New reports criticise restrictive NGO law

The international NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) launched two separate reports on Monday, both criticising an Egyptian law that excessively regulates civil society and the activity of NGOs. "Freedom of association is a core political right. One cannot talk about democracy without being able to have an environment that allows people to come together in a free and unrestricted way," Joe Stork, Deputy Director of HRW's Middle East Division, said at a press conference in Cairo. HRW's report, entitled 'Margins of Repression: State Limits on Non Governmental Organisation Activism,' discusses the impact of the 2002 law on NGOs. "It also examines other key barriers to the formation, work, and accountability of Egyptian civil society groups, based on documentation of the difficulties experienced by some thirty groups working in areas ranging from environmental awareness, adult literacy, women's empowerment, support services for child labourers, to human rights advocacy and research," the report said. Hafez Abu Saeda, EOHR secretary general, presented a complementary report titled 'Critical Analysis of the New Associations' Law'. "In our report we have monitored violations against civil society organisations in Egypt and mentioned cases in which organisations were refused registration, in addition to cases when funds were frozen for no official reason," he said. "We call for radical changes in the law. Indeed we cannot imagine a free civil society in Egypt with the state of emergency declared," he added. The law regulating NGOS is considered to be an improvement on previous association laws that hindered the development of civil society in Egypt, activists say. But HRW believes there is room for more change. "Many NGOs, including the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, sent recommendations to the government while working on drafting the law," Stork explained. "Some of the recommendations were accepted but some of the most important ones were not." According to the report, registration of NGOs has now become compulsory and extremely difficult. Another major limitation in the law is article 11. "Article 11 prohibits what the state considers to be political or trade union activities and thus we find it extremely objectionable as it forms a major restriction on civil society organisations," Stork added.