The Support Egypt Coalition submitted on Wednesday a draft legislation for a new NGO law to the parliament, to be discussed on the floor of the house next week.

 

According to the coalition, the new draft law "aims to organize the activities of civil society and non-governmental organizations, in addition to ending chaotic foreign funding of these organizations."

 

The draft law would provide NGO's with the maximum capacity of freedom in operations, while taking in consideration the country`s national security, the draft states.

 

The proposed law, which was approved by the social solidarity committee of the parliament last week, will be discussed in the house's next session next week.

 

The government's February 2016 decision to reopen the 2011 NGO foreign funding case has caused anger among rights advocates and NGO workers.

 

A number of rights activists have been facing charges of illegally receiving foreign funding for their NGOs but the case was put on hold until recently.

 

In February of this year, the authorities also froze of assets of several Egyptian human rights activists and their families, and banned them from travel.

 

The activists under investigation include Hossam Bahgat, founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Gamal Eid, founder of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information and Bahey El-Din Hassan, director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS).