Sisi agrees to form special committee to discuss current NGO Law

CAIRO – 5 November 2018: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has expressed his agreement to form a committee and conduct a community dialogue on the Law on Associations and Other Foundations Working in the Field of Civil Work, and that the relevant authorities propose the law once again to the Egyptian Parliament.   Sisi’s agreement to the notion of setting up a committee came as a response to a question from Yostina Tharwat, one of the delegates the president met during a meeting held on the evening of the second day of the second edition of the World Youth Forum. Sisi has met with a considerable number of Egyptian and foreign delegated for a meeting on the sidelines of the forum in Sharm El-Sheikh.   Tharwat had posed a question to President Sisi on the law concerning civil associations and institution, saying, “The law of civil society organizations needs a look by your highness and needs intervention by your constitutional powers.”   To which Sisi replied, “I agree with you; there were fears that led to the shaping of this law in an unconstitutional way.” For the second year, under the auspices of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the tourist attraction city of Sharm el-Sheikh is bringing together youth of all nations at the second annual World Youth Forum (WYF) from November 3-6 to deliver a message of peace and prosperity from Egypt to the entire world. According to the official WYF website, the registration process for the forum has been closed after receiving applications from more than 122,000 youth of both sexes across the world.

The Seven Pillars of the Egyptian Identity

This year, the Forum events will revolve around a vision inspired by “The Seven Pillars of the Egyptian Identity”, a book by one of the most political intellectuals in Egypt Author Milad Hanna; who received several international awards including three “Egyptian Pride” awards from the assembly of foreign journalists and correspondents in Egypt in 1998, the “Order of the Polar Star” award from the king of Sweden, UNESCO’s “Simon Bolivar” award and the state appreciation prize in social sciences in 1999. In his book; Hanna emphasizes the unity and harmony of the Egyptian society despite differences. In keeping with this approach, all the forum events will be held in the light of those pillars that envision the communicative nature of the Egyptian society that has managed throughout the ages to be a linking point between different societies. These pillars include; the Pharaonic pillar, the Greco-Roman pillar, the Coptic pillar, the Islamic pillar, the Arabic pillar, the Mediterranean pillar and the African pillar.