Restrictive draft law on right to protest incites fear, anger

A draft law in the works to regulate protests and strikes is raising eyebrows and causing concern over the future of the right to demonstrate.

The Islamist-dominated Shura Council’s Human Rights Committee has used its newly granted legislative powers to draft the law, among many others in the pipeline.

While the provisions are still being ironed out before the law is put up for discussion on Thursday, many of the 26 articles drafted so far have been criticized by human rights experts and labor groups.

The Muslim Brotherhood's mouthpiece, the Freedom and Justice daily paper, published some provisions of the controversial law on Monday. The first 18 articles regulate the right to protest, while the last eight are seen as restricting the right to strike.

Lawyer Malek Adly of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) says the draft law is not at all new, with many of the stipulations dating back to the British protectorate over Egypt, such as Law 14 of 1923, which criminalized anti-occupation protests.

"Most of the provisions of this draft law have been copied verbatim from Law 14. This is evident in the use of terms like 'police,' which has long been replaced by the word 'shorta,' along with other outdated terms," Adly says.

The lawyer explains that the anti-protest legislation originally formulated by British occupation forces was later adopted by Egyptian monarchs and military rulers to contain discontent.

In the years preceding the 25 January uprising, strikes and industrial action grew, and have been on the rise over the past two years.

The Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU) denounced the draft law in a statement, saying it proscribed "additional control mechanisms not witnessed before — even during the regime of Hosni Mubarak."

Adly predicts that the economic restructuring policies that will be implemented pursuant to an agreement with the International Monetary Fund for a US$4.8 billion loan may lead to further unrest.

"We are heading towards austerity measures, tax hikes, subsidy cuts and [higher] unemployment, which will quite likely prove to be unpopular. This is why the state wants to do away with political rights as well as socio-economic rights. It seeks to strip citizens of their right to object to governmental policies," says Adly.