CAIRO: Legislation governing the right of association in the majority of Arab and North African countries violates international standards governing the freedom of association, and must be amended. This was the message of the workshop organized by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights (CIHRS) and the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) on Sunday. Participants from Egypt and other countries in the Euro-Mediterranean region discussed a draft law on associations drawn up by Egyptian Cassation Court judge Hesham El-Bastawisi during the workshop. The Egyptian government is currently in the process of drafting amendments to the existing law on associations, Law 84 of 2002, which is strongly criticized by local and international rights groups as a tool used by the government to control and contain civil society activity and, in particular, the activity of human rights NGOs. The tight restrictions imposed under Law 84 have forced many Egyptian NGOs to register themselves as corporations. CIHRS' program director Moatez El-Fegeiry, who, together with a delegation from EMHRN met with government officials to discuss the amendments on Saturday, told Daily News Egypt that he fears the amendments may be aimed at extending government control to these corporations. "The government wants to send a reform message to the international community, but the changes it is considering are merely cosmetic, El-Fegiery said. "I fear that the government wants to target NGOs registered as non-profit corporations - like CIHRS - which are currently outside the scope of Law 84 with these amendments, he continued. Thibaut Guillet of EMHRN compared international standards on freedom of association with the situation in Egypt. "In Europe, freedom of association is a fundamental freedom and the Anglo-Saxon tradition does not see the necessity of registering associations - freedom of association lies in the freedom to form associations without the approval of the authorities as is the case in Denmark, whose constitution states that associations can be formed without prior notification, Guillet said. He compared this to the strict rules regarding association in Egypt, where tight restrictions imposed by Law 84 control the creation and recognition of associations. At the same time, members of non-declared associations risk imprisonment.Guillet recommended that the creation of an association in Egypt be through notification, rather than approval by a government body, as is the case in El-Bastawisi's draft law. Under existing legislation in Egypt, the Ministry of Social Solidarity may reject an application for the creation of an association on numerous grounds including where it deems that the aims of the proposed association run counter to national unity, law and order or public morality. While the draft law on associations retains a provision stating that "no objectives of the association may be in violation of the Constitution or contradict with public orders or morals, El-Bastawisi explained that this is not necessarily problematic where the article is interpreted and applied by courts according to judicial definitions of such provisions. The Ministry of Social Solidarity currently has the power to prevent the formation of an association through an administrative decision and, according to EMHRN's report on freedom of association in the Euro-Mediterranean region, can delay its response through the abuse of bureaucratic procedures using such methods as not providing the receipt supporting the date of submission of the application or by rejecting the name of the goals of association. This forces the association to start the application process from the beginning and wait a further 60 days (the time given to the Ministry of Social Solidarity to oppose the formation of an association). Even once recognized, Law 84 gives the Ministry of Social Solidarity extensive powers to interfere with and control NGO activity. The law authorizes the ministry to interfere with the association's members, funding and fund allocation, correspondence and bylaws and allows it to order the dissolution of an association. Nehad Aboul Qumsan of the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights said that a range of laws other than Law 84 are used to control NGO members including an article under the Environment Law under which NGO members can be imprisoned for throwing rubbish in the street. She said that it is easy for this law to be used to intimidate NGOs. El-Fegeiry pointed to counter-terrorism legislation whose vague provisions allow security bodies to misuse the law in order to stop an NGO's activity. On an informal level, NGOs face continued interference by security bodies. Tareq Khater, a lawyer with the Association for Human Rights Legal Aid which assists victims of torture and which was itself closed down last year following an administrative order by the authorities, illustrated this. "If a member of a security body comes to an NGO meeting and tries to attend, the organizers can prevent him because security bodies have no legal right to attend NGO meetings. "But if you stop them, there will be an 'X' next to the NGO and you'll know that sooner or later they'll take action against you, Khater explained.
