Criticism of protest law continues

The interim president must not sign off on a protest law that will severely curtail citizens’ freedom of assembly, seventeen NGOs said today.

The NGOs say that the law regulating protests, approved by the Cabinet on October 9, is an even more oppressive incarnation of the draft law that the Muslim Brotherhood tried and failed to pass in April 2013. At the time, the draft law was subject to widespread criticism from local and international rights groups.

The law gives security bodies the right to attend seminars organized by political parties, research centers and NGOs and to break them up if they extend beyond the time stated in advance by the organizers. It also grants them the power to use rubber bullets against protesters for infractions such as chants that could be considered defamatory.

The draft also imposes a three-year prison penalty on protesters who wear a mask during a protest with the intention of concealing their identity.

“The new draft not only imposes oppressive restrictions on the right to protest. It also imposes other restrictions on the right to general assembly, strike and organize marches. In so doing it is imposing absolute and suffocating chains on…all forms of peaceful gatherings — one of the most important rights that thousands of victims claimed with their blood under Mubarak, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the Muslim Brotherhood,” the statement reads.

The NGOs express their astonishment that ministers who obtained their positions as a direct result of Egyptians exercising their right to peaceful assembly now regard the right as an evil that must be banned.

Criticism has also come from political quarters. Tamarod spokesperson Mai Wahba says that the group rejects the law because, “it is a coup against the January 25 and June 30 revolutions” while the youth branch of Amr Moussa’s Conference Party has called on political parties to protest against the law outside the Cabinet office until it is withdrawn.

On Monday the National Defense Council headed by President Adly Mansour convened to discuss the law and the general security situation in Egypt.

In a statement issued after the meeting the Council said that the state is committed to guaranteeing rights and freedoms and especially the peaceful expression of opinion. It also pledges to reestablish order in the streets so as to ensure that citizens’ lives are not disrupted and will fight terrorism and violations of the law within the legal framework.

The statement says that the law will be the subject of a public dialogue for one week.

In a Facebook statement Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Bahaa Eddin describes a meeting that took place on Monday discussing the law, convened by the governmental Committee to Protect the Revolutionary Course and attended by political party and NGO representatives.

Known to be a reformist figure within the Cabinet, Bahaa Eddin says that in addition to criticizing the repressive nature of the legislation, there was consensus amongst committee members that the timing of the law is inappropriate given the absence of an elected legislative body. Attendees at the meeting agreed that the law should not be passed until parliament is elected in line with the roadmap put in place after June 30.

The committee also stated that a law regulating protests should be issued within a comprehensive framework to realize transitional justice including overhauling the police and training policemen on how to deal with protesters appropriately.

Dostour Party head Sayyed Al-Masry meanwhile said in a statement published today that the draft in its current form is unacceptable and requires fundamental changes. Masry cited the seven-day notice that protest organizers must give as “strange” and “without precedent in any legislation in any part of the world. Other laws require notice of only 24 hours.”

Masry was also critical of the way that the draft holds all protesters responsible for the actions of a minority and that it allows the police to cancel a protest purely on the basis of its impression of protesters' intentions.