Egypt: Presidential Decree on Emergency Medical Services Addresses Concerns
of Judiciary and Civil Society Organizations
The Committee for the Defense of
the Right to Health welcomes the Egyptian government's response to
objections put forward by the Council of State and Egyptian civil society
organizations to a draft Presidential Decree on the establishment of an
Egyptian Emergency Medical Services Agency (EMSA). The final version,
Presidential Decree (No. 139/2009), was issued on 3 May 2009 containing
significant improvements made by the government to the original draft.
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Egypt: Decree
Ends ID Bias against Baha’is Halts Official Discrimination against
‘Non-Recognized’ Religion
(Cairo, April 15, 2009) – The new
decree from Egypt’s Interior Ministry recognizing the right of adherents of
”non-recognized” religions to obtain necessary identification documents and
access to basic services is an overdue and positive step, Human Rights Watch
and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) said today. The
decree ends an official policy of coercing Egyptian Baha’is into
misidentifying themselves as Muslims or Christians.
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Five-Year Legal
Battle Ends in Favor of Baha’i Egyptians: Supreme Administrative Court
Upholds Right to Identification Documents without Discrimination
Today’s final decision by the
Supreme Administrative Court upholding the right of Baha'i Egyptians to
obtain mandatory identification documents without stipulating any religious
affiliation is a welcome end to a long legal battle against official
religious discrimination, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
said today.
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Freedom of Religion
and Belief in Egypt - Fourth Quarterly Report (October - December 2008)
This report addresses several of
the most significant developments seen in Egypt in the field of freedom of
religion and belief in the months of October, November, and December of
2008. The report observes continued sectarian tension and violence all over
Egypt and documents cases in the governorates of Cairo, Alexandria,
Qalyoubiya, Sharqiya, Kafr al-Sheikh, Minya, and Luxor. The report also
notes increased tensions and clashes as a result of Copts establishing
“service centers” to use for social occasions, prayers, or religious lessons
in neighborhoods and villages that have no nearby churches or in cases where
Copts have failed to obtain permits to build a new church or renovate an
existing church.
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New Study Urges
Parliament to Pass Mental Health Bill
A new mental health bill currently debated by a
parliamentary committee will significantly improve the legal protection of
the rights of persons with mental disorders, the Egyptian Initiative for
Personal Rights (EIPR) said in a new study. The study, entitled "Egypt's
New Mental Health Bill: a First Step on the Right Path," calls on
members of Parliament to support and improve the bill, but stresses that a
new law must be succeeded by other measures to promote and protect human
rights related to mental health. More
Al-Khosous Chief
of Criminal Investigations must be Indicted for Torture, Sexual Assault and
Unlawful Detention
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
today urged the Public Prosecutor to indict the Al-Khosous chief of criminal
investigations, Captain Sherif Hossameddin, following credible and
consistent complaints of abuses he committed last week against a number of
men and women from the Al-Khosous town in the governorate of Qalioubiya,
including arbitrary arrest, hostage-taking, unlawful detention, torture and
sexual assault. More
Samalut's Sectarian Violence: Fighting Impunity is the Only Way to
Reconciliation
The Egyptian Initiative for
Personal Rights (EIPR) today released the preliminary findings of its
inquiry into the sectarian violence that took place in the village of
Al-Tayeba, located in the Samalut district of Al-Minya Governorate, on
Friday, 3 October. The violence left one dead and four injured and involved
arson and the destruction of homes, land and property.
The EIPR called on the Public
Prosecutor to ensure an independent investigation into the events and to
bring perpetrators to justice regardless of any political implications. The
organization also urged officials and Church leaders to give due
consideration to the rights of the victims and guarantee perpetrators do not
escape punishment under the guise of reconciliation.
Egyptian Human
Rights Organizations Condemn Unfair Verdict for the Imprisonment of Ibrahim
Eissa
The Egyptian human rights organizations
signatories to this joint statement express their condemnation of the
judgment passed yesterday by the Court of Appeals ordaining the imprisonment
of the editor-in-chief of the private daily Al Doustour newspaper, Ibrahim
Eissa for two months.
ARTICLE 19,
CIHRS and EIPR Reject Idea of Defamation of Religion
ARTICLE 19 and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS),
with the support of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, have
submitted a Joint Written Statement to the 9th Session of the UN Human
Rights Council, which will take place in Geneva from 8-23 September 2008,
criticising resolutions on ‘Defamation of Religion’ and calling on States
not to support future resolutions of this sort on the basis that they
justify excessive restrictions on freedom of expression.
Punishing Saad
El Din Ibrahim, A New Ring in the Chain of Opinion Trials
The Egyptian
human rights organizations express their deep concern over the ruling
rendered recently by “Al Khalifa Misdemeanor Court” –in absentia-
against Dr. Saad El Din Ibrahim, an outstanding defender of human rights
and democratic freedoms, professor of sociology, and Director of Ibn
Khaldun Center for Developmental Studies. The Court punished Ibrahim
with two-year imprisonment sentence with labor and an 10 thousand LE
fine to suspend the sentence enforcement. He was condemned of outraging
Egypt’s reputation and prestige and of harming national interests. The
“whereases” of the ruling were based on a report prepared by the
Egyptian Foreign Ministry, which referred to his articles regarding the
domestic situation in Egypt, published in several prominent American and
international newspapers. Those writings requested the American
Administration to link the US AID programs granted to the Egyptian
government with progress achieved on the track of democratic reform.
Abu Fana:
Reconciliation is No Substitute for Justice
Reconciliation
efforts following the armed assault on the Abu Fana Coptic monastery in
Minya last May must not lead to impunity for the perpetrators of serious
abuses, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) warned today.
The EIPR stressed
that the official response to the crisis should not be confined to the
settlement being negotiated currently with government mediation between
representatives of the Coptic Church and the Bedouin residents of the
village adjacent to the monastery.
