Der Kampf um die Zulassung des CWTUS

Als eine der Reaktionen auf die nach den vielen Streiks der letzten Monate geradezu panischen Repressionsversuchen gegen das CWTUS hatte dieses am 13. Juni diesen Jahres einen Antrag auf amtliche Registrierung als Nichtregierungsorganisation gestellt - erst zum Ablauf der maximal 60tägigen Frist wurde bekanntgegeben, dass dieser Antrag abgelehnt wurde - aufgrund der Bedenken der Sicherheitsbehörden...Und dies nachdem die Dokumente monatelang mit zuständigen Ministerien diskutiert worden waren. Dazu die (englische) Presseerklärung "Insistence to Continue Oppression on The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS)" vom 14. August 2007, inklusive eines Solidaritätsaufrufs.

Insistence to Continue Oppression on The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS) - Decision Refusing CTUWS Registration Due To Security Objection

In a new escalation, the security and administrative bodies surpassed all expectations in their continuous oppressive practices against the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS) when they refused to register CTUWS as a non governmental organization (NGO) pursuant to the NGOs’ Law No. 84/2002 and its executive regulations.

CTUWS presented its registration application together with the necessary documents to the Social Solidarity Directorate on 13th June 2007. At the end of the maximum period designated for resolving the application (60 days), the CTUWS was surprised to find that a decision was passed which refused its registration application because, according to the decision, “the security bodies rejected its registration for security reasons according to the provisions of Article 11 of the Law No. 84/2002”.

It is worthy mentioning that the purposes of CTUWS as an association and its activities and the procedures for its registration were discussed during more than two months with a tripartite committee formed from the Ministry of Social Solidarity and chaired by the Director of the Central Department of Associations and NGOs. The documents were examined successively by the Social Solidarity Directorate of Cairo and the Social Solidarity Department of Helwan. The Administration received the registration application and the attachments therewith after all the documents were completed and the legal conditions were satisfied including, in particular, that the NGO does not infringe the provisions of Article No. 11 of the said NGOs Law.

Needless to say that the rejection by the security bodies is groundless, nor it is mentioned in the said Law. Article No. 2 provides that what is meant by the Administrative Body is the Social Affairs Ministry (which is currently the Social Solidarity Ministry) and that it has the right to refuse the registration of an association or NGO only if it finds out that its activities include an activity which is banned by Article No. 11 of the law. According to this Law, there must be causes for such a refusal and the applicant founders should be duly informed with the causes of refusal within 60 days from the date of application (Article no. 6).

As the decision to refuse the registration of the CTUWS did not contain any clear reason to justify the refusal according to the provisions of Article 11 and did not mention any activity that could be considered as banned pursuant to this Article; and as the administration at all levels had examined and reviewed the different purposes of the association tens of times during the negotiations conducted for this matter and had reached an agreement with the CTUWS on these purposes, the administration did not find any justification for refusing the registration other than the blatant announcement of the rejection from the security bodies !!

Could any one imagine that this association which is denied registration now has been founded over 17 years ago, and that it has practiced its activities through its branches in Cairo, Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. It has been awarded the prize of the Republic of France for Human Rights in 1999 in appreciation of its distinguished role in defending these rights on the ground.

Could any body - who knows the conditions of the civil society in our countries and the suffering of the human rights and defence organizations – imagine the CTUWS has failed since 2003 to present its registration application to the Ministry of Social Solidarity in an official manner simply because the staff of the Ministry cannot receive such an application without getting the green light from the security bodies?

Is it possible for a society - where the area for independent non governmental action is minimized to this extent – to know its way to development and to be liberated from backwardness, extremism and violence and to gain access to the sphere of dialogue and societal negotiations?

Is it possible for a society whose citizens, organizations and associations are unable to participate in decision making or even do not know where to find the decision makers because the officials of the departments which are responsible - by virtue of the constitution – tell them “it is not we who decide” .. is it possible for a society which does not recognize the right of its citizens to independent movement and imposes on them all forms of prior monitoring as if they are still immature … is it possible for a society surrounded by emergency laws and administrative and security circles which make societal participation a dangerous risk … is it possible for such a society to be balanced and stable? Is it possible that the citizens of such a society enjoy their belonging to it and their participation in building and developing their country?

Reiterating its right to exist and to continue its participation in defending the rights of our people and our workers, the CTUWS emphasizes the clarification of the following facts:

- The right to establish non governmental organizations and associations is simply the right of the society to exist as a society .. it is the right of the people, all the people to act collectively to confront the difficulties of life and to overcome its problems. It is the right of all the categories of the society to express their economic and social interests and to practice their influence as active and effective groups in the decision making centers. This right is undoubtedly the core, essence and purpose of democracy.
- The right of association – which means the right to form trade unions, societies, parties and all sorts of non governmental organization and civil society associations, and means the right of these entities to be independent and to practice their role without any governmental intervention or guardianship – has become settled within the international human rights system. The Egyptian constitution stipulated in its 55th and 56th Articles the right to form organizations, trade unions and federations without any restrictions except for societies whose activities are hostile to the social system, clandestine or have a military character. Nevertheless, these settled concepts are still controversial in our country in such a manner that calls for imposing emergency laws and the oppression by the state organs.
- The refusal to register the CTUWS pursuant to the Associations and NGOs Law is a continuity of the series of arbitrary and oppressive administrative and security measures taken against the CTUWS starting from closing its branches in the governorates until the central security forces surrounded its head office in Helwan, sealed its door with red wax, removed its electricity meter without any legal justification. The matter seemed to be insistence to refuse dialogue and to accept administrative and security dealings as the sole style for the relationship between the government or the state with all the civil society categories, parties, groups and even individuals. Such a condition would not allow any serious development or democratic reforms. It only nurtures despair and disappointment for the majority of the population and paves the way for more violent and extremist tendencies.
- These administrative and security procedure against the CTUWS came after the series of assaults launched against the CTUWS since the middle of last December by the Egyptian Trade Union Federation supported by some governmental sources as a result of the workers protests and strikes which took place lately, in stead of solving these problems, the administration undermined the actual causes of the protests and turned its back to the real demands of this move. This will increase the congestion rather than reaching solutions for these problems.
- The administrative and security decision to refuse the official registration of CTUWS discloses the vocabulary of a totalitarian state of mind which believes in monologue rather than in dialogue and envisages stability as the domination of the state on everything, small may it be or big. It closes the door for societal dialogue and negotiations which are necessary for the balance and development of the society. Having reached this condition, this approach insists to prevent social participation or monitoring and to drive out all the democratic powers and all the social parties, organizations and movements.

The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS), while reaffirming its right to reopen its headquarters and to practice its activities, calls upon all the alive powers, democratic activities. Civil society organizations and institutions and political parties to express their solidarity with the CTUWS which is subject to fierce attacks since the beginning of this year to date. The CTUWS also calls upon all the executive and governmental bodies to stop all sorts of provocation, to annul all the unfair decisions to close its headquarters and to refuse its registration and to allow it to resume and develop its activities.

CTUWS
14/8/2007