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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 January 2000 Issue No. 463 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 January 2000 Issue No. 463
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Heritage Millennium Features Profile Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters NGOs look towards turbulent partnership
By Mariz Tadros"Turbulent", "confrontational" and "unyielding" best describe the relationship between the Ministry of Social Affairs and NGOs in 1999. And prospects for a reconciliation are somewhat grim. NGO Law 153, of May 1999, stirred more controversy than perhaps any other piece of legislation last year. There were high hopes that 1999 would witness the reform of Law 32 which was issued in 1964. There was a general consensus, shared by government and NGO representatives, that it was about time to change the ill-reputed Law 32, which was passed in an era of heavy government intervention in all spheres of life. Law 32, everyone agreed, was bureaucratic and unfit to regulate the activities of the more than 14,000 NGOs registered with the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The process of reforming the law, however, started off on a bad note. The draft law, NGOs said, was leaked to them, and the NGO representatives on the committee assigned the task of preparing the draft did not reflect the views of all NGOs. From the very outset, human rights organisations protested that the draft law was restrictive and aimed to inhibit civil work.
The campaign against the bill was led primarily by human rights organisations because they had most at stake. Many human rights groups had registered as non-profit civil companies in a bid to avoid the bureaucratic entanglements of Law 32. Under the new law, they would be declared null and void if they did not register with the Ministry of Social Affairs. Consequently, human rights organisations became convinced that the aim of the new law was essentially to curb their activities. This is a fact that the government does not entirely deny. In a recent interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, Mervat Tellawi, then minister of social affairs, said that the reason why the criminal law, currently in force, is not sufficient to punish violations by NGOs is that "it has failed to deal with cases in which people registered organisations offshore, or registered them illegally within the country".
But opposition also came from development organisations, such as the NGO Forum for Civil Action, which was formed in the summer of 1998 to defend the rights of NGOs and follow up on the bill.
After negotiations between various NGOs, including some human rights organisations, and Tellawi, a draft of the law was reached last January that represented, for the most part, some of the most important changes suggested by NGOs.
But the final version that was discussed and passed by the People's Assembly, NGOs protested, in no way reflected the draft bill they had agreed upon with the Ministry of Social Affairs: registration was not by notification but by permission and the ministry retained significant rights to intervene in the administrative running of the organisations and impose restrictions on foreign funding.
Two months ago, the Arab Centre for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, together with six other NGOs, announced plans to file a lawsuit against Tellawi for allegedly "deceiving the People's Assembly and public opinion". The statement, charging that amendments introduced by the State Council to the draft law were made without the knowledge of the parliament, was sent to Prime Minister Atef Ebeid.
Tellawi had vigorously defended the new law, insisting it was a huge step forward and that it would boost voluntary work. When the executive regulations of the new law were issued in November, Amina El-Guindi, the new minister of social affairs, affirmed Tellawi's position, emphasising that the regulations would turn "a new leaf for relations between NGOs and the government and pave the way for a joint partnership".
NGOs have six months to register with the Ministry of Social Affairs, from the date of the publication of the executive regulations, or be declared defunct.
How plausible this partnership will be, is questionable. Many of the NGOs that had vigorously attacked the law believe the executive regulations are an improvement and they have already sought registration with the Ministry of Social Affairs. Others, though, are undecided. Amir Salem is director of the Legal Research Centre for Human Rights and one of the NGO representatives who was invited to take part in drafting the executive regulations. His organisation has sought registration and believes that it is better for the human rights cause if organisations are registered. "It would give them a greater scope of action to promote human rights and minimise the risk of their being attacked by the government," he said.
Hafez Abu Se'da, secretary general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR), insisted that registration was merely intended to gain a legal licence and did not mean acceptance of the new law. Abu Se'da emphasised that there would be sustained resistance against the law because it violates the constitution and international conventions and charters.
Gasser Abdel-Razek of the Hisham Mubarak Centre for Human Rights Legal Aid is confident that life will continue after the new law: "The NGO movement does not end; it is only the beginning of a new struggle. We will continue to lobby for changing the NGO law." The previous struggle by activists against the law included several press conferences, a hunger strike and a sit-down protest by activists in front of parliament, as well as pleas to the president and the prime minister. Abdel-Razek argues that while the executive regulations made some things clearer, or "slightly nicer," the basic problems are still there, starting from the registration process and the election of the board of the NGO federation to the very mandate of the NGO. The executive regulations, activists argue, cannot go against the law.
Law 153 has been sent to the Supreme Constitutional Court, following a dispute between an NGO in Tanta and the ministry. The saga has brought to light the growing tension over the role of the state and NGOs in view of the current economic policies. In an interview with the Weekly, Tellawi passionately asserted that there was no state of conflict between the government and NGOs: "NGOs are made up of our citizens. They are our partners in development. It is not a war."
Yet human rights organisations believe they have reason to think differently. Abu Se'da was recently summoned by the general prosecutor and a lawsuit case against the EOHR was reopened. Earlier this year, Abu Se'da was detained on grounds of accepting an illegal cheque from the British Embassy, allegedly to undermine the unity and security of the country. The EOHR's report on widespread human rights violations in the southern village of El-Kosheh was at the centre of the case.
Abu Se'da believes that the case, which is likely to go to court, is related to the NGO law "because the government is expecting the human rights organisations' campaigns against the law to continue".
The clamp down against human rights organisations, suggests Abu Se'da, is likely to be stepped up this year: "Firstly, there are no promising signs that the government will be making political changes to push forward a process of democratisation. As it continues to violate human rights, it will continue to seek to delegitimise and thwart opposing voices -- by calling them agents of the West, by claiming they are threatening national unity, security or peace etc. Secondly, as the economic crisis deepens, and the suffering increases, they will expect more voices of opposition, which they would want to thwart."
With the effects of economic liberalisation on the poor being recognised by all, the government has repeatedly called for participation by businessmen and NGOs in poverty alleviation. However, NGOs argue that those who want to do more than provide welfare services are simply not welcome partners. Economic liberalisation has not been accompanied by political liberalisation; the opposite is true, NGOs believe.
Nasser Amin, a lawyer with the Arab Centre for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, is equally pessimistic about a possible improvement in relations with the government. He believes the essence of the problem is the government's persistent attempts at controlling the output of human rights organisations and its rejection of NGOs playing the role of watchdog on human rights violations committed by the government. After the end of the six-month registration period, Nasser predicts there will be "a honeymoon period of another six months during which the government will go easy on NGOs, but afterwards it will start to intervene in the affairs of the NGOs it does not trust and will harass and bully them as it sees fit."
Whether the government chooses to implement the law in a way that is flexible and empowering to NGOs, as it has claimed, remains to be seen. But the current picture is bleak indeed; activists are waiting to be pleasantly surprised.
