- ActivitesHuman Rights
- May 2, 2009
- 4 minutes read
The Government Threatens to Dissolve the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) received a threat from the Ministry Of Social Solidarity in Old Cairo to dismantle the organization on grounds that EOHR received foreign funding from “The Center of Media Freedom in the Middle East and North Africa” in order to establish an Egyptian network for defending the right to access and exchange information.
The letter received from the Ministry of Social Solidarity stating the possibility of the legal accountability provided in Article 42, 6th paragraph of law No. 84/2002, which does not authorize receiving funds or assistance from any individual, internal or external organization except in the case of obtaining permission from the Ministry of Social Solidarity.
EOHR has pointed out in a statement that the decision came as a direct reaction to the publication of 2008 annual report of EOHR on the situation of human rights in Egypt, emphasizing that it has completed all necessary procedures for obtaining the approval of the Ministry of Social Solidarity to receive the fund.
For its part, human rights organizations condemned the decision of the ministry and saw that it comes within the framework of series of actions taken by the government to terrorize human rights organizations in Egypt and limit the movement of the civil society and violate the right to organization.
In a statement for a campaign called “Hemayetna” called for the immediate intervention of the Minister of Social Solidarity in order to solve the situation before it turns to be a crisis, to review the decision of the Ministry and also called on all human rights organizations in the world to support the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights.