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I. Summary

The government of Egypt has severely restricted freedom of association for more than four decades. Although the Egyptian constitution protects the right to freedom of association, the government has used a complex set of interlocking laws, decrees, and emergency powers to stifle the exercise that right. The ability to establish political parties and independent trade unions, for instance, is highly controlled. Although talk of reform has gained pace since the end of the 1990s, at the time of writing few tangible steps had taken place.

These restrictions have stunted Egypt’s civil society. Egyptian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have long been burdened by cumbersome laws, an often hostile and inefficient government bureaucracy, and frequent interference by the security forces.¹ Nevertheless, NGOs in Egypt have grown in number, scope of activities and impact.²

In June 2003, after forty years of suffocating NGO regulation, a new associations law (Law 84/2002) entered into force. This report discusses the new law’s impact on NGOs. It also examines other key barriers to the formation, work, and accountability of Egyptian civil society groups, based on documentation of the difficulties experienced by some thirty groups working in areas ranging from environmental awareness, adult literacy, women’s empowerment, support services for child laborers, to human rights advocacy and research.

In some ways, Law 84/2002 is an improvement on the previous NGO law. Yet its provisions—and even more strikingly, the broad and arbitrary way in which it is applied—violate Egypt’s international legal obligations to uphold freedom of association. It prohibits political and union-related activity, and allows NGOs to be dissolved by administrative order. It continues a host of intrusive administrative practices that restrict the natural development of civil society organizing activities and provides ample means for political or bureaucratic interference. It entrenches a system in which NGOs are treated as the children of a paternalistic government.

Perhaps the most serious barriers to meaningful freedom of association in Egypt lie outside of Law 84/2002. The first is the role of the powerful security services, which routinely review and reject NGO registrations and scrutinize their leaders, activities, and funding. This role has no legal basis in the associations law. When pressed, these security agencies justify their decisions according to grossly disproportionate interpretations of “public order.” The second is the network of interlocking laws, decrees, and restrictions that inhibit the exercise of meaningful political life in Egypt outside of government-approved margins and allow the Ministry of Insurance and Social Affairs (MISA) to reject, dissolve, or harass any organization that the government holds in disfavor. Egyptian civil society and Egyptian courts repeatedly attempt to widen those margins; the government and security forces strive to hold them back.³

When governments restrict people’s ability to speak, meet, and work together, they are wasting a vital source of energy, innovation, and ideas. If people cannot form, run, and fund civil society organizations, then there is little chance of a functioning democracy or equitable, sustainable development.⁴ Government attitudes and regulation have to help – not hinder – ordinary people to form groups, raise money, and work for the benefit of their fellow citizens.

NGOs should be accountable to funders, clients, and the wider public they serve. Governments do have an interest in ensuring that local laws and standards are met, including ensuring that for-profit ventures do not claim the financial benefits of NGO status. There is, however, a difference between well-designed, transparent accountability mechanisms, and excessive state powers that police and stifle the work, goals, and leadership of civil society organizations. Egypt’s laws fall squarely into the latter category.