NGO claims security canceled event with parliamentary candidates in Mansoura

A panel discussion with parliamentary candidates was cancelled by National Security on Monday, the NGO organizing it claimed.

The Egyptian Center for Public Policy Studies (ECPPS) planned the conference in Daqahlia, a northern city in Mansoura, to inform candidates and future parliamentarians about the current NGO law and crackdown on civil society.

Organizers had also hoped to gain support for a draft NGO law prepared by 57 civil society organizations.

The center’s media spokesperson Hend Shahin explained to Mada Masr that the workshop was held in several other governorates, including Cairo, Alexandria and Minya, and was cancelled twice in Mansoura.

The workshop was first scheduled for October 6, but the hotel where it was due to be held informed organizers the night before that security had cancelled the event, according to Shahin. On Monday, a security source also informed organizers that the workshop could not go ahead.

“A delegation from ECPPS is heading to Mansoura to see what can be done. We were not addressed officially by security, which is even more troubling. There is an entity that is watching and monitoring us and we cannot see it,” Shahin added in the statement by the organization, which also described the move to cancel the event as “illegal’ and “oppressive.”

“If National Security prevents candidates from discussing laws and public policies, how will it deal with the parliament itself, or even the people? These irresponsible acts cannot continue. They have to stop this defective vision that stops a small number of people from discussing a law and a public topic in a public place,” the center’s researcher in individual freedoms Bassam Bahgat said in the statement.

A crackdown on civil society followed the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. The work of NGOs was further restricted in July 2014, when the Social Solidarity Ministry issued an ultimatum to civil society organizations to legalize their operations or face ramifications.

This move provoked criticism from local and international organizations, such as Amnesty International, who lambasted the government for its controversial NGO law, which the rights group said restricts the formation, funding and association of organizations and gives the state the power to pursue legal action against them if desired.

This crackdown pushed many civil society organizations, especially those working in the human rights field, to reconsider their activities in Egypt. Activities stalled, some organizations shut down, some relocated to other countries and others downsized their operations.

Among them, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies relocated outside Egypt and the Hisham Mubarak Law Center was threatened with a judicial investigation.

Other organizations were reportedly banned from registering under the NGO law. In January, the Foundation of Victims of Abduction and Forced Disappearances was prevented from officially registering as a human rights NGO with the ministry, due to failure to obtain adequate “security clearances.”

Other registered NGOs were not able to process funds for their programs after security interventions, such as Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights, for whom security refused to approve funds for a public policy initiative.