Maat reservations about the method of passing the Associations Law from the Solidarity Committee for the Parliament's plenary session 

The Associations Law is complementary to the constitution and one of the most important recommendations of the UPR, and it must be subject to real dialogue

Although it appreciates any political efforts aimed at amending the current law of civil work organizations 84 of 2002, and recognizes the right of parliament to present and discuss whatever it pleases, Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights expresses its strong reservations about the “form” chosen by the Parliament's Social Solidarity Committee to pass a proposed law The assemblies submitted by MP Abd al-Hadi al-Qasabi, head of the committee and signed by 203 members, to be discussed in the plenary session tomorrow, Monday, November 14, 2016.

The position of the Maat Foundation that has reservations about the position and method of passing the law proposal from the committee to the plenary sessions is driven by considerations and reasons as follows: -

• The Civil Associations Law is one of the laws that complement the constitution, and one of the most important laws that cause controversy on the scene, and it was and still is a major requirement of the January 25 and June 30 revolutions, as well as being the subject of many recommendations made to Egypt during the UPR mechanism (2010, 2014) Therefore, it is not acceptable for it to be passed without opening a wide societal dialogue about it without excluding any of the stakeholders, especially civil society organizations addressing the law.
• The procedures for discussing the law in the Social Solidarity Committee have been shrouded in an incomprehensible secret, and the articles of the law proposal and its philosophy have not been published to public opinion.
• The committee neglected to discuss several other proposals for the NGO law, including the draft of the Ministry of Social Solidarity, as well as three policy papers containing very important proposals for reforming the legal environment for civil work submitted by the Maat Foundation, and sent back to Parliament this morning.

In light of these considerations, Maat Foundation calls on Parliament to present the draft law for a real community dialogue before voting on it in its plenary sessions, and to take into account all the visions and proposals submitted, whether by the government or civil society organizations, and not to rush to issue the law at the expense of observing the considerations emerging On the letter and spirit of Article 75 of the Egyptian Constitution, as well as considerations of Egypt's related international obligations.