CAIRO — The Egyptian parliament announced its final approval for a draft law regulating the activities of civil organizations in Egypt, amid criticism by representatives of civil society and rights organizations. These considered the law to be a new tool in the hands of the government to impose its total control over the works of these organizations and hinder their activities. Such a measure blatantly violates the Egyptian Constitution, according to which all citizens have the right to establish their own associations and to work freely away from the intervention of administrative bodies.

In a controversial and surprising move, the Egyptian House of Representatives announced Nov. 29 that it had consented to the draft law regulating the activities of civil associations and establishments. The bill was presented by member of parliament Abdel-Hadi al-Qasabi, the chairman of the parliament’s Social Solidarity Committee and a member of the Support Egypt Coalition. Qasabi is known for his close ties to the government and for defending President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s policies. The bill has garnered the support of over 200 parliamentarians. For the first time since it was called into session in January, parliament is working to settle a law of this level of importance and with this degree of haste without involving either the government or representatives of civil society.

Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel Aal said Nov. 14 that the law, which had been prepared in the Social Solidarity Committee, represented a positive development for this parliament, as it targets those areas that have remained thorny for a long time. In his view, it is all the more significant since there are internal and external pressures working to prevent the law’s passage.

Members of parliament consider the law a tool to combat the chaos of civil society organizations and “suspicious” nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which in their view have exploited the events that have rocked Egypt since the January 25 Revolution. Many believe these groups seek to profit from and incite chaos by writing erroneous reports about the situation in Egypt. Some observers view the law as a new tool to exert complete and absolute control over civilian activist organizations, and hinder their work in a manner that violates the constitution and all the international agreements that Egypt has signed in relation to civil society activism.