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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 August 2000 Issue No. 495 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 August 2000 Issue No. 495
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters EOHR self-destructs?
By Amira HoweidyThe oldest and most respected rights group in the country, the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR), has shut down voluntarily. In the words of one of its frustrated employees, "The organisation did to itself what the security bodies have failed to do for the past 15 years." As a result, the 22 employees of the Cairo head office are, in practical terms, out of work.
A case in point is Sayed Awad, head of the EOHR's publishing unit, who received the news from an unexpected source. "We went to the office as we do everyday to find the door locked. It was the porter who informed us," Awad told Al-Ahram Weekly.
It is well known that the EOHR is in the grips of a major financial crisis. Nor is it news that the entire human rights movement has been weakened by government pressure and laws which human rights groups view as restrictive. However, this move by the EOHR is unprecedented and thus has come as a complete shock.
The decision to shut down the EOHR's Cairo head office in Manial followed a meeting by the organisation's newly-formed board of trustees two weeks ago. The meeting was held to discuss what the EOHR should do in response to the refusal of the Social Affairs Ministry to register the organisation under Law 153 of 1999. In a statement released following that meeting, the EOHR said that its board decided to stop accepting foreign funding and as a result it will shut down its branches across the nation and confine itself to the Cairo headquarters. It also thanked those "willing to do voluntary work."
However, as it turned out, the Cairo head office was shut down as well. Employees, who have been working for the past two months without pay, hence voluntarily, will now need to submit applications to the board in order to be officially accepted as "volunteer" workers. Awad complained, "this is absurd, we're not getting any money anyway, and we're prepared to do volunteer work until the financial problems are resolved. Yet, we find ourselves in the unusual position of actually applying for this kind of work."
"Any problems facing the EOHR also confront the other rights groups in this country and we don't see any of them shutting down their offices, refraining from paying their employees or preferring those who are prepared to work for free," he added.
The obvious question he and other employees at the EOHR are asking is why the organisation's secretary-general does not withdraw money from the EOHR's bank account. "If it's because they're afraid that they will be subject to the military decree which prohibits receiving foreign funding without notifying the authorities, then why doesn't the entire human rights movement, which survives on such funding, make a collective decision to stop receiving foreign money?" asked one employee.
EOHR's Secretary-General Hafez Abu Se'da was arrested briefly at the end of 1998 and charged with receiving money from a foreign party without notifying the authorities. This charge referred to a cheque he received from the British Embassy to finance a women's legal aid programme at the EOHR. The event shocked rights groups. It was viewed as a signal marking the start of a crackdown and, indeed, afterwards a systematic media and press campaign against foreign funding followed.
Although the organisation continued to receive foreign funding after Abu Se'da was released, it stopped doing so after the case was suddenly revived earlier this year while he was on a business trip in Paris. The case file, however, was later closed.
The EOHR has been fighting a legal battle since 1990 to register as an NGO under Law 32 of 1962. In May, it reapplied for a licence under Law 153 of 1999. All the papers necessary for registration were submitted. According to Law 153, the Social Affairs Ministry must respond within 60 days from the date it received the papers or else the application would automatically be considered as accepted. Thus, when the EOHR received no response, it assumed it had been registered -- especially after Social Affairs Ministry officials promised them a licence and even provided them with a registration number. Later, the EOHR was deeply disappointed by the news that the ministry had actually decided against granting the EOHR a licence "at the request of security authorities."
A statement issued by the "faithful employees of the EOHR" earlier this week accused Abu Se'da of striking a deal with the government to "downgrade and paralyse the activities of the organisation." Employees also took issue with "flagrant double standards." They noted, "the fact that five members of the [EOHR] board of trustees are directors of other rights groups which continue to function normally and yet they have created unnecessary problems for the EOHR."
Abu Se'da, however, categorically disagrees. "What am I supposed to do? Draw money from the bank and thus completely destroy the organisation?" he asked. He added that shutting down the headquarters is a "temporary measure until we find a cheap apartment to rent that is within our financial means." He shrugged off the accusation that he had forged a deal with the government. "I can't imagine what sort of deal they're talking about? Are they referring to our application to register?" he wondered.
According to a human rights activist and a former member of the EOHR, what has happened is the "bitter harvest of years and years of mismanagement." "Why is the question of legality so shattering now?" he asked. The organisation, he argued, has been working outside legality since its first application for a licence was rejected in 1991. Yet, for several years, the EOHR worked with very little funding, depending greatly on voluntary work. "These were the most vibrant years in the history of the organisation," he added. "When foreign funding was proposed in the early 1990s, it was to meet very basic needs and was not intended to transform the EOHR into an organisation of paid employees."
Related stories:
Destitute but determined 3 - 9 August 2000
Rights at a crossroads 18 - 24 May 2000
Old cheque bounces back 17 - 23 February 2000Related sites:
The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights
