the autonomy of Egyptian civil society organizations from the state and its administrative apparatus. At the same time, it guarantees the transparent operation of these organizations in terms of their activities and sources of funding. Under the proposed law, civil society groups and NGOs can be established by notification at a primary court, and the Ministry of Justice will be the competent administrative body. The law also provides for the freedom to join and form international and local networks and alliances.
Since their formation, human rights organizations have been at the forefront of proposing laws to liberate civic action. This law is one of many proposed since 1985. In 2009, during the Mubarak era, an alternative law was proposed by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies and the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights; however, it was disregarded by the regime. In light of the continuation of the Mubarak regime’s policy towards civil society organizations, including interference in civil society operations by the administrative and security sectors, the undersigned organizations now proffer the same law in a new initiative joined by several more groups. In addition, a media campaign has been launched to smear civil society, particularly human rights groups, in order to damage the credibility of their reports and their criticisms of the human rights record of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and its government. Recently, this campaign has taken more deplorable measures even than what was attempted by Mubarak himself.
The undersigned organizations propose this law as a democratic alternative to the current law (84/2002), which gives arbitrary powers to the Ministry of Social Solidarity and Justice and permits daily intervention by the security apparatus in the operation of civil society associations and NGOs. This alternative law has been drafted with due consideration for international standards, aiming to rectify the current law’s incompatibility with such standards, as this incompatibility was a constant source of criticism of the Egyptian government, especially during the UN Universal Periodic Review of the human rights record in Egypt conducted by the UN Human Rights Council in 2010. Indeed, one of the recommendations to the Egyptian government was to pass legislation that allows NGOs to accept foreign funding without prior government approval, legislation that allows for increased freedom of association and assembly, and legislation allowing labor unions to operate without joining the Egyptian Trade Union Federation.
After the January 25 Revolution, the undersigned organizations hoped that civil society would be freed from the bureaucratic grasp of the state and its security apparatus and that it would be given the opportunity to perform its patriotic role by entrenching democratic norms, respect for human rights, and social justice in post-revolution Egypt. However, this hope soon faded in light of the unchanged mindset of the regime and its failure in administering the transitional phase. In fact, the investigating authorities currently looking into the activities of human rights groups are relying on reports prepared by the dissolved State Security Investigations of the Mubarak era – the very apparatus whose practices were one of the main reasons Egyptians revolted to bring down the regime.
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We, the undersigned organizations, adhere to the principle of freedom of association, in accordance with international standards, as an inalienable, indivisible right. Thus, we again propose this law, which upholds two twin principles: the freedom of civic work independent of the state bureaucracy and its security apparatus, and a commitment to transparency in all civil society operations.
Egyptian Alliance for the Freedom of NGOs
Group for Democratic Development
Association for Human Rights Legal Aid
Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
The Group for Human Rights Legal Aid
Land Center for Human Rights
Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights
Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies
Hisham Mubarak Law Center
Appropriate Communications Techniques for Development (ACT)
Egyptians Against Religious Discrimination
Egyptian Democratic Academy
Arab Penal Reform Organization
New Woman Research Center
Egyptian Foundation for the Advancement of Childhood Conditions
Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression
Center for Egyptian Women Legal Assistance
Nazra for Feminist Studies
The Human Rights Association for the Assistance of the Prisoners
Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services
Arab Program for Human Rights Activists
Association of Researchers in Egyptian Universities and Institutes
Arab Women Association for Development In Ismailia
Egyptian Association for Supporting Democratic Development
Mossawah Association for Human Rights
Arab Council for Supporting Fair Trials and Human Rights
South Center for Human Rights
Arab-European Center for Human Rights And International Law
Egyptian Center for Sustainable Development and Human Rights
Hemaia Center For Supporting Human Rights Defenders
United Journalists Center
Al Shehab Institution for Promotion and Comprehensive Development
Women and Memory Forum
Sahm El Theqa Foundation for Social Development
Heya Women Organization
