Fear that adoption of new draft NGO Law will endorse a “no human rights” era

On September8, 2016, the Cabinet approved a new draft NGO law, which if adopted in itscurrent form will further shrink the space for civil society in Egypt. Thedraft law retains restrictive provisions already existing in the current NGOLaw (No. 84/2002), in particular giving the Ministry of Social Solidarityauthority to approve or reject NGOs’ licensing. It also provides for newimpediments likely to result in the suppression of independent human rightswork by civil society. It establishes a security/governmental committee calledthe Coordinating Committee, which would include General Intelligence Services(GIS) and representatives of the Interior Ministry, to approve foreign fundingof Egyptian NGOs, to give international NGOs (INGOs) licenses to work and toapprove the opening by Egyptian NGOS of new branches nationally and abroad.

The draftlaw also limits NGO work to “development and social objectives”, leaving greatuncertainty as to the legality of the conduct of human rights work. Inaddition, the draft law imposes a hefty minimum capital to set up an NGO,establishes a specific tax for foreign funding, bans activists who havereceived prison sentence from forming their own NGOs, requires INGOs to conductwork that meet social needs and conform to State development plans, subjectsthe opening of new offices in the country to the Ministry of SocialSolidarity’s approval and deprives individuals from any right to remedy.

“Hinderingthe legitimate activities of civil society groups is contrary to internationalhuman rights standards, in particular freedoms of expression and association bywhich Egypt is bound”, said FIDH President, DimitrisChristopoulos.

The approvalof this restrictive NGO draft law is in line with the ongoing tremendousdeterioration of the working environment for civil society in Egypt, especiallywithin the framework of criminal case No. 173, known as “the foreign fundingcase”, which has seen the constant harassment of a significant number ofEgyptian human rights groups and their members since June 2013. Within thiscase, on September 17, 2016, the Cairo Criminal Court handed down an order tofreeze the assets of five prominent human rights defenders and three NGOs[1] and at least seven travel bans have also been imposed onleading Egyptian human rights defenders since 2015. If indicted underthis case, hundreds of Egyptian human rights defenders could be condemned to upto 25 years in prison, and at least 37 NGOs will also be closed.

“Whetherit is the implementation of restrictive legislation or judicial harassmentagainst NGOs or individual defenders, the Egyptian authorities must immediatelycease their crusade against civil society and enable them to effectivelyfunction”, added OMCT Secretary General, GeraldStaberock.

Since late2011, civil society in Egypt has been the target of a crackdown, withauthorities tightening their control on human rights activities in the country.The recent draft NGO law, along with the decision of the Egyptian Court on caseNo. 173 are only the latest attempts by Egyptian authorities to silence human rightsactivism in the country, specifically against civil society groups exposingstate abuses.

TheObservatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) wascreated in 1997 by FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). Theobjective of this programme is to intervene to prevent or remedy situations ofrepression against human rights defenders. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu,the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented byinternational civil society.

For moreinformation, please contact:

• FIDH: Audrey Couprie / ArthurManet: + 33 143552518

• OMCT: Chiara Cosentino: +41 228094937

[1] See the Observatory Urgent Appeal EGY 004/ 0615 / OBS 049.7, published on September 19, 2016.In June 2016, another judge had already frozen the assets of anotherrights NGO, Andalus Center for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies (AITAS) andits director, Ahmad Samih in the context of the same criminal case.