CAIRO: After the forcible shut down of two human rights organizations this year, rights activists say they are concerned by "official leaks and other indications that the People's Assembly will this winter consider changes to the laws governing non-governmental organizations. According to lawyers and activists from a number of the country's leading organizations, word on the street and in the halls of power is that parliament plans to tighten up the NGO law, further restricting the freedom with which advocacy groups operate. Under the current NGO law, passed in 2002, it is difficult for advocacy groups to be registered as non-governmental organizations. Despite these difficulties, many still pursue activist work as registered non-profit civil companies or law firms, which are considered legally distinct from NGOs. If a group does succeed in registering as such, they then fall under the government's watchful eye and can be quickly dissolved by decree from the governor of the governorate in which they are located. This is what happened to two organizations that were shut down earlier this year: the Association for Human Rights and Legal Aid (AHRLA) and the Center for Trade Union and Worker Services (CTUWS.) The government's proposed changes have been outlined in a briefing paper prepared by a special committee of the Ministry of Social Solidarity, which met in July at a retreat organized by the Friedrich Eibert Foundation in Ismailia. The report was leaked to local rights activists, who provided a copy to Daily News Egypt. According to Ahmed Seif, the director of the Hisham Mubarak Law Center, the government's proposed changes restrict the ability of civil companies to work on rights issues. They also seek to restrict number of activities an NGO can work on and the ability of organizations to work together without permission from the state. "The government wants to change Article 4 of the NGO law to put more restrictions on civil companies that work on human rights issues, says Seif. "They want the government to refuse to register any civil company that works in the same fields as NGOs registered under the NGO law. These changes threaten the future of both the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture, two prominent human rights organizations that are registered as civil companies. Soha Abdel Aty, the associate director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, agrees that proposed changes to Article 4 have the most potentially wide-reaching effect. "The major potential change that will be problematic for most NGOs now is that the new amendments will not allow civil companies to work on civil rights or social development, she says. "Only organizations registered as NGOs will be able to do that kind of work. Under current law, the Ministry of Social Solidarity has great supervisory powers over the make-up of an organization's board of directors, and can deny its registration if it objects to the people working for an NGO, says Abdel Aty. "The proposals give the government more grounds on which to dissolve NGOs, which will remain subject to an administrative decision, she says. After the closure of the CTUWS last March, 42 Egyptian non-governmental organizations began a campaign called "The Right to Associate, which has since become a vehicle for their concerns about the proposals. These issues may be debated in January. The Ministry of Social Solidarity asked rights groups for feedback on the proposed changes, and a group of lawyers lead by Negad El Borai of the United Group Law Firm spent the autumn meeting with Ministry officials and drawing up their own proposed amendments to the law. Among the items on the activists' legal wish list are clauses making it easier for organizations to be registered and receive foreign funds; transferring the power to dissolve NGOs from local governors to the nation's court system; and a commitment to democratic elections in the NGO Union, whose members are currently appointed by the government. El Borai says they think the Ministry's call for feedback from rights groups "is all just a [public relations] move. "They want to be able to say that they have been in touch with everyone and thought about everyone's opinion, he says. "I have no hope that they will actually listen or do anything with what people tell them. The proposed changes come after a year of government crackdown on opposition groups and independent media, in addition to the shutdown of the CTUWS and AHRLA. More than 1,000 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition group, have been detained over the last 12 months, and 40 of the group's leaders are currently standing trial before a military court. Since August, a number of journalists and editors from independent and opposition newspapers, including Al-Wafd and Al-Dostour, have also been handed prison sentences for reporting seen as offensive or detrimental to the government, the president or his family. "The regime knows that many people in the opposition are against them and against this law, but they also know that their most effective opponents are the country's non-government organizations and the independent press, says El Borai. "They want to put all of these people under a lot of pressure, and want to put NGOs under the heavy hand of the Ministry. "They are afraid that we will try to open the margins of freedom more, like in the past, and this is something that is no longer allowed, he adds. "They want to put us all back to the very small space we were in before. Activists say the government's crackdown on the opposition shows no sign of stopping, and despite the lip service it has paid to public relations by inviting them to discuss the proposed changes, many say they are worried for the future. Not only do they feel like the proposed changes could endanger the legal foundations of individual NGOs, but it could also pose a threat to human rights activism in Egypt as a whole. "This is a very restrictive environment to be working in, and it is getting more difficult, says Abdel Aty. "If you want to make an assessment based on what has been happening this year, then the future does not look good. It looks like the crackdown will continue. El Borai says he remains cautiously optimistic, although he thinks the threat of future instability is the basic problem facing Egypt. "I don't know if I am optimistic about the future or not, but one must keep trying to make things better, he says. "Egypt is in a very serious transition period right now, he added, citing the question of succession as one of the key concerns. "I think this is at the heart of the legal changes that we are seeing now, and it all creates a very complicated situation for Egypt.
