Thursday, May 30, 2013

#NGOs Draft Law is Here

The Egyptian Presidency has released the NGOs draft Law to the public at Mohamed Morsi’s official Facebook Page today. Oh yes because it is an official and professional presidency , it publishes the 40 pages draft law in a photo album
Anyhow to help others , I downloaded the draft law and transferred in to a PDF. You can read the draft law after the break as a PDF.

There is controversy about this law as expected and Egyptian NGOs have expressed their rejection to the NGOs law. Many independent activists as well expressed their refusal.
I am currently in a hurry so I will quote the objections of Heba Morayef , the human rights watch Egypt director which she stated on her official twitter account.
According to Morayef the draft law , specifically article No.14 allows government to object the Egyptian NGOs fundraising domestically as well to object any internal decision taken by the NGOs without any restriction according to article No.18.
She also added that according to articles 12 and 72 any NGO or club joins a foreign club or association or NGO or organization without informing the Coordinating Committee for the NGOs will be either suspended or disbanded.
One of the biggest points she raised also was the foreign funding. The law amazingly approves the foreign funding from individuals and NGOs inside and outside Egypt but it does not allow foreign governmental and inter-governmental funding to the NGOs.
Already you can read the human rights watch's report about the draft law here. 
The coordinating commission of NGOs is a new authority made by the government to supervise the NGOs and its location will be in Cairo. Of course activists outside Cairo are annoyed from this because centralization has already been killing the civil society in Egypt.
The law is heading to the Shura council and based on past experience , we should expect the worst from it. 

4 comments:

  1. I fully support and all measures that will prevent American taxpayer money from being wasted in Egypt.

    As for what you want, Zeinobia, do you have any evidence NGOs have accomplished anything of note these last two years while operating under the old rules? Have they accomplished anything of note in the years before Mubarak stepped down? I can't think of anything they've done that I'd want to sign my name too, but maybe you're different and you can think of many things NGOs have accomplished that make you proud?

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    Replies
    1. As far as I know NGO's used to teach illiterate people how to read and write. They also gave many rural villages access to clean water. Something I don't see the Morsi administration doing and also something I didn't see Mubarak do. NGO's also managed to educate people how to treat their animals (Something we barely hear in any mosques)and the vets healed the animals when necessary.

      This was all done with funding from foreign countries.

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    2. Medsha, that's what they said they were doing but where is the proof of success? I've seen some real horror stories about every one of the matters you mention. Recently. Were things really so much worse before the NGOs showed up and started spending other people's money? To be honest I can hardly see how they could have been. Egypt as it is now is about as bad as it gets. The only thing worse is "failed state". And morsi is going to show the world what that looks like too, by the time he's done. But based on results there's nothing the NGOs could or would do about that, anyway. Best for the international community to spend money in countries where it may actually do some good.

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    3. @Anonymous5/30/2013 11:33:00 PM

      Right. But another consideration is whether the education, even if it effective, is of any benefit to the Americans who pay for it. Why should we pay to make anti-American jihadists more literate?

      Delete

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