Egypt dissolves 71 NGOs

Egypt announced that it dissolved 71 NGOs, including 41 belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, in Al- Qalyubia Province in the north of the country, Assabeel newspaper reported yesterday.

Social Solidarity Deputy Minister Mohammad Al-Shaar said that the dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood’s NGOs is part of the judicial decision to confiscate the group’s funds and property.

The official did not give specific reasons for the dissolution of the other NGOs.

According to Al-Shaar, there are 2,800 NGOs in Al-Qalyubia, noting they would be subject to the new NGOs’ law recently modified by parliament.

The new law has been met with severe local and international criticism due to it including articles which were “adding more restrictions on the work of the NGOs in Egypt.”

Since the military coup carried out against the first ever freely elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, Egypt has been subject to sever national, regional and international criticism over massive human rights violations, including mass detentions, mass killing, forced disappearances, a ban on public gatherings, crackdowns on mass media among other restrictions.

In September 2013, the Court of Urgent Matters in Cairo banned the Muslim Brotherhood and all other bodies related to it. In January 2014, the government formed a body to run the funds, NGOs and firms of the group.