Egypt: Draft law threatens to stifle free association

A recently-drafted law in Egypt aims to regulate NGOs and give the government and security agencies veto power over all activities of associations in Egypt. “It would sound the death knell for the independence that these groups have fought to maintain,” Human Rights Watch said. The organisation has demanded the government to throw out the current draft and enact new legislation to promote Egyptians’ right to freedom of association as enshrined in the constitution and international law.

The Law on Associations that Egypt’s Ministry of Social Solidarity presented to Egyptian groups on June 26, 2014, would make all activities of associations – including board decisions – subject to government veto.

It would even empower the government and security agencies to dissolve existing groups, pending a court order, or refuse to licence new groups if it decided that their activities could “threaten national unity”.

It would allow officials to inspect the premises of any association suspected of engaging in the work of a nongovernmental organisation.

It would impose “crippling” restrictions on foreign funding of Egyptian nongovernmental groups and their capacity to communicate or cooperate with groups abroad.

It would impose sentences of at least one year in prison and a fine of at least EGP 100,000 ($13,985) for infractions.

Officials from the ministry have told Egyptian organisations that it will be introduced in the country’s next parliament, when it is elected. With the president’s powers to legislate in the absence of a parliament, it is now possible to circulate the law by decree.

As we have seen over the past year, the Egyptian authorities have imposed extensive restrictions on freedom of association. A definite example of this has been the Cairo courts which banned the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest opposition group, as well as the April 6 Movement, which played a key role during the January 25, 2011 Revolution. The security forces, twice within six months, have raided the offices of the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights, an independent rights group.

“This law is not about regulating nongovernmental organisations,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, “it’s about throttling them and robbing them of their independence. These provisions would extinguish a crucial element of democracy in Egypt.”

International implications and a breach of Egypt’s constitution

The proposed legislation would require international organisations to get permission in advance from an Egyptian government committee containing interior ministry and intelligence service representatives, before carrying out any activity in Egypt. The committee would be able to withdraw that permission at any time, for any reason.

“This leaves only the narrowest space for international groups to work in Egypt, and then only according to the whims of the government and security agencies,” Stork argued. Whilst it is legitimate for governments to require all associations to operate transparently, the purpose of that requirement should not be to prohibit the legitimate work of independent organisations, HRW insisted.

“Egyptian groups have shown great courage, resilience and professionalism in the face of intense government pressure and repressive laws,” Stork added. “If this draft becomes law, it would spell the end of the independence that these brave groups have fought to maintain.”

In a joint statement, 29 independent Egyptian groups warned that the law would “criminalise the operations of NGOs and subordinate them to the security establishment”. They described the law as “a flagrant breach of the constitution and Egypt’s international obligations” that hark back to a 1964 law.

In private, rights activists have given even bleaker assessments. “Our time is coming,” one researcher at an independent Egyptian rights group told Human Rights Watch. “There will be a crackdown on NGOs, and we all expect to end up in prison soon. We know this is our fate, and we have accepted it.”

HRW’s Stork pointed out that this draft law would require rights groups to seek permission to continue reporting on abuses from the very entities abusing those rights. “If Egypt’s government is serious about human rights, transparency or democracy, values enshrined in the country’s constitution, it will scrap this text and return to real consultations with independent groups on a fresh draft,” he urged.