The Geneva timing Mohamed Salmawy Tue, 04/11/2014 - 14:28 Send to friends The meeting of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva tomorrow comes at an awkward timing because the prevailing laws in Egypt were devised under oppressive authoritarian regimes that did not heed human rights except superficially. But after two consecutive revolutions on 25 January and 30 June, Egypt devised a constitution that allows a space for human rights unprecedented in any of the previous Egyptian constitutions, with 48 new articles on rights and freedoms. But the paradox is that we are going through a period of transition where the old and the new mingle, and where the new laws on human rights still wait to be issued once parliament is elected. More than one hundred countries, who have requested to ask about the human rights situation in Egypt, are expected to criticize us in this regard in terms of legislations, certain court rulings and some practices of the security services. But we must remember that those rulings were all issued under the existing laws and not the new ones that still wait to be issued, and that the practices of the security services, of which some we do reject, stem from the norms that those services have been accustomed to for a long time in the absence of laws that criminalize them. For example, although torture was prohibited in all previous constitutions, it was not criminalized except in the new constitution, which states clearly that the dignity of the accused and their physical and psychological rights must be safeguarded. We must realize that the human rights situation in Egypt will not improve without legislative reform that modifies the existing laws. The Egyptian delegation in Geneva should explain that the existing regime is not responsible for this situation and cannot direct the judiciary with laws that have not yet been issued. It should also make clear that Egypt has changed after the revolution and that it is embarking on a new phase of legislative reform that is derived from a new constitution that establishes a modern civil state that respects human rights. Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 12:01:16 +0000
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