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Al-Ahram Weekly 1 - 7 June 2000 Issue No. 484 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 1 - 7 June 2000 Issue No. 484
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Heritage Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Beyond registration
By Mariz TadrosThe Ministry of Social Affairs is unable to account for the exact number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that have registered, even after the stipulated grace period ended on 27 May. Amid heated controversy last year, law No.153 was passed to bunch all non-governmental activity, including charity, development, human rights and advocacy, under the ministry's legal umbrella. Given the scope of the task and the particular circumstances surrounding each application, this has not been an easy objective and the fate of these organisations is left hanging.
The registration requirements and procedures differ according to the nature of the NGO activity, explains Magda Mohamed Abdel-Halim, head of the NGO registration department at the ministry. NGOs that were already registered with the ministry must re-adjust their charters to conform with the new law. The required changes are mainly administrative. Organisations registered as non-profit civil companies were instructed to register anew as NGOs before the expiry of the grace period; otherwise, they would have to bring their activities to an end or face liquidation. Abdel-Halim said she has received 10 applications from human rights organisations.
The situation for foreign NGOs active in this country also changed with the new law. Abdel-Halim explained that previously they simply had to sign an agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Now, they not only have to sign such an agreement, but their request for work in this country must be approved by the Ministry of Social Affairs. "We are not responsible for auditing their accounts, but we will monitor their activities," she added.
The ministry does not have specific figures of how many of the 14,600 NGOs registered under the old law have applied afresh for registration before the expiry of the grace period, but the number cannot be very high. Almost one third of all NGOs registered under the old law are based in Cairo, yet almost one half of them have not applied for registration under the new law.
There are some who do not have great expectations in this regard. "I don't think that the number will ever amount to 3,000," said Aziza Abdel-Fattah, head of the NGO department at the Cairo governorate. "Many of these NGOs are ink on paper. We can't even contact some of them because members have been dead for long, and their premises evacuated."
The fact that at least half of the registered NGOs are non-active is important. When 105 prominent NGOs working in development, charity, human rights and advocacy nationwide formed the Forum for the Promotion of NGOs in 1999 to publicise opposition to the new law, the official reaction was that their views are unrepresentative of the thousands-strong NGO community.
The majority of human rights organisations, with the exception of one or two that closed down, have resorted to a variety of survival strategies. Some have sought registration as associations, others as foundations, and a few have sought to sign agreements with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as regional organisations.
That a variety of NGOs have opted for different choices was viewed as a sign of the fragmentation of the human rights movement, that resulted from the application of the new law.
Gasser Abdel-Razek, director of the Hisham Mubarak Centre, which has chosen to register as a law firm and not as an NGO, argues that "movements don't die because of legislation; organisations may get dissolved, but movements continue." Irrespective of whether an organisation has chosen to register or not, the conviction that the law is restrictive has continued to mobilise NGOs to work together, he said. A case in point, he suggested, is that human rights organisations acted together to convince the UN Commission on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to make a recommendation to the Egyptian government on 13 May to amend or repeal the law.
"From the outset, the human rights movement has defended the principle of pluralism. We choose to deal with different situations in different ways," Abdel-Razek said.
Abdel-Razek believes that registering as a law firm, and not as an NGO, will have no impact on the centre's activities. "We will continue to issue press releases on any violation of human rights, and there is no law against press releases, and we will continue to campaign for whatever causes we feel are important to public interest, and there is nothing to stop us from doing legal research," he said.
The Centre for Human Rights Legal Aid was the first human rights organisation to seek registration under the new law, and it won immediate acceptance. Samir Bagouri, its secretary-general, believes that registration is important to counter campaigns that question human rights organisations' national allegiance, transparency and financial accountability. Since registering six months ago, Bagouri said, the centre has not encountered any form of government harassment. "We have been given space to continue with our activities, which we have not changed," he said.
Other human rights organisations, which sought registration, are apprehensive about relations with the government. Many applied in the past few weeks, and the ministry has the right to respond within 60 days.
Kamal Abbas, head of the Centre for Trade Union Services, which won the French government's human rights prize last year, complained that civil servants at the ministry treated their application with prejudice and reluctance. The centre provides training and legal assistance, and raises awareness of workers' concerns. Yet, Abbas said, "civil servants claimed that the centre's activities are political and violate the law; I had to prove to them that the executive regulations of the law do not prohibit our activities. The problem is that civil servants do not understand the law fully, and are sometimes bent on interpreting it narrow-mindedly."
Abdel-Mawla Ismail of the Land Centre for Human Rights, which applied for registration a fortnight ago, said that they were anxious how their application will be treated. "The Ministry of Social Affairs may ask us, for example, to obtain a permit from the Ministry of Culture or Ministry of Telecommunications before releasing our reports which, of course, would impinge on our freedom," he said.
The real test, perhaps, will not be whether the ministry accepts all the applications for registration, but the scope of freedom it will allow for advocacy work and lobbying after registration.
Still, many NGOs are awaiting the decision of the Supreme Constitutional Court on the fate of the NGO law. The court is scheduled to decide on 3 June whether Article 2 of the NGO law -- which assigns the Court of First Instance, rather than the Administrative Court, the responsibility of arbitrating legal disputes -- is constitutional.
