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- When Would The Emergency Law Be Abolished ?
On 22 of this month Egypt's People's Assembly agreed to extend the enforcement of the Emergency Law in the country for three years. This notorious law first came to force in 1967. Since then, it has been recurrently reinforced, except for the period from 15 May 1980 to 15 October 1980. In this way, the Emergency Law replaced the Egyptian Constitution as the actual constitution prevailing in the country.
In view of the fact that Egypt was among the countries which ratified the International Declaration on Civil, Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic and Social and Cultural rights, the permanent implementation of the Emergency Law constitutes a flagrant violation.
In response to the People's Assembly decision, Land Centre issues this report on the current conditions of Human Rights in Egypt.
Human rights and public freedoms in Egypt are the subject of almost daily violation.
Amidst the bleak conditions of human rights, torture, unfair trials and detention have been exercised against suspects in political cases, violence, and terrorism. The same practices also affected other social groups, such as human rights activists, factory workers, farmers and poor communities.
Freedom of Expression and the right to obtain and disseminate information were also confiscated. The government manipulated the media and the press to express the narrow interests of the ruling clique. It openly imposes strict restrictions on the freedom of the press and hinders activities of civil society institutions by imposing many harsh regulations on their activities.
Political parties, on the other hand, suffer under the strict control of the Law on Political Parties and the semi-official Political Party's Committee. Under this law, the activity of political parties in Egypt is practically confined in their party premises. Even worse is that the various consecutive governments in Egypt have insistently imposed strict controls over the people right to assembly and their freedom of association.
Professional syndicates and trade unions suffer from similar restrictions. With the government promulgation of the law No 100, it managed to freeze elections in any of these institutions for two years. The Bar Association and Engineers Syndicate are cases in point. Furthermore, restrictions intensified with the implementation of Law No.153 of 1999. Under this law, it is possible for the government to dissolve the boards of public associations and effectively restricts their activities.
At present, the government turns on Human Rights organisations. It has recently launched a campaign to question the legacy and credibility of public associations. The campaign resulted in the suspension of one of these organisations, and the referring of one of its activists to the State Security Prosecution.
Undoubtedly, such conditions have taken their toll on public economic, social and cultural rights. The poor became poorer as indicated in a report prepared by the National Planning Institute on Human Development in 1999. The report sets the rate of poverty at 48% of Egypt’s total population. In addition, the report sets the rate of the people under the poverty line at 23%- almost about quarter of the nation's population. It also shows that unemployment rate was 17,5% of the nation’s total labor force.
The consequences of these terrible conditions were reflected in the rise of many negative phenomena in the Egyptian society, including begging, child labor, homelessness and prostitution. In addition, the uneven development between rural and urban provinces has become more apparent than previously. Many of the rural provinces experience harsh living conditions than urban provinces. The Capital, Cairo, also suffers from the explosion of shantytowns on its outskirts.
The government seems to have refrained from its social responsibility towards the poor and low-income groups. The rights to housing, education, work, and health are systematically ignored by the government institutions. The strikes staged by workers of Misr for Pharmaceutical Supplies, Assuit Cement factory, Mahmoudiya Contracting Company and those of Military Factory No 9 are cases in point.
Therefore, it was predictable that under such hopeless circumstances many of our people would become less interested in political participation. The prevailing corruption among government institutions adds to the state of negative bitterness among the public.
We believe that our dreams for social and economic development can be realized only when democratic forces in Egypt firmly stand against the Emergency Law, which violates our right to a better life.