Is Egypt following in Ethiopia’s footsteps?

 by OrchidAdmin 

As early as next week, a law may be passed in Egypt to force international NGOs to obtain authorisation from a committee on almost all aspects of their projects. The draft law may obstruct groups from promoting and protecting human rights.

In February 2009, the Ethiopian Government endorsed one of the most controversial NGO laws in the world – the Proclamation to Provide for the Registration and Regulation of Charities and Societies (CSP). Among other things the law restricts NGOS that receive more than 10% of their financing from foreign sources from engaging in all human rights and advocacy activities in Ethiopia.

This law has put in place a series of barriers making it easy to deny registration of any charity or society deemed to be used for unlawful purposes relating to peace, welfare or good order in Ethiopia. In essence the law restricts participation in activities that include the advancement of human and democratic rights, the promotion of equality of nations and nationalities and peoples, and that of gender and religion. The restriction on NGOs resources could effectively silence civil society in Ethiopia and extinguish their right to expression. What’s more, this restriction could force the closure of many Human Rights organisations particularly as local sources of funding are limited, therefore increasing NGO’s dependence on international funding[1].

Since the CSP law was passed, the vast majority of independent NGOs working on human rights issues in Ethiopia have been forced to discontinue their work. In 2012 alone, Ethiopia’s Charities and Societies Agency (CSoA) shut down 10 NGOs under the CSP law. They also issued a warning to over 400 organisations thought to be operating against the rules and regulations of the country.[2]

A local women’s education programme run by KMG in Ethiopia

Foreign funding in Egypt has already been cut to women’s rights groups, which has been said to be suffocating the activities of NGOs. In addition to international NGOs needing to obtain authorisation, under possible new legislation local groups would also need to seek permission to receive funding from foreign sources. A number of local NGOs are currently working to address the issue of FGC, conducting community visits to attempt to persuade mothers not to cut their daughters.

This could mean a huge implication for the fight to end FGC, already an uphill struggle in Egypt (see previous post here http://orchidproject.org/2012/02/female-genital-cutting-in-egypt/) because the president and most of the country’s parliamentarians are members of the Muslim Brotherhood who have previously opposed a complete ban on FGC on grounds that Islam does not forbid FCG. If this law were to go through, few NGOs, whether international or local, would be allowed to work explicitly on FCG. This would be extremely detrimental to women’s rights which should arguably be the focus of organisations; Egypt was ranked 125 out of 134 countries in terms of gender equality and has an estimated prevalence of 91.1% FGC amongst women aged 15-49. http://orchidproject.org/2013/04/is-egypt-following-in-ethiopias-footsteps/