12 April final deadline for NGOs in Egypt to settle their status: Ministry

CAIRO – 5 April 2023: The Ministry of Social Solidarity said on Wednesday that 12 April will be the final deadline for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society groups in Egypt to legalise their status.

The deadline for NGOs across the state to settle their status will not be extended after the April deadline, in accordance with the law 149/2019 governing NGOs in Egypt, the ministry stressed in a statement.

Legal measures will be taken against NGOs that fail to legalize their status before the deadline, including referring them to the judiciary in order for them to be resolved in accordance with the provisions of the law.

The ministry extended the deadline for NGOs to settle their status more than once since the issuance of the law in 2019, the last of which was a six-month extension from 11 October 2022 to 11 April 2023.

The deadline had been also extended for a year from January 2022 to 11 April 2022 and then for six months.

Minister of Social Solidarity Nevine El-Qabbaj said about 35,653 non-governmental associations and organizations, foreign groups, and regional federations have submitted requests to legalize their status.

A total of 32,222 of these requests have complete data and documents, the minister noted.

Moreover, the state has legalized the status of all 55 foreign non-governmental organizations operating in Egypt that submitted requests within the framework of the law, Qabbaj said.

This confirms the confidence of these organizations in the increased space and freedom of civil work in Egypt, as stipulated in the law, the minister added.

The 2019 law replaced a legislation issued two years earlier after it was slammed by local and international civil society groups as restricting the NGOs’ work.

The new law was issued after President Abdel Fattah El Sisi ordered amending the law during the World Youth Forum in Sharm El-Sheikh in November 2018.

Egypt has taken several steps to promote the work of the NGOs in Egypt besides issuing the new law and Sisi has voiced support to their work.

Sisi declared 2022 as the year of the civil society and instructed the management of the World Youth Forum (WYF) and other state bodies concerned to create an effective dialogue platform among the countries, youth, and local and international NGOs.