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Article 2. Persons who intend to organise a public meeting must give notice thereof, three days at least in advance, to the governorate, to the mudiria or to the police authority of the markaz if the meeting is to take place outside the sphere of the governorate or of the mudiria. This period is reduced to twenty-four hours when it is a question of an electoral meeting.

Article 3. The notice must indicate the day,
the time and the place of the meeting and
specify its object. It must indicate whether
the purpose of the meeting is a conference, a
public discussion, or if it is to constitute an
electoral meeting.

composition
It must also designate the
of the committee referred to in article 6
should this committee not be elected by the
Assembly.

The notice must bear the signature of five
respectable and reputable persons (or two in
the case of an electoral meeting) enjoying civil
and political rights and domiciled in the town
or locality where the meeting is to be held.
The signatories must specify in the declaration
their name, description, profession
address.

and

Article 4. The Governor, the mudir or the police authority of the markaz may prohibit the meeting if they consider that it is likely

Article 2. Persons who intend to organise a
public meeting must give notice thereof in
writing at least forty-eight hours in advance
to the governorate or the mudiria or to the
police authority of the markaz if the meeting
is to be held outside the sphere of the
governorate or the mudiria.

This period is reduced to twenty-four hours
when it is a question of an electoral meeting.

The person to whom the notice is given must give the bearer a receipt showing the date and time at which the notice was presented to him.

Article 3. The notice must be given by two persons at least; it must indicate the date, the time and the place of the meeting and specify its object.

The notice must bear the signatures of the persons who wish to organise the meeting. The signatories, who must enjoy civil and political rights, will specify in the notice their name, description, profession and address.

The period of notification is reduced from three days to forty-eight hours with regard to public meetings.

The shorter period is, however, ample from a police point of view.

The Bill provides that the notice is to be signed by two persons only in each case.

The right of the local authority to prohibit meetings if they see that the meeting would involve disturbance of public order

and

Text (Translation) of
Law No. 14 of 1923.

Text (Translation) of the Bill regarding Public Meetings and Demonstrations, submitted to Parliament in December 1927 in compliance with the Chamber of Deputies' decision of November 22, 1927.

Changes contemplated by the Bill.

to disturb public order or tranquillity, whether
by reason of its object or by reason of the
conditions of the time or place of the meeting
or for other serious motives.

Notice of the prohibition will be given to
the organisers, or to one of them, as soon as
possible, and six hours at least before the time
of the meeting.

This notice will be displayed on the door of
the governorate, mudiria or markaz, and, if
possible, published in the local papers.

The organisers may protest against the pro-
hibition to the Minister of the Interior or to
the mudir if it is a question of a meeting for
bidden by the police authority of the markaz.

Electoral meetings may never be prohibited.
Article 5. Meetings cannot be held either
in religious buildings or in schools or other
State buildings unless the conference or dis-
cussion in question refers to one of the aims or
objects for which the aforesaid buildings are
normally used.

They may not be continued beyond 11 o'clock at night without special police authorisation.

security is abolished in the Bill.

Deletion of this article is opposed to the
interest of public security; it leaves the local
authority powerless to stop a meeting which
he may know to be certain to develop into a
menace to public security before it begins,
even if he knows that he has not sufficient men
at his disposal to stop it by force after the
trouble has happened. This deletion is alone
sufficient to reduce the police to impotence.

This article is abolished in the Bill, except
for the provision of the last paragraph, which
reappears in a modified form as the last para-
graph of article 5 of the Bill.

The administrative authorities consider it
essential that this article in the old text should
be reinserted in the Bill.

It is very undesirable that meetings should be held in State and religious edifices, The

Article 6. Each meeting must have a com-
a chairman and two
members at least. The committee is charged
mittee composed of
with maintaining order, preventing any infrac-
tion of the laws, preserving at the meeting
the character given to it in the notice, for-
bidding any speech contrary to public order
or good morals, or containing provocation to a
misdemeanour.

In default of election by the Assembly, the
committee will be composed of the members
designated in the notice.

right to be present at the meeting for the
mainterance of public order and tranquillity
Article 7. The police will always have the
and to prevent any violation of the law. They
will have the right to select their position.
They may dissolve the meeting in the
following cases :—

(1.) If the committee is not appointed or
if it does not fulfil its functions;

(2.) If the meeting does not preserve the
character given to it in the notice;

(3.) If the meeting gives rise to seditious
speeches, cries or songs or to other acts
constituting offences contemplated in the
penal code or other laws;

(4.) If other misdemeanours take place in the course of the meeting;

(5.) In case of serious disorders.

Article 4. Each meeting must have a com-
chairman and two
mittee composed of a
members at least. The committee is charged
with maintaining order, preventing any infrac-
tion of the laws, preserving at the meeting
the character given to it in the notice, for-
bidding any speech contrary to public order
or good morals, or containing provocation to a
In default of election by the
misdemeanour.
Assembly, the committee will be composed of
the members designated in the notice.

or a police officer may always be present at
Article 5. A delegate of the Administration
the meeting on condition that he does not sit
on the speakers' platform. He may not dissolve
(1.) If a written demand to do so is made
the meeting except in the following cases :---
to him by the committee contemplated in
article 4, or, in default of it, by the signa-

(2.) In cases of serious disorder. If calm
tories of the notice.
is restored the meeting may continue or may
be resumed.

In no case may meetings be prolonged beyond
12 o'clock midnight without a special authori-
sation from the police.

number of these buildings would make control a matter of great difficulty, and in the case of a place of worship it would not be possible to dissolve a meeting by force.

Article 6 of Law No. 14/1923 and article 4 of the Bill are identical.

The right of the police to dissolve meetings
is greatly curtailed. New sub-paragraph (1)
is meaningless: in new sub-paragraph (2) there
is no indication as to who is to judge the
moment at which peace is restored, whether
the police officer or the committee. The ad-
ministrative authorities consider that the
police officer should be made definitely the
sole judge as to whether or not conditions are
sufficiently peaceful to allow the meeting to be

resumed.

It is obvious that article 7 of the old law
is more in the interest of public security,
enabling the police to be present in such
numbers as they deem necessary to ensure
order. Under the Bill only one officer is
permitted to attend.

Text (Translation) of
Law No 14 of 1923.

Article 8. For the purpose of the present
law any meeting in a place or building whether
public or private to which persons not pro-
vided with a personal and individual invita- |
tion have or can obtain access is considered as
a public meeting.

For the purpose of the present law any
meeting fulfilling the following conditions is
considered as an electoral meeting:-

(1.) Having for its object the choice or hearing of the candidate or candidates for public elective functions;

(2.) Limited to electors, candidates and
their supporters;

(3.) Taking place between the date of the
convocation of the electoral committee and
the day of the election.

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