A number of Egyptian civil society organizations plan to hold a second protest vigil at an anti-corruption conference currently underway in the Qatari capital of Doha to express their disapproval of what they view as Egypt's passive stance regarding the international anti-corruption convention.
Sources attending closed-door sessions of the conference say that Egypt is trying to rally official Arab and African support for its reservations on certain clauses of the convention. These clauses pertain to the regular issuance of in-country reports detailing the state of corruption and the "supervisory role" of civil society organizations in monitoring the phenomenon.
These sources note that the United Arab Emirates represents the main supporter of Egypt's position.
According to Egyptian Attorney-General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, Egypt will present a proposal at the conference on the participation of civil society in the preparation of in-country reports on corruption.
In one session of the Doha conference, however, sources say that Mahmoud called for limiting the supervisory role of civil society and for banning civil society organizations from working with other countries or the United Nations, demanding instead that such groups submit corruption reports directly to the Egyptian government.
Notably, the anti-corruption convention -- to which Egypt is signatory -- grants all citizens the right to report incidents of official corruption directly to the UN.
