The Law Governing the Pursuit of Civil Work (commonly known as the NGO Law), Law No. 149 of 2019, went into effect after President Abdel-Fattah El Sisi ratified the law and it was published in the edition of the Official Gazette dated August 19, 2019.
In November 2018, and in the wake of widespread criticism of the previous NGO Law (Law No. 70 of 2017), President Abdel-Fattah El Sisi made comments at the World Youth Forum in which he agreed that the 2017 law needed to be amended. Days later, the prime minister created a committee to review the 2017 law, host a series of national dialogue sessions, and put forth proposed amendments. After the dialogues—which were critiqued for failing to welcome the participation of human rights organizations—took place, the committee announced in April 2019 that it would instead draft an entirely new law to replace the 2017 law. In May, the cabinet approved the text of the draft law and on July 15, it was approved in a final vote by the House of Representatives; six members of the House voted against the draft law.
