Focus Human Rights

No. 07 / Jan 2015

Between the permissible and the forbidden

The right to peaceful assembly

Hafez Abo Seada

For many Egyptians, protest equals democracy: Demonstrations played indeed an important
role in the last four years of Egypts history. After decades of a repressive regime, people
started gathering in January 2011 in one of Cairos main squares, Midan Al-Tahrir, and all
over the country, to protest against injustice, corruption and the lack of freedom. Hundreds
of protesters lost their lives during clashes with the police, but eventually the demonstrations were successful: Thereby it became clear for everyone that the people, can accumulate an enormous amount of power that might become dangerous for the current government and every person in power. The consequences: In November 2013, interim president
Adly Mansour issued a highly restrictive demonstration law. In this paper human rights activist Hafez Abu Seada calls for an urgent amendment of this law according to international
human rights standards.
Egypt is under an obligation to respect, protect
and fulfill the right to freedom of assembly as a
party to the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights. In addition, Egypt
should abide by the guidelines set out in the
Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials
and the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and
Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, which set
standards for the use of force and firearms by
security forces. Unfortunately, the past years
have highlighted the gulf between Egypts obligations and the reality of the right to peaceful
assembly, both in legislation and practice. The
past four years indeed have frequently seen
Egyptians exercise their right to peaceful assembly as a tool to advocate for social and political

change. But instead of viewing demonstrations

as a legitimate form of the expression of popular
will, and looking at them favorably due to their
role in bringing new governments to power,
Egyptian authorities have seen demonstrations
as a danger that they have to prevent and suppress with violence. Since 2011, demonstrations

Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom | Focus Human Rights

The right to peaceful assembly between the permissible and the forbidden No. 07 / Jan 2015

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have been repressed through violent dispersal

resulting in the death of more than 2,000 people, killed through the use of excessive force.

107 against Human Rights

Discussions on the right to peaceful assembly
emerged especially after the deeply restrictive
Law Number 107/2013 on the Right to Public
Meetings, Processions and Peaceful Demonstrations in Public Areas was passed in 2013. Based
on this law, many activists were accused of
demonstrating without authorization and were
immediately brought to trial.
The issue which strongly requires the amendment of Law Number 107 is its inconsistency
with the international charters and conventions
relevant to human rights which ensure the right
to peaceful demonstration and this is strongly
linked to the right of freedom of opinion and
expression.
These are the same requirements which civil
society and human rights organizations have
been calling for since the law passed, inviting to
amend it because it is nothing more than a clear
restriction of the citizens right to peaceful
demonstration. and a regress with respect to the
achievements of the 25 January and 30 June

Demonstrations in novembre 2011. To that time it was

possible...

revolutions1 based on the call for ensuring rights

and public freedoms to citizens. The public meet-

() the citizens right to peaceful demonstration. It

is furthermore a regress with respect to the achievements of the 25 January and the 30 June revolutions

The Revolution of January 25, 2011 brought freedom

which got lost again by now

ing is widely and loosely defined, creating arbitrariness in the implementation of the provisions
of the law by the security bodies, which do not
enjoy great credibility among the people, despite
the fact that the Law contains many wide concepts. For instance, public security and public
order are concepts that can be explained with
more than one meaning and that can be differently valued by different people. They give the
security forces large powers beside a discretional
authority to prohibit any demonstration on
vague bases and the power to disperse demonstrations with lethal force since police is authorized to use weapons cartouche which can kill if
used from a close distance. The law does not
state exceptions for smaller demonstrations, that
do not disrupt the traffic, or for fast and spontaneous demonstrations and impose the notification as basic condition for any demonstration.
This is the condition that is now bringing many
political activists to trial with the accusation of
based on the call for ensuring rights and public freedoms to citizens. During the 25 January revolution in
2011, Egyptians from different backgrounds had
protested against the repressive regime of President
Hosni Mubarak who had ruled the country for 30
years, finally succeeding in forcing him to step down.
Next to justice and an end of corruption it was freedom of speech, opinion and assembly which was one
of the protesters main demands. The same applies to
the 30 June revolution in 2013, where the people
were protesting against Egypts first democratically
elected President Mohamed Mursi from the Islamist
Muslim Brotherhood, who in the end got removed
from his position by the military. During both revolutions people were not afraid to raise their opinion and
criticize the government publically. Law 107 counteracts this important achievement.

Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom | Focus Human Rights

The right to peaceful assembly between the permissible and the forbidden No. 07 / Jan 2015

staging demonstrations without authorization

from the concerned authority. The law does not
exempt even cases, including marches or processions which come spontaneous in case of funerals, marriages, national celebrations, etc.

Who demonstrates now, accepts?

Another problem arose related to the demonstrations against the Demonstration Law itself. In
fact, how can those who refuse the law submit
the notification which actually expresses its
acceptance?
Law Number 107 also gives large powers to the
Ministry of Interior to forbid or postpone peaceful meetings. The ministry is entitled to cancel,
transfer or postpone peaceful meetings in case it
receives serious information or evidence of
threat to security and peace. It is highly problematic that the minister has discretionary authority to decide without consulting any other
body whether a demonstration takes place or
not. Individuals have the right to appeal to the
decision before a provisional matters judge
without determining the length of the period of
the case. Therefore this law restricts the right to
peaceful demonstration, a right that is ensured
by international charters and treaties. Article 21
of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights issued in 1966 states that "The right
to peaceful assembly shall be recognized. No

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restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this

right other than those imposed in conformity
with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public),
the protection of public health or morals or the
protection of the rights and freedoms of others."

Amendment required
Hence there is an urgent need to enact a new
law on demonstrations and abolish parts of the
aforementioned law that represent a blatant
violation of the right to peaceful demonstration.
commensurate with the facts of the current
phase after the 30 June revolution with the
amendment of the system of laws which obstruct rights and public freedoms and what
guarantees to all the opposition activists to express their political opinions, since this expression is involved in the framework of citizens'
rights and public freedoms.

Renewal of Democracy
The new Law shall be in the first place consistent
with the charters relevant to human rights and
the principles of the international legislation,
which entitle citizens to freely express their
opinions far from any attempt of suppression,
and to exercise their right to express their opinions and demonstrate peacefully far from the

Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom | Focus Human Rights

The right to peaceful assembly between the permissible and the forbidden No. 07 / Jan 2015

exercise of violence. In fact, though everybody is

entitled to express his/her opinion, this does not
mean that he has the right to destroy infrastructures, assault public properties, or harm any
person with a different opinion, since this will
lead to chaos in the society and destroy social
cohesion.

Has to become possible again: peaceful demonstration in

Egypt

Civil society organizations and international

journalists shall deal seriously with the citizens'
right to peaceful demonstration, being active in

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pressing on legislators to develop legislations

which respect this right, ensure it, guarantee its
exercise to individuals and enable them to this
right by proposing a new law on regulating the
right to peaceful demonstration, developing
interactive methods to deal with protests, organizing dialogic sessions to deepen the understanding and debate on this right, adopting clear
and specific strategies for raising awareness,
allocating a portion of their work to monitor and
evaluate the efforts in the field of defense of this
right, developing strategies for communicating
with demonstrators and make them aware of the
importance of graduality in submitting requests,
training them to an effective communication,
negotiation and dialogue with authorities and
developing efficient strategies to control demonstrations.
At the same time it shall work on the development of a communication between authorities,
to find solutions and proposals to facilitate the
task to everybody, the proposal of efficient
methods and alternative ways to deal with sitins and demonstrations, training security and
police personnel to graduality in the use of force,
to deal with the crowds, or to any necessary
standard in order to enable the security personnel to deal with demonstrators without violating
human rights.

Hafez Abo Seada is the President of the

Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
(EOHR), a partner of Friedrich Naumann
Foundation for Freedom, and Member of
the National Council for Human Rights.

Imprint
Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom
International Politics
Asia and Human Rights Department
Karl-Marx-Strae 2
D-14482 Potsdam Germany
humanrights@freiheit.org
www.freiheit.org

Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom | Focus Human Rights