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| عربي | تجمع المنظمات المصرية لحقوق الإنسان | |
| Aswan governor's decision Violates "state of law" principles The Egyptian Human Rights Organizations' Collective (EHROC) received with deeply concern Aswan governor decree No 264 of 2004 which deposed the Board of Trustees of one of its membership: Health and Environment Development Foundation (HEDF), Redisia- Adfo Aswan. This decree based on the reasons clarified in the 23 Oct 04 memorandum prepared by the Aswan-based Social Affairs Directorate. The decree also included in its article 2 the appointment of another 3-member board trustees, all of whom are education staff. EHROC concern has been raised due to the indications of this decree, which reveal the actual government's manner towards NGOs especially in regard to their independence from the hegemony of the executive power and especially from its security branch on one hand. On the second hand these indications also uncover to what extend the executive power comply with the law. Finally we are deeply concerned that this decree may be a landmark in converting the local administrative system to private sector in the hands of governorates incumbents with lack of state of law. The doctrine of state of law includes two principles together : 1) the administration's manners do not violate the law. 2) Its work must be based on a legal rule to ensure legitimacy. Both principles had been breached by the decree. EHROC after considering all documents available related to this decree has concluded the following results:
It vests the administrative body with broad powers to control the different phases of the existence and the life of any NGO from registration phase which must be approved by security forces to establish licensing requirements that must be satisfied before any NGO can exercise its activities such as a prior license to obtaining external funding, joining networks or creating federations, ended by the chose of board of directors and trustees, since the administrative body has the right to refuse any candidate, or appointee for board of directors and trustees as will as the right to refuse any founder of NGO. Furthermore, the law vests the administrative body to decide upon the dissolution of an NGO or discharging the board of directors/ trustees by administrative decrees. Usually these decrees can justified by mock violations Moreover the dissolution of any NGO, discharging its board of directors/ trustees, or halting its activity can be applicable immediately and directly. Since the government refused absolutely to put these issues in the hand of the court. 2. This decree with its dual parts obviously revealed the government's contempt of NGOs law itself. As article 60 of NGOs law herein requires that the foundation's board of trustees shall be determined by the founder or according to its statute and that the administrative body has the right to appoint the board only when the statute can not be applied. In this regard the clause No.16 of HEDF statute is applicable as well as the founder is still alive and wants to exercise her competences according to the law and the Foundation's statute. The dual parts decree - removing the existing board and appointing new one without intervals to prove that HEDF statute can not be applied - expose that Aswan governor has controlled by his desire to discharge the board regardless the rules of NGOs law. 3. The governor's decree had exceeded the powers authorized to him by the ministerial decree No.22/02 in which the governors are entitled to the minister's competences exclusively set out in articles 20, 40, 42, 51, 52 53, 62, and 63 of NGOs law. All these articles do not include any provision concerning the right to appoint new board. Surprisingly, the decree was based on article 8 of the executive regulations no. 707/79 of local administration law no. 43/79, which authorizes the governors to apply the law No.32/64. Anyway, this law had been reversed by the law No.84/02. 4. HEDF has been vulnerable to all kinds of governmental interference: · The administrative body took 5 months to decide upon the HEDF's request to have license to obtain external funding. In the course of this period the HEDF's activity has been paused because of the government's delay to decide upon the issue on one hand. On the other hand the law obliges NGO to obtain prior license to obtaining external funding and prohibits using funds before prior authorization. Although, they were all reasons beyond the will of HEDF, anyway, the low performance of the HEDF as a consequence of this postponement was used as a pretext to dismiss the board of trustees. · HEDF has been liable to all sorts of police interference in regard to funding as well as raising objection to the membership of Dr. Hisham Abdelah, chairman of board trustees in the economic quantitative federation, which founded with the participation of HEDF. 5. This decree was based on a report prepared by Social Affairs Directorate that included specified financial matters. HDEF assured that these matters were false one used to justify a pre-decision taken to dismiss the board of trustees. Needless to say, it is a controversial issue, which may be right or wrong and in this case the situation requires an independent and impartial body (justice) and not one of the disputed parties. EHROC assures that the levels of the required democratic political reform are all indivisible, comprehensive and integrated. So the independence of NGOs from governmental interference lies in the core of the items of reform as important item which integrated with others items . Expressing its appreciation for the continuous efforts and solidarity shown recently, EHROC calls for its entire members as well as the Egyptian, Arab and international civil society for supporting once more HEDF and to send condemnations to Aswan governor, the Minister of Social Affairs, premier, the president of the republic and Egyptian embassies. EHROC Please send your protests to the following addresses and a copy to info@hregypt.net: Egyptian President: Fax: +202 390 1998, Email: webmaster@presidency.gov.eg Council of Ministers Fax: +202 795 8016, +202 795 8029, +202 795 8048 Ministry of Cabinet Affairs Fax: +202 794 2613 People`s Assembly Fax: +202 795 5117 The National Council of Human Rights Fax: +5747670 202 Aswan governor Fax: + 0972303854 202 Aswan-based Social Affairs Directorate Fax: + 0972316609 202 Minister of Social Affairs FAX: + 3375390 202 Egyptian Human Rights Organizations' Collective:
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e-mail: info@hregypt.net
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