EFDSPP Quadrennial Report to the Session of the Universal Periodic Review-48 (UPR) related to Egypt, at the Human Rights Council /UN

According to hold the 48th session of the Universal Periodic Review of the United Nations Human Rights Council from January 20-30, 2025 in Geneva, and as the Egyptian Federation for Development &  Social Protection policies has a consultative status within the corridors of the United Nations and all its organs, the Strategic Forum for Public Policies and Development Studies (Darya) issues a report that monitors the measures taken by the Egyptian state to improve the human rights situation and overcome the current challenges.

First : Civil and political rights 

:Freedom of opinion, expression and press* 

: Guaranteeing freedom of expression in all its forms in accordance with Egypt’s international obligations

1. -Article (65) in the 2014 constitution stipulates that Freedom of thought and opinion is guaranteed. Every person shall have the right to express his/her opinion verbally, in writing, through imagery, or by any other means of expression and publication.
2. – Article (72) stipulates that the State shall ensure the independence of all State-owned press institutions and media outlets, in a manner ensuring their neutrality and presentation of all political and intellectual opinions and trends as well as social interests and also guaranteeing equality and equal opportunities in addressing public opinion.
3. – The Constitution guarantees the prohibition of censorship, warning, suspension, or administrative cancellation of newspapers and considers its to be exercising their mission in accordance with the Constitution and the law.
4. – Law No. 180 of 2018 regulating the press and media guarantees all means of protection for freedom of the press, media, printing and publishing.
5. -The first axis of the National Human Rights Strategy, related to civil and political rights, included basic rights such as the right to expression.  It developed 6 targeted results, the most prominent are the following:- Promoting the right to exercise freedom of expression and confronting any violations within the framework of the constitution and laws.- Issuing a comprehensive code of conduct for all aspects of the media and journalistic fields, including digital media and social networking sites, to ensure the regulation of the exercise of freedom of expression without infringing on the freedoms of others. -Continuing the state’s efforts to protect media professionals and journalists as they perform their work within the framework of the constitution and laws.

*Torture and other forms of treatment in the Criminal Investigation Department:

1- Immediately put an end to the practice of torture and ill-treatment in all places of detention, and establish an independent body to investigate allegations of torture and enforced disappearance.

2- Ensuring that all prisoners receive minimum standards of humane treatment, including protection from all forms of torture.Efforts related to the treatment of prisoners and other detainees have witnessed a number of measures, including changing the penal philosophy to comply with international conventions and ensure the protection of human rights, followed by amending the prison law and transforming penal institutions into rehabilitation institutions for prisoners, which has already been observed in Wadi al-Natroun and Badr Rehabilitation & Reform Centers.The National Strategy for Human Rights, launched in September 2021, has established guidelines & plans for dealing with prisoners and other detainees:- The members of the public prosecution supervise and inspect prisons, places of detention, observation and care centers, in addition to accepting prisoners’ complaints.- Continuing to develop and modernize prison buildings and establish new prisons to reduce the density with the aim of improving Prisoners’ standard of living.- Holding religious and cultural seminars for prison inmates and involving civil society organizations and the private sector in reintegrating the released into society and providing the necessary support to them and their families.- Providing visits to prisons by members of the National Council for Human Rights and civil society organizations in accordance with the relevant legal regulations.- Conducting periodic examinations on inmates, detecting and treating chronic diseases and dispensing the necessary medicines for free. In this context, Egypt implemented a number of activities: -Expanding pardon and conditional release decisions (more than 20,000 during the period from September 2021 to August 2022) and providing financial and in-kind assistance to 10,659 released inmates and 28,775 cases of inmates’ families.-Providing assistance for the families of prisoners,  helping them face their economic and social problems. -The National Council for Human Rights investigated all complaints about enforced disappearance, confirming that most of the cases were either presented to the Public Prosecution and placed in prison, or emigrated outside the country and joined terrorist organizations.

*The death penalty:

1- Put an immediate end to the death penalty for those under the age of 18 at the time of committing crime.

2- Consider halting the implementation of the death penalty and reviewing the rulings with the aim of completely abolishing the death penalty.-The Egyptian law, in accordance with Article 111 of the Child Law, stipulates that “the death penalty, life imprisonment, or aggravated imprisonment shall not be imposed on a defendant who has not reached the age of eighteen at the time of committing a crime.”- The Egyptian legislator has prescribed the death penalty to achieve general deterrence in crimes that involve a great deal of danger, and has required several guarantees for the judgment, namely: the death penalty must be issued unanimously by the court, the opinion of the Mufti of the Republic must be taken, the case must be referred to the Court of Cassation to exercise its control over all the elements of the judgment, the President has to ratify any death sentence issued by a court, whether military or civil.

*Freedom of religion and belief:

1-Supporting initiatives to promote respect for cultural diversity and religious toleranceز

2-Continuing promoting the culture of tolerance through extensive participation in interfaith dialogue activities, including cooperation with other countries.

3- Continuing efforts to ensure respect for freedom of religion or belief in law and practice, in full accordance with international standards.-The Egyptian state is keen to strengthen national unity as the pillar of building the new republic, by consolidating the values ​​of justice, equality and citizenship. -Societal stability indicators improved in Egypt, as it advanced 12 places in the citizenship index issued by US News (65th place in 2020, compared to 69th place in 2019, and 75th place in 2018.) 

–The National Human Rights Strategy included freedom of religion and belief. It aims to achieve a number of results during the period from 2021-2026 as intensifying awareness campaigns to promote peaceful coexistence and acceptance of others, implementing more youth initiatives aimed at supporting the values ​​of citizenship and belonging.

– The Ministry of Education reviewed all academic curricula to include topics that contribute to consolidating the values ​​of dialogue, acknowledging difference, and accepting others.

– Under the slogan “We are all Egyptians.. Our diversity is our strength,” the Ministry of Social Solidarity has allocated a budget of 12 million Egyptian pounds for one year to support eight NGOs to implement the required interventions.

 Other efforts are related to increasing the number of Christians in public posts, legalizing the status of churches and allocating land for the construction of new churches.

 -Christians in public posts

– The representation of Christians in parliamentary councils and leadership positions has increased in an unprecedented way (the number of Christian deputies in the parliament in 2021 reached 31 elected deputies, compared to 5 Christian deputies elected in 2012, and the number of Christian seats in the Senate increased to 24 seats in 2020 for the first time, compared to 15 Christian seats in 2012.

– The conservative movement for the first time included the appointment of 2 Christians to the post of governor in 2018.

-Building churches and regulating their status:

– The issuance of the law on the construction and restoration of churches in 2016, which is one of the most important gains of the state of citizenship, as it ends a problem that has existed for many years related to the difficulties faced by the process of building and restoring churches.

– The main committee for the legalization of the status of churches and affiliated buildings indicated that the number of churches and buildings that have been approved to legalize their status since the start of the committee’s work in 2017 until November 2022 is about 2526 churches and affiliated buildings.

– Allocation of 41 plots of land for the construction of churches in new cities during the period from 2014 to 2019.

– The construction of 6 new churches has been completed and work is underway to establish 8 more in the new cities

– Restoration and development of 13 churches and monasteries, and the restoration and development of 42 churches and monasteries is underway.

Second: Special recommendations for the rights of some groups 

• Women’s rights:

-Political, economic and social rights:

– The 2014 constitution obliges the Egyptian state in both Articles 11 and 53 to ensure the achievement of equality between men and women, protect them from all forms of violence and provide care and protection for Childhood and motherhood.

– Continuing to implement the activities of the national strategy for the empowerment of Egyptian women until 2030, in line with the Egyptian constitution and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

– Continuing efforts to achieve greater participation of women in political and economic life, as well as to increase their representation in leadership positions.

– Strengthening capacity-building activities and providing support to women in small, medium and micro enterprises.

The Egyptian state has made great efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women, most notably the following: 

– The National Strategy to Eliminate Violence against Women 2015-2020 was launched, in addition to the launch of the “National Strategy for Empowering Egyptian Women 2030” in order to protect them from all forms of violence.

– Launching 27 anti-harassment units in public universities.

– Establishment of the National Committee to Eliminate Female Genital Mutilation in May 2019.

– Launching a national plan to eliminate the phenomenon of female genital mutilation (2022-2026).

At the political, social and economic level:– Women have a strong presence in many leadership positions that were not available to them before،- The percentage of women’s representation in the House of Representatives in 2020 reached about 28% (162 seat), which is the largest number in the history of the Egyptian parliament, and the number of women in the Senate for 2020, 38 women accounted for 12.5% of the total members of the council, and for the first time a woman was appointed to the post of deputy of the Senate, and the number of women in the Cabinet in the last ministerial reshuffle August 2022 about 6 ministers.-11 women were appointed as deputy public prosecutors in the judicial year 2021/2022, the total number of female judges in the State Council was about 137 judges, and the number of female members of the Administrative Prosecution Authority was about two thousand out of the total number of Administrative Prosecution members of 4.6 thousand (43% women), and the percentage of female judges in the state issues Authority reached 20% during 2021. The percentage of women in government jobs was 45 %.( Compared to the world average of 32%).- In the framework of enhancing women’s economic empowerment, the government launched the “Mastura” program through Nasser social Bank, which provided 27 thousand micro-projects with a total capital of EGP 3.7 billion, noting that 70% of these projects are concentrated in rural areas.

 

• Child rights:

1- Strengthening the role of child protection committees and providing them with the necessary financial resources to enable them to provide protection services to children.

2- Continuing to strengthen efforts to eliminate child labor and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.

3- Continuing programs aimed at reducing school dropout rates.

Egypt has made great efforts to adopt laws and political measures that would guarantee children better protection from violence in all its forms:

 – The Constitution of 2014 guarantees all aspects of protection and care for the Egyptian child, where Article 80 clearly states “Anyone under the age of 18 shall be considered a child. Each child shall have the right to a name, identity documents, free compulsory vaccination, health and family or alternative care, basic nutrition, safe shelter, religious education, and emotional and cognitive development.”

– Egypt has ratified a number of international child rights treaties, and has also signed the African Charter on the Rights of the Child.- Establishing a free child helpline (No. 16000) dedicated to helping children in situations of danger.Ø Migrant rights: 1- Ensuring effective access to protection mechanisms for migrants. 2- Reaffirming its commitment to the practice of non-refoulement and ensure that resources and support are available to vulnerable migrants.3- Improving the alignment of its domestic laws with the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Supplementary Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air4- Strengthening policies aimed at protecting and promoting the rights of refugees and minorities.–As a country of destination, crossing, and departure, Egypt has been exposed to waves of illegal immigration, as a result of the increasing state of political instability in the region, as Egypt hosts about 9 million refugees and immigrants from more than 58 different nationalities. They enjoy various basic services. The number of refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt reached about 259.3 thousand refugees and asylum seekers in 2020.-Egypt succeeded in halting illegal immigration flows, tightening land and sea border controls,& establishing a national legislative framework to combat migrant smuggling, as well as hosting millions of refugees and migrants and dealing with them without discrimination and integrating them into Egyptian society, and not isolating them in camps.

Work was carried out on three files to combat this type of immigration as follows:

First Issue: establishing legislative and institutional frameworks: -Law No. 82 of 2016 regarding combating illegal immigration and migrant smuggling and its Executive Regulation No. 983 of 2018 came to establish deterrent penalties for this phenomenon by criminalizing all forms of migrant smuggling.-In April 2022, the President of the Republic issued Law No. 2 of 2022 amending some provisions of the Law on Combating Illegal Immigration and Migrant Smuggling promulgated by Law No. 82 of 2016 in order to combat this phenomenon. The penalty was increased to become aggravated imprisonment for a period of not less than five years and a fine of not less than Five hundred thousand pounds and not more than one million pounds. -Launching the National Strategy to Combat Illegal Immigration (2016/2026), which targets the groups most at risk of exploitation by smugglers, namely young people (18-35 years old), children and their families, and those arriving to Egypt illegally.-The government established a number of bodies concerned with managing the illegal immigration file, the most important of which are the Ministry of State for Immigration and Affairs of Egyptians Abroad, and the National Coordinating Committee to Combat and Prevent Illegal Immigration.

Second Issue: Security dealing:Thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Interior and the Armed Forces in securing the borders very well, attempts at illegal migration of Egyptians and foreigners across the land and sea borders were thwarted. 

Third Issue: development efforts:– Launching the “Decent Life” initiative to raise the quality of life for citizens in villages that source illegal immigration.- Developing places and hotbeds of illegal immigration, and the implementation of major national projects, which led to providing hundreds of thousands of jobs. – Facilitating all marketing procedures of the micro and small enterprise financing initiative for young people, and allocate an amount of 200 billion pounds for its implementation.- The “lifeboats” Initiative contributed to raising awareness and training the most targeted groups to familiarize them with the dangers of illegal migration.Ø Rights of persons with disabilities:

1- Strengthening of national bodies responsible for the protection of persons with disabilities from violence.

2-Continuing its efforts to strengthen protection and social inclusion programs for poor families, the elderly, orphans and people with disabilities who are unable to work.

The most prominent efforts made by the Egyptian state to support people with disabilities were: -The constitution of 2014 affirmed all rights and duties towards persons with disabilities, and included 8 articles related to them. -In 2019, Egypt signed the “Valletta “declaration for Arab-European cooperation in supporting the rights of people with disabilities.-Issuing Law No. 10 of 2018 on the rights of persons with disabilities and its executive regulations, as well as issuing Law No. 200 of 2020 on the establishment of the ” fund to support persons with disabilities” . -Establishing” National Council for persons with disabilities ” by Presidential Decision No. 11 of 2019, which aims to promote and protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. -Expanding the use of communication technologies to empower people with disabilities.-Establishing a number of schools in the governorates to integrate students with disabilities with their peers in public schools. 6 million children attended these schools, including 75,000 children with disabilities enrolled in 290 schools in 7 governorates.- Increasing the punishment for bullying against people with disabilities to up to 5 years in prison.