On June 4, 2013, a Cairo court sentenced 43 people to prison for working at unregistered non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Egypt and receiving illegal foreign funding. The verdict was denounced several top officialsincluding Secretary of State John Kerry who said the trial was “contrary to the universal principle of freedom of association.” The sentences were delivered on the same day that Egypt’s upper house of parliament began deliberating a draft law that Egyptian and international rights groups say will severely constrain the work of NGOs. The case continues global trend of restricting nonprofits and freedom of association and expression in the name of security, as noted in an April UN report.
The NGO workers were charged with working for organizations that operated illegally in Egypt and used foreign funding to create unrest in the wake of the country’s revolution. According to Ahram Online, the NGO staffers were accused of “conducting research, political training, surveys, and workshops without licenses, and training political parties and groups and giving them media support to generate electoral votes.” The NGOs deny the charges and say that Egyptian authorities knew about their activities.
The judgment comes as the Shura Council debates a NGO bill which if passed would impose severe restrictions on the registration and activities of civil society in Egypt and gives the government the power to restrict funding of organizations operating in the country. The law has been widely criticized by 40 prominent Egyptian human rights groups and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for violating the right to freedom of association.
Even before the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in 2011, Egyptian civil society operated in a restrictive environment. The country’s law governing NGOs activities was described by the International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law as“vague, arbitrary, and unnecessarily severe.” Egypt was also among only five countries in the world found to be fully compliant with the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) rules on nonprofit organizations following a review by the World Bank in May 2009. Critics of the FATF’s rules say they are being used by governments as an “instrument, to further cut back on the space of civil society…freedom to access and distribute financial resources for development, conflict resolution and human rights work.”
“If they pass the law in its current form,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy Middle East and North Africa program director at Amnesty International, “the Egyptian authorities would send a message that little has changed since the Mubarak era, which the authorities restricted independent human rights organizations to stop them from exposing abuses.”
The court also ordered the closure of five foreign NGOs operating in Egypt and for their funds to be confiscated. The groups are Freedom House, the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ), and Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS).
Five of the 43 NGO workers, including three Egyptians, an American and a German, were sentenced to two years in jail. Twenty-seven others were tried in absentia and received five-year jail terms. 11 other Egyptian NGO staffers received one-year suspended sentences.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and others prominent lawmakers released short statements after the decision to convict 43 NGOs workers was announced. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) said, in part, the verdict represented “the latest assault by the Egyptian government on civil society,” and “highlights legitimate concerns that the Morsi government’s proposed NGO law will erode fundamental democratic principles.” (Freedom House has collected almost 20 statements from members of Congress, the White House, and EU officials here.)
Kerry voiced concern over the sentences in a statement denouncing it as a “politically-motivated” trial. “The United States is deeply concerned by the guilty verdicts and sentences, including the suspended sentences, handed down by an Egyptian court today against 43 NGO representatives in what was a politically-motivated trial,” Kerry said.
“Civic groups and international NGOs play a legitimate role in any democracy and are critical to advancing freedoms… and acting as appropriate checks on the government,” he added.