Arab Laws Reform

More than 150 NGOs representing 14 provinces in the northern and southern provinces of Egypt, government representatives from the ministry of solidarity in Cairo and in the different provinces, representatives of the General Union of Voluntary Societies gathered on 23/11/2008 in a seminar organized by EOHR. The seminar “Egypt towards a new NGO law” was organized in cooperation with FNF and with the support of the EU and aimed at reaching agreement on the new proposed law drafted by a coalition of NGOs led by EOHR to be submitted to the parliament, the ministry of solidarity and to the President of the State, Husni Mubarak.

The Use of Advocacy

The adoption of the much-debated NGO law and its endorsement by the King of Jordan left international organizations pondering on the use of advocacy in the first place. The whole episode was so paradoxical that they had to engage in such hairsplitting issues as whether the 'new' law, replacing that of 1966, did in fact contain some "tiny improvements" on some specific issues. Soaring into finer casuistry, they even deliberated about the arcane issue of whether it created "a new crisis" or was "just imposing more control on the freedom of association in Jordan". One wonders whether agreeing that it is not a new crisis or that simply imposing more control is to be considered good news by any international yardstick.

Tug of war

After a long tug of war that lasted since early 2008, between local and foreign NGO's on one side, and Jordanian authorities on the other, the Parliament and the Senate endorsed the contentious new NGO law. As follow-on to the national conference held on March 24, 2008, and as an ultimate move to amend it, eight foreign organizations operating in Jordan held a meeting on July 13, 2008 to discuss the new law at FNF premises.

Nine MPs were invited to share with civil society their concern regarding the draft NGO law presented to the parliament in its extraordinary session in a meeting prepared by the National Centre for Human Rights in cooperation with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty. Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) say that the new draft law violates the Jordanian constitution, the rights to association and assembly and international law which only allows for restrictions on these rights in narrow circumstances that are “necessary in a democratic society”.  These points were also reiterated in the opening address of Dr. Ali al-Dabbas, assistant to the commissioner, National Centre for Human Rights (NCHR)