7 violations to Egypt's Civil Society Bill that incur fines worth tens of thousands of pounds

CAIRO – 2 June 2022: Article 95 of the legal bill regulating civil work in Egypt designates seven types of violations to the license issuance conditions, and that are penalized by fines whose value ranges between LE50,000 and LE500,000.  

An NGO that obstructs the work of regulatory bodies in charge of ensuring that the entity abides by law would be committing a violation.

That also applies to NGOs that change their headquarters without informing the agency in charge within three months since relocation date. In case of repeating this violation, the agency in charge would have the right to file for the disbanding of the organization at court.

There are three violations that are related to financial matters. One is spending the organization's money on activities that are not mentioned in the license. Another is spending the organization's money, after it gets dissolved, without permission from regulatory bodies. The last is not disbursing the money in abidance with the rules set by the law for the process.  

Violating Article 15 of the bill, which requires a permit to operate in border governorates, incurs a fine either. Moreover, tt is not only the NGO that can get fined but also a public employee or a governmental body that issues licenses to an NGO without having the right to do so.

Cairo Court of Appeal dismissed Thursday the "illegal foreign funding" case against four NGOs because of insufficient evidence.

Those are Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies; Development Support and Institutional Rehabilitations Center; Peace Center for Human Development; and, Nazra Association for Feminist Studies.

As such, the total number of NGOs, cases against which have been dropped, becomes 75. Those included 220 individuals who are now removed from travel ban lists, and whose assets and liquid money are no longer frozen.

In March, the same court cleared five NGOs, and did not convict 15 others because of the lack of enough evidence. Also, in December, six NGOs were proved innocent, while 14 others were found non-guilty.

Minister of Social Solidarity Nevine al-Qabaj stated in January that 413 NGOs that were affiliated to terror organizations have been confiscated by the ministry and are now fulfilling their mission in serving the society.

The minister added that Egypt currently has 52,000 local NGOs, and 59 foreign NGOs. The minister elaborated that the size of foreign funds granted to NGOs in Egypt in 2020 is LE2 billion. The grants came from American, French, German, and Swiss entities.

Qabaj stated that foreign funding is allowed as long as the source is known and is not suspected of involvement in terrorism, extremism, or money laundering.