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| Africa North |
| Inside Egypt's Shura Council, new NGO law brings controversy |
| 2013-03-27 |
| [Al Ahram] The Islamist-led Shura Council (the upper house of Egypt's parliament, currently endowed with legislative powers) on Sunday gave preliminary approval -- by a hefty majority and with surprising speed -- to new legislation governing the activities of non-governmental organizations operating in Egypt. The draft law was presented as an alternative to Law 84 of 2002, which makes Egypt's social affairs ministry responsible for licensing NGOs. On Sunday, the law -- drafted by the council's human development committee -- was rammed through the council in only one hour. Committee chairman Abdel-Azim Mahmoud, a leading member of the Moslem Brüderbund's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), explained that the committee "decided to take the initiative and submit a new NGO law because the government has so far failed to draft one of its own." The FJP's Essam El-Erian, Shura Council front man, stated on Sunday that the new NGO law "was drafted by FJP MPs in their capacity as MPs authorised to propose legislation in the Shura Council." El-Erian rejected the government's argument that council members were not entitled by Article 101 of Egypt's constitution to propose laws. "The new constitution gives Shura members full legislative powers; we are not here simply to rubber-stamp laws from the government," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |