The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) urged members of the People's Assembly (PA) today to put the right to privacy at the heart of their debate over the new Communications Bill, expected to be considered soon by the PA after the Shura Council (the upper house of Egyptian Parliament) approved the bill on 24 November 2002.

The bill expands the government's power to engage in surveillance of private conversations and communications. An initial reading of the bill's 92 articles raises many concerns over the possible effects it could have on the right to privacy and on the secrecy of individual citizens' communications.

Article 45 of the Egyptian Constitution states that:

"The law shall protect the inviolability of the private life of citizens. Correspondence, wires, telephone calls and other means of communication shall have their own sanctity and secrecy and may not be confiscated or monitored except by a causal judicial warrant and for a definite period according to the provisions of the law."

The EIPR is particularly concerned about Article 65 of the bill, which (despite the slight amendments to it by the government during the Shura Council debate) still bars individuals from encrypting their communications--including their e-mail accounts)--without written authorization from the government. Thus the National Apparatus for Communications, the Military Forces, and national security apparatuses (President's Office, Ministry of the Interior and National Security Authority) would need to approve a citizen's basic right to protect his or her confidential communications. The bill stipulates a penalty of up to three years of imprisonment and a fine of L.E10,000-100,000 (ca. 2250-22,500 Euro) for the violation of this article.

The EIPR is equally concerned that the same article allows the Military Forces, Ministry of the Interior and National Security Authority to access any communications network "in fulfillment of national security needs." This ambiguous phrase does not specify those national security needs. The multiple interpretations it allows could give authorities wide scope to violate the right to privacy. This language contravenes existing guarantees in Article 95 of the Criminal Procedures Code, which stipulates that secrecy of communications can be breached only "when that could benefit the emergence of truth relating to a felony or to a misdemeanor punishable by more than three months of imprisonment."

The EIPR is also alarmed at the clear intent of the bill to regulate the Internet in the course of enhancing existing surveillance mechanisms. The EIPR strongly believes that regulation of the Internet should respect its special character as a communications medium--one which (unlike television or print media) is not private or proprietary and which potentially allows open access to all. The Internet intrinsically allows communication across borders; its use should not be permitted or penalized according to narrow interpretations of national sovereignty. It should be placed in the same category of regulation as other globally shared spaces and responsibilities which transcend sovereignty--such as international waters or outer space. The data exchanged over the Internet, and its use by individuals to establish and enhance their private lives and spheres, should be safeguarded--not regarded as a threat.

On 1 Nov ember 2002 the United Nations Human Right Committee called on the Egyptian government to "strictly uphold Article 17" of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) concerning the right to privacy. The ICCPR became part of Egyptian domestic legislation upon its ratification by Egypt in 1981. Article 17 states that:

"1. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honor and reputation.

2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks." Egypt's government should consider this proposed legislation in the light of its treaty commitments under the ICCPR.

Background:

On 3 April 2002 President Mubarak issued a decree containing the draft bill on the Regulation of Communications. The Chairman of the Shura Council referred the bill on the following day to a joint committee representing the Council's Committee on Industrial Production and Energy, the Committee on Arab and External Affairs and National Security and the Committee on Constitutional and Legislative Affairs. Members of the Shura Council considered the bill and the committee's report on 23 and 24 November 2002 before approving it.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights is planning to issue an analytical study of the bill from a right to privacy perspective, as the first step in a series of activities aimed at identifying elements in legislation that contravene international human rights law.