Egyptian Initiative for
Personal Rights
Freedom of Religion and
Belief Program
8 July 2008- News
Update
Preparatory Hearing Held at Supreme Constitutional Court on Religious
Conversion Case
Legal experts of
Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) yesterday held a first
preparatory hearing on the new lawsuit (case number 92/30) concerning the
constitutionality of a legal provision that allows citizens to change their
religious affiliation in public records.
The SCC's Commissioners
Authority, a department of legal experts who are legally required to submit
advisory opinions on all new cases referred to the court, decided at the end
of the preparatory hearing to grant parties to the case a period of thirty
days to submit written arguments. The Commissioners Authority will submit
their response to the case to SCC judges who are expected to start hearings
on the matter later this year.
The case was referred to the SCC on 4 March 2008 by the Court of
Administrative Justice, headed by Judge Mohammed al-Husseini. Judge
al-Husseini decided to suspend consideration of all appeals filed before his
court by Christian citizens who had converted to Islam and were seeking
recognition of their re-conversion to Christianity. He petitioned the SCC to
rule on the constitutionality of Article 47 of the Civil Status Law (Law
143/1994), regulating the procedures for changing or correcting one’s
religion, nationality or profession on official identification documents.
The SCC will consider whether this legal provision, which allows one to
freely change one's religion, is compatible with Article 2 of the
Constitution, which states that Islam is the official religion of the State
and that the principles of Shari’a are the main source of legislation.
Background
A report by the
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), issued jointly with Human
Rights Watch in November 2007, documents and analyzes the Egyptian
government's longstanding policy of refusing to recognize the
"re-conversion" to Christianity by Egyptians Christians who had previously
converted to Islam. The report, "Prohibited Identities: State
Interference with Religious Freedom," highlights the way in which the
Interior Ministry’s Civil Status Department misidentifies these citizens in
official records, listing them as "Muslim." Such designation subjects these
citizens to Muslim family law and predetermines the religious affiliation of
their children and the mandatory religious education they will receive in
public schools.
Over the last few years, this arbitrary policy has been challenged in court
by a number of Egyptians. These lawsuits eventually secured a final
decision by the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) in February 2008
allowing 12 Christian converts to Islam to “re-convert” back to Christianity
and to obtain new identity cards recognizing them as Christians. National
identity cards are necessary for education, employment and the most basic
financial and administrative transactions. The SAC's decision was meant to
put an end to the suffering of all Egyptians who have, for decades, endured
this abusive policy. However, the lower Court of Administrative Justice
later decided to challenge the constitutionality of the legal provision that
provided the basis for the SAC ruling and to refer the matter to the Supreme
Constitutional Court (SCC). This is now
case number 92/30,
currently under review. The SCC is exclusively mandated with interpreting
the Constitution and its finding are final and binding on all state
authorities and courts.
To view the Human Rights Watch and Egyptian
Initiative for Personal Rights report, “Prohibited Identities: State
Interference with Religious Freedom,” please visit:
http://eipr.org/en/reports/Prohibited_ID_1107/english.pdf
