Egypt: CSOs at Risk of Closure

Amnesty International (AI) has called on the authorities in Egypt to immediately retract their threat to dissolve unregistered non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the country.

Development Diaries reports that independent civil society groups may be forced to shut down in the country, further limiting the space for civic engagement and human rights activism.

It is understood that the deadline for NGOs to register under the repressive 2019 NGO law has expired.

Egypt’s Minister of Social Solidarity, Nevine al-Kabaj, had said NGOs that have not registered under the 2019 NGO law by 12 April, 2023, risk being dissolved.

‘With the long-awaited “National Dialogue” with the opposition due to begin on 03 May, the authorities should immediately retract their threat to dissolve unregistered NGOs’, AI’s Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Philip Luther, said in a statement.

‘Instead, authorities should work with NGOs on establishing a legal framework that enables them to carry out their vital work without fear of reprisals and meets Egypt’s international obligations to uphold the right to freedom of association’.

The 2019 NGO law gives the authorities overbroad powers to oversee the registration, activities, funding and dissolution of NGOs.

It also restricts the activities of NGOs by limiting their work to societal development.

Freedom House, in its Freedom in the World 2023 report, ranked Egypt as ‘not free’, with the country scoring 18 out of 100 possible points.

Development Diaries calls on the Egyptian authorities to respect the various international human rights treaties to which it is a signatory and revoke laws that suppress human rights in the country.

Photo source: Getty Images

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