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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 May - 2 June 1999 Issue No. 431 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 May - 2 June 1999 Issue No. 431
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Living Features Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters ...while NGOs step up the fight
By Gamal Essam El-Din
NGO representatives and activists for human and women's rights stepped up their campaign this week against the proposed NGO law in a bid to prevent it from being passed by the People's Assembly. NGOs believe that the bill infringes upon their autonomy and inhibits civil action. More than 50 representatives of NGOs and human rights activists and protesters demonstrated peacefully outside the People's Assembly on Tuesday, as it began a debate of the bill, hoisting banners that declared: "No to the NGO law."
crowds demonstrate outside the People's Assembly
Four NGO delegates went into the assembly to present Speaker Fathi Sorour with their demands. They met with Mohamed Guweili, chairman of the Complaints and Proposals Committee, as well as with Omar Hashem, chairman of the Social and Religious Affairs Committee, who both promised to convey their demands to Sorour.
The demands were to freeze the bill's submission to parliament until it has been thoroughly discussed and to hold hearing sessions with the NGOs.
Meanwhile, three women continued their hunger strike and sit-in for the fifth day yesterday at the offices of the Centre for Human Rights Legal Aid. The three women are: Dr Aida Seif El-Dawla, assistant professor of psychiatry and a member of the Al-Nadim Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, Dr Suzanne Fayyad, a psychiatrist and director of the the El-Nadim Centre and Rahma Refa'at, a lawyer with the Centre for Trade Union and Workers' Services. In a show of solidarity, they were joined for one day by Farida El-Naqqash, a writer and political activist and a member of the NGO Forum for Women's Development.
"We will stop the hunger strike once our modest demands are met. We are asking to be given a hearing session at the People's Assembly, in which the largest possible number of NGOs can participate to express their opinion," said Seif El-Dawla.
Explaining the choice of a hunger strike as a means of expressing NGO opposition to the proposed bill, Seif El-Dawla asserted that "We've tried everything: holding meetings, writing recommendations, speaking out against the bill, but all this was ignored. We thought that what was needed was a response that is equal in scale to what they did. It is no joke that after Tuesday, we will be stuck with a law as bad as this one is, possibly for 50 years to come. We are on a hunger strike, not because we are sulking. It is a peaceful tool of active resistance against the way in which the bill is being passed, without any regard for the NGOs' opinion or recommendations."
Mona Zul-Fiqar, a prominent lawyer who has been on the drafting committee of the bill, said that she put forward a series of amendments, which she discussed with MPs and the concerned ministries. "Our proposals are being considered seriously by the People's Assembly."
Zul-Fiqar argued that the problems began when the bill was sent to the cabinet, which added restrictive measures to the text prepared by the Ministry of Social Affairs. The cabinet's action interrupted the dialogue between the government and the NGOs, she said. However, she added that "the fact that the cabinet did not consult with us does not mean that we cannot stretch out our hands. We have to build up a dialogue until the very last moment to achieve the maximum possible."
Zul-Fiqar believes that a dialogue had been maintained between the NGOs and the ministry, which was manifested in the meetings held in Cairo, Alexandria and Minya. "I don't think we were excluded from the process of negotiation. We had reached a consensus as much as can possibly be reached in the consultation process. We now have to continue to reinforce the partnership between us." Zul-Fiqar, who has been working closely with Minister of Social Affairs Mervat Tellawi, said Tellawi supports the amendments she put forward. At an earlier meeting, Tellawi emphasised that the government is not against the human rights organisations, Zul-Fiqar said. However, in a press interview earlier this week, Tellawi defended the bill, insisting that it in no way restricts NGO activity but, on the contrary, removes many restrictions on their action.
Zul-Fiqar said that the hunger strikers had her sympathy. She pointed out that while she respects diversity of approaches and believes that people should have the freedom to express their views in whatever way they think best, "I prefer constructive dialogue that reinforces democratic values and achieves results."
The hunger strikers and many NGO representatives have rejected the amendments put forward by Zul-Fiqar which, they believe, do nothing to ameliorate the overall repressive and restrictive nature of the proposed bill. The hunger strikers stated in their appeal to the People's Assembly that Zul-Fiqar's proposed amendments do not reflect their demands.
Meanwhile, the hunger strikers have received dozens of solidarity messages, telephone calls and visits from intellectuals, academics and artists, including renowned cinema director Youssef Chahine. One message of solidarity was signed by 35 prominent intellectuals and political figures from a wide range of political and ideological orientations. Among the signatories were Al-Ahram political writer Mohamed Sid-Ahmed, poet Ahmed Abdel-Moeti Higazi, Al-Shaab chief editor Magdi Hussein, prominent Islamist lawyer, Selim El-Awwa, and even Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya's lawyer, Montasser El-Zayyat.
The NGO Forum for the Promotion of the Non-Governmental Sector in Egypt, which includes 105 NGOs from 12 governorates, organised an open meeting this week to express its opposition to the bill. The meeting, which was attended by over 100 people representing associations from all over the country, issued a statement condemning the way in which "the proposed law ignored the dialogue which had taken place between the government and the NGO sector, in an attempt to have it passed with extreme and unexplained haste."
The statement criticised the authority which the bill gives the government in violation of the widely-accepted principles of democratic NGO work. These include: the right to engage in activities without government intervention, the right of the NG0 general assembly to formulate its own statutes; the right to establish NGOs; making government notification the only precondition for registration; and transparency and accountability to the beneficiaries and constituencies, and not the government.
Meanwhile, at an emergency meeting this week, the coordinating committee of opposition parties expressed unified opposition to the bill. A statement released by the committee asserted that the proposed law is in violation of the treaties to which Egypt is signatory.
Hussein Abdel-Razek of the leftist Tagammu Party, speaking on behalf of the committee, said that the proposed law is even more restrictive than Law 32 of 1964, which it is intended to replace. The opposition parties, he added, unanimously believe that "there is no need to introduce a new law; it will only usher in new contradictions with existing legislation," he argued.
Abdel-Razek denied accusations that opposition parties were too slow to respond, saying that "we had to wait until the proposed law was leaked out to us by our MPs, because the cabinet refused to provide us with a copy."
Human rights groups organised a news conference on Saturday to express their opposition to the bill, saying it "gives the executive authority control over the activities, membership and funding of associations. Accordingly, "we declare that if the bill is passed in the near or distant future, we will not abide by its provisions, in an act of civil defiance."
