Human rights groups are waiting impatiently for two new legislations the government said it would release soon to organise the right to assemble peacefully, and to combat terrorism, fearing they would include many restrictions that contradict their long standing demands for more freedoms. Many also fear that the five-month confrontation between police and the Muslim Brotherhood will allow the security bodies to demand greater restrictions rather than an expansion of public freedoms. A draft of the law on demonstrations and peaceful protests released last month by Prime Minister Hazem Al-Beblawi's cabinet sent shockwaves throughout human rights organisations and political parties. They described the draft as an attempt to prohibit demonstrations rather than set regulations that would guarantee peaceful protests. The draft obliged anyone seeking to organise a demonstration to secure a permit from the Interior Ministry a week in advance. The ministry was given the right to refuse permission without a court order. The draft also banned sit-ins and road blockages, specifying harsh penalties for violators that included up to 10 years imprisonment and allowed security forces to use lethal force in dispersing any such gatherings. The draft allowed governors and police chiefs to set exclusion zones — of between 100-300 metres from any legislative bodies, government ministries, army installations, courts, diplomatic missions, museums, police stations, prisons, hospitals and airports — where protests could not take place. “We would only be allowed to go demonstrate in the middle of the desert,” said Taher Abul-Nasr, a lawyer at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, during a panel discussion held on Monday. Opposition to the draft forced Al-Beblawi to agree to reopen discussions on the law. He assigned his deputy, Ziad Bahaaeddin, to hold consultations. The State Council, which reviews draft laws proposed by the government to make sure they are consistent with the constitution, handed the cabinet a new draft after listening to the concerns of those opposed to the earlier copy. The new draft has not been made public. As the 14 November deadline to end the state of emergency approached, the prime minister said he had handed a new draft to the interim president for ratification. Security bodies have been pressing hard for laws to regulate demonstrations and combat terrorism, arguing they are crucial to confronting “the current wave of terror” in the absence of emergency laws. The Interim Constitutional Declaration announced on 8 July, following the removal of Mohamed Morsi, that any extension of the emergency law beyond three months requires approval by public referendum. “We have not seen the final draft sent to the president which is a cause for worry,” said Abul-Nasr. “Neither have we seen a final draft of the so-called anti-terrorism law. We have two copies, one proposed by the Interior Ministry and a second by the Justice Ministry, and we don't know which one will be issued by the president.” Lawyers and human rights activists have long maintained that there is no need for new legislations to regulate protests or fight terrorism. “We have a jungle of legislation that's more than 100 years old, and more than enough to confront any crime or violation,” says Ahmed Seif, a veteran human rights lawyer at Hisham Mubarak Law Centre. “It would be much wiser to wait for an elected body to issue legislation rather than allow controversial laws to be issued by the interim president.” “The recent drafts on demonstrations and terrorism were clearly written by the same old security establishment that's been in control of the country for 60 years, leading many to believe that nothing has changed despite two revolutions demanding more freedom and social justice.” More worrying, Seif says, is that the two drafts “suggest the government has no intention of respecting the constitution that's currently being drafted by a 50-member committee”, and which is due to be put to a public referendum by the end of December or early January. Under former president Hosni Mubarak, who stayed in power for three decades and was ousted on 11 February 2011 following a popular revolution, the constitution was simply ignored or else pressure was placed on the Constitutional Court not to rule on cases contesting oppressive measures, namely military courts for civilians and the emergency law. “Only after the 25 January Revolution did the Constitutional Court rule that the expanded arrest and search rights granted to police under 30 years of Emergency Law were unconstitutional,” Seif said. What's needed, according to human rights activists, is to refrain from issuing new legislation while a new, amended constitution is being drafted and there is no parliament in office. “One key task ahead of us that could take up to 10 years is to review the 70,000 laws on the statute book to make sure they comply with the new constitution,” says Seif. “Yet instead the cabinet is issuing new laws that we know in advance will violate the constitution to satisfy security bodies. It is the same old Mubarak tactic of issuing laws full of loopholes, and then wait for some lawyer to contest them in front of the Constitutional Court, which usually takes years.”
