Organizations boycott the Egyptian national council for human rights
Egypt, Politics, 2/18/2004

Some 15 human rights organizations said they will not cooperate with the new national council for Human rights in Egypt, considering that it does not enjoy credibility under the emergency law enacted in Egypt since 23 years.

These non- governmental organizations explained they are not ready to cooperate with this council "as long as conditions depriving it from credibility continue," calling on the Egyptian government to lift the state of emergency imposed since 1981 and set the freedom of forming parties, trade unions, and newspapers.

The Egyptian government announced on January 19 the formation of the national council for human rights and appointed on top of it the former UN secretary general Butrous Ghali, while the post of the deputy was assigned to former minister and legal expert Ahmad Kamal Abu al-Majd.

The council is composed of university teachers and international law experts, three activists in the area of human rights. They are the chairman if Cairo center for human rights studies, Bahe Eddine Hassan, the chairman of the Egyptian organization for human rights, Hafez Abu Sadaah, the chairman of the Arab organization for human rights, Muhammad Faeq, as well as the chairman of the journalists union, Jalal Aref, and the chairman of the Egyptian bar association, Samih Ashour. The council includes 6 women in its membership.

The decision for establishing this council was taken by the People's Assembly (parliament) on June 15, 2003, under the condition that it would be affiliated to the parliament. Two thirds of its members are elected while the other are appointed, predominant by the ruling democratic national party.

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