Egypt is to sign a treaty legalizing the status of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, the first of its kind between Cairo and a regional non-government organization, foreign ministry officials said Thursday.
The treaty will be signed in Egypt Saturday by Deputy Foreign Minister Samir Seif al-Yazl and AOHR Secretary General Mohammed Faek.
The AOHR was founded 17 years ago on an initiative by intellectuals from several Arab countries, but it ran up against Arab government opposition and was forced to hold its first general assembly in Limassol, Cyprus in 1983.
The organization has since met in several Arab countries: Sudan (1987), Tunisia (1990), Egypt (1993) and Morocco (1997).
In the late 1980s, the AOHR set up headquarters in Cairo where it has operated freely but without an official status.
Human rights organizations from seven Arab countries -- Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, Lebanon and Kuwait -- are members of the AOHR - (AFP)
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