".........“The Egyptian authorities are yet again trying to push through draconian legislation to stifle independent civil society and silence critical voices. Those same critical voices were instrumental in documenting Mubarak-era abuses and bringing about the ‘25 January Revolution’,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“President Mohamed Morsi’s administration must break with Mubarak-era tactics of smearing human rights NGOs in state-controlled media as foreign ‘spies’ and scapegoating them for all of society’s ills.”
A separate draft law on public protests, also under discussion in the Upper House of parliament, would place severe restrictions on freedom of assembly on grounds that include “security or public order; hampering citizens’ interests; blocking roads or transport; delaying traffic… or serious threats to the above.”
It also establishes a number of bureaucratic hurdles to organizing a protest, gives governors the power to postpone a demonstration, or impose blanket prohibitions, and allows for the use of water cannon, tear gas and batons by security forces to disperse peaceful protests if an audible warning is not heeded.
“A law which arbitrarily restricts the right to peaceful protest in post-revolutionary Egypt and gives wide discretionary powers to police to use force against peaceful protesters would be a major setback and a betrayal of all those who stood up for human rights in the January uprising,” said Philip Luther."
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