Egyptian report urges more tolerance to NGOs

By Cynthia Johnston

CAIRO, May 13 (Reuters) - A U.N.-sponsored report urged the Egyptian government on Tuesday to be more tolerant to non-governmental organisations and to reign in state brutality and corruption against them.

It said Egyptian law places too many restrictions on such groups, including charities and rights and pro-democracy groups, which must obtain government permission to receive funding and through broad rules that inhibit political activism.

"The time is ripe for a new liberalised social policy that would match the liberalisation of the economic regime," said the annual Egypt Human Development Report by Egyptian social scientists and intellectuals.

"The state must reduce its coercive powers and increase its tolerance of civil society organisations by reigning in brutality, corruption and nepotism in the state apparatus," the report said.

The call comes amid a wave of public discontent in Egypt over harsh economic conditions coupled with a crackdown on dissent, including arrests mainly targetting Islamists but which have also netted bloggers and activists opposed to the state.

Laws allow the government to dissolve non-governmental organisations if they spend money for purposes other than what the group was established for or accept foreign funds without state permission, the report said.

"Civil society must demand the introduction of a legal framework that would allow advocacy for policy change," the report said, but added that "trust must be built to disperse state concerns over national security issues".



QUASHING CRITICISM

Activists complain Egypt has also tried to quash criticism by rights groups. Egypt closed a rights group that aids torture victims and seized its assets last year over accusations the group, AHRLA, took foreign funding without approval.

The report said the Egyptian government should also improve its role in the provision of public services, and said that while Egypt was making progress on human development goals like reducing poverty, more needed to be done.

"It (the state) must maintain and improve on its role as the key provider of public goods and services, but it should retreat from its monopoly in particular segments in the social services chain," the report said.

It said that Egypt had cut the number of people living below the poverty line to 19.6 percent by 2007, from 24.3 percent in 1990, but needed to move faster to meet a goal to have just 12.1 percent of Egyptians living in poverty by 2015.

Egypt has been more successful, however, in cutting the proportion of people living deep in poverty on under $1 a day, cutting the figure to 3.4 percent in 2004/5 from 8.2 percent in 1990, although progress was inconsistent across regions. (Writing by Cynthia Johnston)