Egyptian National Council for Human Rights
Egypt, Politics, 5/6/2003

A discussion on the new initiative proposed by the National Democratic Party (NDP) policies Committee for establishing the National Council for Human Rights was the focus of a seminar held at the Journalists Syndicate last Sunday.

The gathering was organized by the association for Human Rights Legal Aid (AHRLA).

The panel included only one member of the NDP Policies Committee, Hamdi el-Sayed, who is also chairman of the Medical Syndicate.

Without any representation from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the field of human rights, the panel included Muhammad Abdel-Moneim, head of the AHRLA, Ibrahim Abaza, economics professor and director of the Institute for Political Studies, Sayed Shaaban, a lawyer and a member of the Lawyers' Syndicate's board, and Adel Eid, a lawyer and independent Member of Parliament.

Abdel-Moneim said that the current events on the international arena have increased awareness, especially in the Arab world of human rights issues.

"Besides this, efforts by NGOs in Egypt have led the NDP to consider the formation of the council with the main aim of playing a consultative role for the state, in order to increase awareness and spread the culture of human rights," he said.

"However, the AHRLA has an image of what that council should look like," he added.

Abdel-Moneim's proposed that the council should be independent and that it should represent all shades of opinion in Egypt.

In addition, he insisted that the council, which should also work on rectifying any violations, should accept individual complaints.

Accordingly, he believes that the council should be given supervisory powers to inspect certain authorities and agencies to prevent violations.

"We consider this a starting point for the promotion of human rights in Egypt," he said.

In defence of the idea, Hamdi el-Sayed said that the initiative is still in its primary stage and its details are still vague. He therefore called on everyone concerned to look at the initiative with an open mind.

" It must be made clear that the council is no substitute for any human rights organization, but it is an additional means to further develop this important issue," he said.

El-Sayed insisted that there are no disadvantages concerning the establishment of the National Council for Human Rights.

"Egyptian society lacks deep knowledge of human rights and needs a council to work on increasing public awareness," he said.

Sayed Shaaban, who spoke on behalf of the lawyers' Syndicate, was also in support of the issue.

" The Syndicate sees that this is a great step towards improving the situation of human rights in Egypt and hopes that it will be effectively administered," he said.

Once the floor was open for the audience to comment, two representatives of two different human rights NGOs were allowed to express their opinions.

Manal el-Tibi, head of the Egyptian Institute for Housing Rights, said that the main obstacle to NGOs concerned with human rights issues is the lack of awareness.

" We should grant the council the right to spread human rights culture and act as the mediator between NGOs and government officials," she said.

Said Abdel-Hafez,, head of the fieldwork unit for the Egyyptian organization for human rights (EOHR), criticized all who opposed the initiative.

"As Dr Hamdi el-Sayed said, the details of the initiative are not available yet, so why are we criticizing something we don't know?" he said.

He also expressed dissatisfaction with the absence of alternative proposals.

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