The Assembly and Association Briefing Newsletter of the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association Vol. 4, No. 1 (Issue 25) - Published January 10, 2017 Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai meets with Shui-Meng Ng, wife of p3 p5 p6 Lao activist Sombath Somphone, Contribute to the Special Kiai files brief in Rwanda Malaysia using national who disappeared on Dec. 15, 2012, and has not been heard Rapporteur’s final report to NGO case before African’s top security legislation to target from since. For more on Kiai’s trip to the Human Rights Council human rights court rights defenders Southeast Asia, see page 11. Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland • Fax : + 41 22 917 9006 • Email :
[email protected] http://www.freeassembly.net • https://www.facebook.com/mainakiai.sr • https://twitter.com/MainaKiai_UNSR • https://www.flickr.com/photos/mainakiai • http://ohchr.org Egypt NGO bill threatens to “devastate” civil society, Kiai warns A protester in Cairo, Egypt, in 2011 (photo: Dan H/Flickr) GENEVA – United Nations expert Maina Kiai expressed serious alarm on Nov. 23, 2016, at Egypt’s approval of a draft law which would impose major restrictions on the work of “This bill ... aims to destroy Egypt’s non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Kiai said that if the bill became law, it would devastate the country’s civil society for foundation for peaceful, civic generations to come and turn it into a government puppet. engagement at its very roots. If it The Egyptian Parliament approved the bill on Nov. 15 and sent it to the State Council for review; it will be sent back to the Parliament for a final vote at an unknown date.