Matters of permission
Yesterday was the deadline for the registration of NGOs. Mariz Tadros wonders what's in store for civil society
The six-month grace period for the re- registration of NGOs with the Ministry of Social Affairs required under Law 84, issued in 2002, expired yesterday. Time, then, is up for NGOs seeking the legal recognition necessary to avoid liquidation.
The new NGO law replaced Law 153 of 1999, consigned to the legal dustbin when the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled it unconstitutional. Many human rights, advocacy and development organisations lobbied for a more progressive NGO law and were disappointed when Law 84 was issued, arguing that it was just as restrictive as previous laws.
Human rights activists argue that even though executive regulations clarified some of the articles in the law they still remain ambiguous enough to allow the ministry pretexts to clamp down on civil activity. Objections have been voiced over Article 55 of the executive regulations which prohibits NGOs from joining a network without prior permission from the ministry, and over the conditions of registration and liquidation. Activists argue that registration should be by public notification rather than prior permission from the ministry and that liquidation should be by court order not ministerial decree.
Ibrahim El-Toukhy, head of the central department for NGOs at the Ministry of Social Affairs, told Al-Ahram Weekly that no NGO would be liquidated for failing to meet the 4 June deadline.
"Failure of an NGO to register by the set period is not one of the conditions under which the ministry can liquidate an NGO. If an NGO has not registered by the set date the ministry may take certain procedural measures against it, including dissolving its board or temporarily freezing its activities, but each NGO's case will be examined separately," he said.
According to Amina El-Guindy, the minister of Social Affairs, by last week 10,000 NGOs had applied for re- registration. But, says El-Toukhy, "we expect many more NGOs to apply this month. Most leave it to the last minute, and we expect a big leap in applications."
It is however, estimated that half the NGOs are inactive and exist only on paper.
El-Toukhy was keen to emphasise the government's commitment to boosting the role of NGOs, building their capacity and giving them the necessary space to work.
"The old law gave the ministry sweeping powers of intervention. This is no longer the case and the new law recognises the important role NGOs play in development. We support and guide them, that is our role, no more and no less. We believe we have organisations capable of working on their own. The old law treated them as minors in need of supervision."
Many activists, though, believe there is ample evidence to suggest that the government intends to interfere in the activities of NGOs and impose itself in the civil sector. Aida Seif El-Dawla, a professor of psychiatry and human rights activist who has long lobbied for a less restrictive NGO law pointed to recent objections by the security authorities to the nomination of Safaa Murad to the board of the Arab Women Alliance Association. Under Law 84 re-registering NGOs must hold new elections for board members. The list of candidates, though, must be approved by the ministry before elections are held. The nomination of Murad, elected as a board member of AWAA in 1997 and re-elected ever since, has been vetoed by the ministry for security reasons. Murad is a feminist lawyer and human rights activist who campaigned against the US war on Iraq. Her exclusion from the elections, says Seif El-Dawla, "confirms our fears that the law will be applied oppressively".
Human rights organisations, many registered as non-profit civil companies, complain of unnecessary complications in registering. Although El-Toukhy says that "all human rights organisations that apply for registration will be accepted", NGO workers point out that the process has been far from smooth.
Despite the fact that Law 84 allows NGOs to engage in more than one field all new NGOs (including those in the field of human rights) are effectively restricted to working in a single area. For example, points out Hafez Abu Se'da, secretary-general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR), an NGO cannot work in the fields of human rights and education or health. It has to choose only one area.
While El-Toukhy claims that the ministry is obliged to reply to any application for registration within 60 days Abu Se'da says "they won't give you the receipt until all the conditions necessary for application, from their view, are met." And that includes the go-ahead from state security. One citizen, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it had been more than three months since the submission of the application for registration.
The ministry, says El-Toukhy, has seen an increase in applications for foundations which, though regulated by Law 84, are less susceptible to government intervention, especially vis-à-vis board elections, than civic associations.
While all of Egypt's human rights organisations have applied for registration under the new law this does not, says Seif El-Dawla, "signify acquiescence... nobody is defending [the law] but we all have to work under it, until we can have it replaced".
Human rights lawyers are hoping to challenge the constitutionality of the law through the Sumpreme Constitutional Court.
Abu Se'da concedes that although the EOHR's application has been informally accepted he remains anxious over the space within which NGOs will be allowed to operate.
"If we are facing all these problems at this first stage of registration, what will it be like when we actually start working and have to apply for permission for funding and so on?"
