EMHRN is deeply concerned over the violence that took place yesterday between supporters and opponents of President Morsi. Opponents include representatives of various national forces protesting against the Constitutional Declaration issued on November 22nd and staging sit-ins since the day before yesterday in front of the presidential palace.
EMHRN also strongly condemns security forces’ reluctance to protect protesters from the attacks of President Morsi’s supporters, and calls upon the Egyptian authorities to immediately and impartially investigate the attacks, which left 7 people dead and dozens of wounded on both sides. EMHRN emphasizes the need to hold a public debate involving all political and civil actors in Egypt to discuss the future away from any partisanship or radicalism.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) sent a delegation to Cairo from 20 to 24 November 2012 , to meet with Egyptian human rights organizations, European embassies, Egyptian authorities and representatives of political parties, to discuss the future of democratization in Egypt in this context of, increasing political schisms and continuing violations of human rights.
The delegation welcomed the availability of the Egyptian representatives to meet with EMHRN. However, EMHRN found the political and human rights situation of Egypt worrying.
Michel Tubiana, EMHRN President, declared that “the Revolution broke the barrier of stagnation in Egypt and there is now space for expressing political opinions. However, Morsi’s late constitutional declaration, and the decision to hurry through a referendum on the constitutional draft, alienates him from the democratic path and risk to demolish state institutions”.
Egypt’s precarious institutional situation, ongoing since the ousting of former President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, worsened after President Morsi’s ‘constitutional declaration’ on 22 November. President Morsi detains both executive and legislative powers since August 2012. With the decree known as the “constitutional declaration” he grants his own laws and decrees absolute immunity from judicial review, and directly interferes with judicial powers by dismissing the Public Prosecutor, creating a new special court and ordering to re-open already judged trials.
Concluding the mission to Cairo, the EMHRN raises concerns on the following issues:
- Firstly, the constitution-drafting process severely lacked plurality and transparency. After all non-Islamist members resigned in condemn of this process, they were hastily replaced by government supporters who rushed through reviewing and approving a final draft without further debate. EMHRN is concerned at the president’s decision to put the draft constitution into public referendum while Egyptians are divided on the legitimacy of the process itself. This referendum on the constitution is being rushed for 15 December and will receive weak supervision by the judges as a majority of them decided to boycott itMoreover, the Constitutional Declaration states that all powers are retained by the President until after the referendum, leaving the Egyptian people with a binary choice between the draft constitution as it is or the ‘constitutional declaration’.
- Secondly, a number of articles do not comply with Egypt’s international human rights commitments. Of particular concern is the mentioning of the Sharia as prime source of legislation and the limitation of freedom of conscience to the three monotheistic religions acknowledged by the Constitution. In this sense the Egyptians are not defined as citizens of the Egyptian state but as belonging to one of the religious communities recognized by the State. The Constitution does not grant supremacy of international law over national law raising concerns about Egypt’s commitment to the international treaties it ratified, and it is worrying that “cultural or religious specificities” are put forward to justify reservations on international Human rights treaties.
- Thirdly, gender equality is not in progress in Egypt neither in law nor in practice. Gender-based violence (including sexual assault on women protesters by police forces) is continuing in a climate of impunity; women are scarcely represented in decision-making processes and democratic institutions (in particular in the constituent assembly); Egyptian authorities have so far shown no will to lift reservations to the CEDAW; to the contrary, The article on gender equality was omitted from the draft constitution, which does not protect women from discrimination.
- Fourthly, when asking about the guarantee of freedom of association and the reform of 2002 NGO law, the delegation did not get any reassuring answer. The legal reform process has been ongoing since the beginning of 2012, marked by a lack of transparency and by the will of Egyptian authorities to control NGOs’ activities and funding, especially when dealing with human rights groups and international organizations. However, a large coalition of 56 human rights groups proposed a draft law conform to international standards that should be discussed and put forward.
- Fifthly, the independence of the judiciary has not been ensured since the fall of Mubarak. The late ‘Constitutional declaration’ is a clear infringement on the judicial power’s prerogative, as Egypt’s judicial authority law limits the right to dismiss the public prosecutor to the Higher Judicial Authority(Supreme Judicial Council) and does not grant the President with such right. Furthermore, government supporters have allegedly prevented judges from entering the Supreme Constitutional Court after the constitutional declaration was released, forcing the Court to stop working and to postpone rulings on the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and Shura Council indefinitely.
The President’s decision to re-open some trials that have already been judged is a blatant violation of the independence of the judiciary, and of article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and political rights stating that “no one shall be liable to be tried or punished again for an offence for which he has already been finally convicted or acquitted”.
The Egyptian society needs a genuine transitional justice process that takes into account violations before, during and after the revolution. In this regard, EMHRN notes that Egyptian civil society organization have made concrete proposals in the a joint statement on the Priorities for human rights in President Morsi’s first 100 days in office[1].
Instead, law 96 “On the Protection of the Revolution” published by President Morsi on 22 November 2012, establishes a special court for crimes of violence against protesters only by those who “held office under the previous regime” , while extending the list of “crimes” the court will hear, including provisions that criminalize political speech, such as insulting the president or the military, and criminalizes the right free and peaceful assembly, such as impeding traffic or blocking the work of public institutions.
This new law perpetuates the grim tradition of special courts to judge ordinary citizens, and threatens to further restrict public freedoms.
Lastly, no reform of the security apparatus is in process, despite the declared will of the President and Ministry of Interior to fight torture and train police forces to better respect human rights in performing their duty. Torture and ill-treatments remain widespread, and no data is available on possible investigations of torture allegations. Instead, the trials against former ministry of interior officials and police officers for violence and killings of protesters resulted in acquittal except in one case only, where one police officer was indicted for the death of 45 protesters (at Mohamed Mahmoud protest in November 2011).
EMHRN calls upon the Egyptian authorities to recall the referendum of 15 December, to urge national unity and re-open the dialogue over the process of validation of the new constitution, as the latter cannot be accomplished in the current state of civil unrest. The new Constitution should promote a democratic checks-and-balances system to avoid any return to authoritarianism. Furthermore, the Egyptian authorities should urgently undertake thorough legal and institutional reform allowing full exercise of human rights to all citizens; and put an end to impunity for those guilty of human rights violations before, during and after the revolution.
EMRHN recommends the European authorities to once and for all show the same level of exigency for the implementation of universally recognized human rights in Southern Mediterranean partner countries as Egypt, as it does in Europe. This means conditioning development aid to the Egyptian government to the respect of rights and liberties and in particular of freedom of association for local and international NGOs and their financial autonomy; and to the recognition of full gender equality as the constitutional norm without reservation.
Egypt is going through a transitional period where some uncertainty is normal. Nonetheless, the decisions made by President Morsi do not show the way towards democracy, and the Egyptian people are aware of it, as they have kept on protesting since 22 November. The electoral process, even if democratic, ought not to give the right to any onslaught on democracy. The EMHRN commends that there is now space in Egypt –although threatened- for the expression of political dissent. This gives hopes that democracy will emerge victorious at the end of the current political process and champion human rights and democracy.