The undersigned human rights organisations condemn the Egyptian government's response to a letter from seven Special Rapporteurs of the UN Human Rights Council regarding the situation of Egyptian Baha'is. The response was a boilerplate statement limited to an assertion of Egypt's commitment to its duties towards its citizens in accordance with the constitution, national legislation, and human rights treaties it has signed. The response did not address the specific violations contained in the Special Rapporteurs' letter, which was based on complaints by Egyptian Baha'is of increasing daily hardship. The Egyptian response also avoided providing any guarantees or future commitments to cease these violations and rectify the legal deficiencies that allow them.

The letter sent to the Egyptian government was signed by the Special Rapporteurs on freedom of religion or belief,  in the field of cultural rights, on the right to education, ton the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, and the Vice-Chair of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

The letter from the UN Rapporteurs to the Egyptian government highlighted the multiple consequences of the denial of rights to Egyptian Baha'is, especially concerning the allocation of cemeteries, the inclusion of the Baha'i faith in the mandatory religion field on official documents, and the recognition of marriage. Egyptian state institutions continue to show unjustified obstinacy in recognising Baha'i marriage contracts, even if they do not include a reference to their religious identity. This results in several rights violations, including the inability to obtain birth certificates for their children listing  their parents' names, impeding children's access to schooling, inheritance distribution, and the acquisition of nationality for children when one of the spouses is a foreigner.

The complaint also addressed the surveillance imposed on some Baha'is in Egypt, who are asked to provide a list of names of individuals who coordinate the Baha'i community's internal activities to the National Security Agency. An increasing number of them are also being placed on “the on-arrival “watch list”, subjected to thorough baggage searches, and detained for several hours before being released.

The Special Rapporteurs' complaint stated: “Baháʼís are reportedly called into the National Security Office for questioning related to their involvement in Baháʼí activities…In addition, social and humanitarian projects of Baháʼís are shut down, and their friends and associates are discouraged from maintaining relationships with them.” 

Notably, the Egyptian government's response provided a perfunctory reply to all the violations mentioned in the letter while ignoring any reference to these security violations.

The Baha'i faith was first introduced in Egypt since 1863, with the first National Spiritual Assembly established in 1925, the complaint read. The assemblies were responsible for organising the affairs of the Baha'is until a presidential decree in 1960 dissolved Baha'i assemblies and banned Baha'i activities in Egypt. Baha'is are subjected to campaigns of persecution and deprivation of their constitutional rights, the pace of which has increased in recent years.

The government based its initial response on Article 64 of the Egyptian Constitution, which guarantees absolute freedom of belief and is consistent with Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (which Egypt ratified and became  part of its national legislation in 1982) in guaranteeing everyone's freedom of belief and the right to manifest their religion in worship, observance, practice, and teaching. Egyptian organisations affirm that this article has been emptied of meaning by granting the right to practice religious rituals and establish places of worship exclusively to followers of the three ‘Abrahamic’ religions. This means that Baha'is are denied their right to practice religious rituals and their rights to freedom of opinion, expression, and association.

At the same time, the Egyptian response stated that the state does not impose restrictions on personal belief or religious affiliation as long as it is within the scope of respecting "public order" and the rights of others.The human rights organisations signing this statement note that the practical use of "public order" in judicial rulings is in reality based on a singular interpretation of Islamic Sharia, as the primary source of legislation (Article 2 of the Egyptian Constitution). This creates compounded injustices for non-adherents of the three recognized religions, which in turn is considered a violation of the interpretation of Article 18 of the ICCPR that states that "The fact that a religion is recognised as the State religion or as the official or traditional religion, or that its followers constitute the majority of the population, must not lead to an impediment to the enjoyment of any of the rights provided for in the Covenant."

The undersigned organisations note the Baha'is' persistent complaints regarding the insufficiency of cemeteries previously allocated to them since 1939. The four cemeteries that were previously allocated to them have been confiscated, leaving only one cemetery in Cairo, which is overcrowded and has an insufficient number of burial places. This forces them to transport the bodies of deceased Baha'is from any city in Egypt to be buried in Cairo.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR, as a legal representative for a number of Baha'is, filed lawsuits to allocate cemeteries for Baha'is in Alexandria and Port Said, but their appeals were rejected by both the governorates and the judiciary. The UN Special Rapporteurs expressed their deep concern about this, stating: “We are deeply concerned that Bahá’ís are being prevented from exercising their religious and cultural practices linked to the care of their deceased and their right to enjoy and access the cultural heritage and places of memory of their families.”

In response, the government denied that Baha'is needed additional cemeteries, stating that “the relevant authorities have the discretion to determine and regulate the number of cemeteries based on certified statistics related to population and annual death rates. These decisions are taken based on statistical data provided by the competent official authorities, primarily the Ministry of Health, and taking account of health, environmental and social standards. This information is used to estimate the actual need for cemeteries in each geographical area. Based on the above, the State confirms that there are sufficient burial sites to meet the needs of all citizens.”

As stated in the Special Rapporteurs' complaint, Baha'is cannot obtain official documents with their true religious affiliation listed in the mandatory religion field. After EIPR, representing Egyptian Baha'is, obtained a final ruling from the Supreme Administrative Court in 2008 granting them the right to obtain official documents with a blank religion field or a dash (-) in front of the religion field, the Minister of Interior issued Decree No. 520 of 2009, which allowed for a dash (-) for citizens who do not belong to the three recognised religions. This was limited, however, to those or their parents who had previously obtained official documents with a religion other than the three recognised religions, as this was considered the only way to prove a citizen's religious affiliation since there is no "competent authority" a citizen can turn to in order to prove a faith other than the three religions. However, Egyptian Baha'is—even those who meet this arbitrary and restrictive condition—have recently faced bureaucratic and illegal obstacles in obtaining this right, which they gained after a long legal struggle.

The Special Rapporteurs' letter stated: “The demarcation on the identity cards has allegedly been used as a tool of exclusion and of discrimination against Baháʼís in their daily life, including in their possibility to earn a livelihood, gain employment, access education, health and other rights. This also leads to harassment from security officials in day-to-day activities. According to the information received, obtaining an identity document is further challenged by the fact that there is only one single office in the entire country where Baháʼís can request a national identity card and other forms of identification”.. The undersigned organsations note the continued practice of the Civil Status Authority of issuing national ID numbers for married Baha'is as if they were unmarried, on the pretext that the state does not recognise marriage between Baha'is. The letter pointed out that this violates Article 23 of the ICCPR, as well as Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Egypt ratified in 1990.

The UN Rapporteurs concluded their letter by stating that all these incidents “appear to represent a pattern of continuous discrimination against Bahá’ís, aimed at their marginalization in the public space and preventing the enjoyment of their freedom of belief, conscience or religion. This appears to indicate a violation of the right to religious freedom, as contained in article 18 of the ICCPR, and discrimination against a religious minority, prohibited by article 27 of the ICCPR. Such actions may therefore be in contravention of the Arab Republic of Egypt’s international human rights obligations.”

While the undersigned organisations condemn the Egyptian government's dereliction of its responsibilities towards Egyptian Baha'i citizens, they present the following recommendations, the implementation of which will enable Egypt to begin fulfilling its minimum obligations in accordance with the constitution, national legislation, and the human rights treaties it has joined:

• Governors should issue decisions to allocate cemeteries for Baha'is close to their places of residence in accordance with their needs and the requests they submit.

• The Minister of Justice should issue a decision, in accordance with Article 3 of Law No. 68 of 1947, to appoint delegated registrars in various governorates to document marriage contracts between Baha'is.

• The persecution of Baha'is must cease, as should their questioning about their activities. Their names should be removed from airport “watch lists”, and non-Egyptian Baha'i religious leaders and followers should be allowed to enter the country without harassment.

Singatories::

• The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights 

• Nadeem Centre

• Refugees Platform in Egypt 

• Committee for Justice

• Sinai Foundation for Human Rights 

• Egypt Wide for Human Rights

• ِEgyptian Human Rights Forum

• Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies

• Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms