4.1.1 Formal Acceptance

Egypt has become a state party to all core UN human rights treaties, with the exception of the Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ced), which it did not even sign. The Assistant Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs in charge of human rights explained this position, stating that many countries have not adhered to this treaty.¹⁹ Human rights organizations, including the nchr, have reported cases of disappearances of people, some of whom would be declared later by authorities to be under police custody.²⁰ Of all the claims of disappearances communicated by the nchr to the Ministry of Interior, the Council received clarifications with respect to only half.²¹ One may therefore assume that the unwillingness on the part of the government to be held accountable for such practices, which have definitely increased during periods of confrontation with armed opposition groups between 1981 and 1997, and again since 2011, probably was an important reason for its failure to accede to this Convention.

Four of these treaties were signed between 1967 and 1980, while the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (cerd) was signed in 1966 and ratified in 1967. An explanation of the enthusiasm to ratify cerd seven months after its adoption by the UN General Assembly is the fact that the Egyptian government was not expecting to be targeted by this treaty, as it was presumed that the country did not have a history of practicing racial discrimination. Egypt’s adherence to cerd could be seen as a sign of solidarity with African peoples who were historically victims of such discrimination by colonial powers. Under the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser, in the 1960s Egypt was a leading power in Africa in the fight against colonialism and apartheid. The second treaty to be ratified during this period was the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (cedaw), signed in 1980 and ratified in 1981. The third and fourth treaties, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Right (ccpr) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (cescr), were both signed in 1967 but ratified only 15 years later, in 1982.

It would be easy also to argue that the country was in a state of war in the period 1967 to 1982, and that it prioritized its attention to these issues at the expense of focusing on international commitments. Egypt was attempting to recover parts of its territory occupied by Israel during the June 1967 war, and was preoccupied with the liberation of occupied territory, a process nearly completed in April 1982. The political regime that ruled Egypt under both Presidents Nasser and Sadat did not welcome the notion of human rights, which was seen as a Western tool to exert pressures on anti-colonial governments or a convenient discourse used by domestic opposition. Ratifying cedaw, however, was quite compatible with the proclaimed image of the regime that ruled the country since July 1952 as indeed committed to improving the status of women.

As for the other four treaties, namely, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (crc), the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (cat), the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (crpd) and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (cmw), these were all ratified under the rule of President Mubarak (1981–2011). Mubarak in fact had adopted a softer style of authoritarianism by introducing a dose of political liberalization in the country. After Egypt had regained all its occupied territory in the Sinai by 1982, the Egyptian government wanted to be seen as abiding by what it called international legality, a sign that it was adhering to international human rights treaties.

The Egyptian government attached reservations to its ratification to most of these treaties. Several of these reservations relate to provisions seen by the Egyptian government to be incompatible with Islamic Shari’a, such as reservations to the Optional Protocols to ccpr and cescr, articles 2 and 16 of cedaw, articles 20 and 21 of crc, and article 4 of cmw. The object of a second set of reservations was articles seen as infringing on the country’s sovereignty by holding it accountable before an international tribunal (the International Court of Justice or international arbitration tribunal). This statist position explains reservations to articles 22 of cerd and article 29 of cedaw, as well as a reluctance to join the Optional Protocols to most of these treaties calling for acceptance of individual complaints or enquiry procedures. The third category of reservations relates to what was perceived as a matter of national security. This was probably the undeclared rationale of the reservation to article 9(2) of cedaw calling on governments to grant women equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children. This reservation, however, was withdrawn in January 2008.²² The state party report to the cedaw Cttee stated that the reservation was withdrawn following the adoption of Law 54 of 2004, which granted women such equality.²³

In other instances, reservations were withdrawn under domestic pressure exerted by some civil society groups. This was indeed the case when the government withdrew reservations to articles 20 and 21 of crc relating to what should happen when children were separated from one or both of their parents. In his presentation of the third and fourth periodic report to the cedaw Cttee in December 2008, the representative of Egypt stated the following:²⁴

In response to paragraph 204 of the in document (crc/c/65/Add.9), Egypt has withdrawn its reservations to article 20 and 21 of the Convention by presidential Decree No 145 of 2003. The National Council of Childhood and Motherhood (the Council) has taken the initiative to call for the withdrawal of reservations and has led a campaign to raise awareness to that end. These efforts were crowned by the said decision of the President of the Republic.

4.1.2 General Attitude of the Egyptian Government towards the UN Treaty System

A major feature of Egyptian foreign policy since the country acquired a semi-independent status in 1922 was respect for ‘international legality’ including observation of commitments under the founding document of first the League of Nations and later the UN, of which it was a founding member. Egypt tended, in general, to cooperate with the UN and to uphold its Charter. This was also the case with the UN human rights system. While avoiding those human rights treaties that would subject the government to forms of international accountability, Egypt strove to demonstrate that it was not in violation of any of these treaties. This was particularly the case with those treaties that do not give rise to political controversies such as those dealing with women, children, migrant workers, persons with disabilities, or even cescr. The government had acceded to the two Optional Protocols substantively complementing crc (the Protocol banning the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, in 2002; and the Protocol prohibiting the involvement of children in armed conflicts, in 2007). However, Egypt did not accept any of the individual complaints mechanisms. The conciliatory attitude towards the UN human rights system started to change from August 2013. Statements by spokespersons for the ohchr, the Secretary of cat and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights commenting negatively on the Egyptian government’s restrictions of freedom of association, unfair trial or torture of prisoners were met not only by hostile media campaigns but also by strongly-worded rebuttals by the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.²⁵

4.1.3 Levels of Awareness

It is safe to assume that there is general awareness of the UN human rights system as it has occasionally been widely covered in Egyptian media, but the level of awareness of any particular treaty varies among government officials and non-governmental organizations (ngos) depending on their particular area of concern. The Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Parliamentary and Legal Affairs, Interior and Justice as well as the Office of the Public Prosecutor and the Council of State are definitely the most knowledgeable about the treaties as they have departments in charge of reporting on or responding to complaints on human rights violations. Other ministries or government bodies are knowledgeable about the treaties closer to their area of competence. Among legislators, there is a Commission for Human Rights within the House of Representatives which comments on reports of UN bodies and international ngos on the human rights situation in the country. More than 200 human rights organizations in Egypt are committed to upholding and disseminating knowledge of human rights among the Egyptian public. As for members of the judiciary, they rarely refer to human rights treaties but they recognize specific human rights only when they are embodied in domestic laws. Professors of law and political science must be familiar with UN core human rights treaties which they all studied in their undergraduate years while others teach some to their students. Other academics are aware of those treaties that relate to their academic disciplines.²⁶

Officials’ perceptions of UN human rights organs are mixed. They welcome their positive reporting on Egypt and critical reporting on governments that are unfriendly towards the Egyptian government, and would express their displeasure at their reports disapproving certain practices of the Egyptian government. This was particularly the case with some reports of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, or the Secretariat of cat disapproving of certain violations of human rights in Egypt, which were denounced in the country’s media and rebutted by spokespersons for the government as based on insufficient information about the situation in the country or issued under pressure by governments hostile to Egypt.²⁷ This was also the major theme of many commentators in government-controlled television stations.²⁸

All nine core human rights treaties, with the exception of ced, are accessible in Arabic as they have all been published in the official Gazette, which is a formal requirement for all ratified treaties.

The Egyptian public became aware of human rights through media coverage of the different positions taken by the Egyptian government on such issues. Debates on human rights in the media very often fail to specify the relevant treaty related to the issues being covered. The following Table indicates the number of media messages that specifically named one of the eight treaties. The Table is based on the reading of a sample of news items and articles published in major newspapers in Egypt during the period 2014–2019.

The Table demonstrates that cat and ccpr were the most cited in Egyptian newspapers during the period under study and that cescr was not very prominent in debates on human rights in the media. The three treaties on rights of children, women and persons with disabilities were in the middle. How could this be explained? In fact, the treaties that received more coverage were those that were most controversial in these debates. Another explanation for the frequency with which a particular treaty was mentioned is the existence of a public institution in charge of its implementation. crc, cedaw and crpd each has a particular institution in charge of promoting the rights it proclaims. Most of those who referred specifically to human rights treaties were either academics, government officials or human rights activists.

In reporting on the treaties, it is very rare to find a comprehensive account of any treaty or treaty body. The media usually covers the part of the proceedings of treaty body meetings of interest to Egypt or that relates to regional issues. Informing readers about the UN human rights system does not seem to be an attractive topic for newspapers or Egyptian media in general.

Human rights are taught in Egyptian public schools. The author had led a team of academics to examine the teaching of human rights for students of primary and secondary schools. Concepts of human rights are presented to young people in a way that corresponds to their age and their knowledge of human rights expands gradually to match their progress in the educational system.²⁹

A decision had been taken by the Supreme Council of Universities to introduce the teaching of human rights to all university students across disciplines. The Faculty of Economics and Political Science of Cairo University, the largest and oldest public university in the country, offered this course as an elective for second-year political science students. Some other faculties heeded the decision of the Supreme Council of Universities by introducing such courses, including the Girls Faculty at Ain Shams University as well as Political Science departments at both the American University in Cairo and the British University in Egypt. In my experience, this does not seem to be a general rule, nor does the course in most of the cases include a systematic study of all core treaties.

Some Egyptian academics and scholars published articles and books on several of these treaties. These treaties were used also in graduate dissertations. These works are available in English and Arabic, as could be seen from the analysis conducted for the author of a sample of these works. A preliminary analysis of a tentative list of academic publications on human rights yields the conclusion that most of the scholars who were interested in issues of human rights were more concerned with human rights in general and particularly the compatibility between human rights and Islamic Shari’a. Few academic studies in Arabic dealt with a specific treaty with the exception of cedaw on which there are a number of studies and dissertations in English. cmw was also the object of several contributions that were published in English.

A number of human rights organizations, particularly the Egyptian Organization of Human Rights, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, as well as the government, organized workshops to explain the UN human rights system to different categories of people. Human rights organizations catered mostly for human rights activists and university students. Through cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (undp) and under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, such workshops targeted media people, public prosecution officials and even police officers. The author participated either as a lecturer or evaluator in some of these workshops. National councils for women and children undertook similar activities for lawyers or groups of children.

Despite all these activities on human rights, it would be difficult to claim that there is sufficient knowledge of the core eight human right treaties ratified by Egypt whether within the government, the judiciary, legal profession, ngos or the public in general, with the exception of those in the government whose task it is to report to UN treaty bodies about Egypt’s observance of her commitment under these treaties. One would assume that officials of the four government-established councils for women, children, human rights and persons with disabilities, together with ngos that care about one particular treaty, know enough about the relevant treaties in their own domains. The educated public probably is aware of the concern by the UN and international ngos over human rights in general, particularly as their critique of the government’s record on such issues has become a matter of public debate in the country. It is doubtful whether the general public has more than a scant knowledge of any of the UN treaties other than ccpr and cat.

4.1.4 State Reporting

The Egyptian government’s record in submitting reports to the eight treaty bodies of which it is a member is quite inconsistent as could be seen by looking at the dates of state party reports. In some cases, the due reporting dates are observed for a while, then are missed for the same treaty body followed by the submission of combined reports for two or several cycles or even giving up on reporting to a specific treaty body for a period close to two decades. The total number of reports submitted to the eight treaty bodies until early 2020 was 35: eleven to the cerd Cttee, six to the hr Cttee, six to the cedaw Cttee, four to cat Cttee, three to the crc Cttee and two each to the cescr and cmr Cttees. Since the 2000s, Egypt has submitted 12 reports: Three dealt with women’s rights and two were submitted to the cerd Cttee, while all the other committees received only one report, namely, those under ccpr, cescr, cat, cmw and crpd. Three reports to each of the cedaw, crc and cprd Cttees were submitted in February 2020. The last report submitted by Egypt to the hr Cttee was on 13 November 2001, but the situation of civil and political rights in the country was included in three of the reports the government sent to the hrc as part of the upr. Two reports under cmw and cerd were due in January 2018 and have not reached their committees until early 2020. The last report submitted by Egypt to the cat Cttee was in February 2001. The cmw has not received periodic reports since 2006. The inescapable conclusion is that the government of Egypt became less concerned to submit reports to the treaty bodies since the beginning of the third millennium, but the rate of submission has accelerated towards 2020.This could be the positive effect of the establishment in February 2018 of the Permanent Supreme Committee for Human Rights supported by a technical secretariat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Since 2000, the total number of 25 reports were submitted by the Egyptian government to the eight human rights treaty bodies and were considered by their committees. The crpd Cttee did not during this period consider any report from the Egyptian government. Egyptian delegations to these treaty bodies participated in 23 dialogues. The reports were initially prepared by experts of the Ministry of Justice and since 2011 by the Ministry of Parliamentary and Legal affairs.³⁰ Concerned government bodies and government-organized human rights institutions would be consulted as appropriate. Neither other ngos, nor Members of Parliament were involved in this process.

A decree by the Prime Minister No 2396 of 2018 on 14 November 2018 established the Permanent Supreme Committee for Human Rights chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and includes representatives of five ministries, three government bodies and three government-established human rights institutions. The ministries are Defense, Interior, Justice, House of Representatives Affairs, and Social Solidarity. Government bodies in the Committee are the General Intelligence Services, the Administrative Control Agency and the State Information Service. The ncw, the National Council of Childhood and Motherhood and the National Council for Persons with Disabilities are also members. The Committee may invite two experts to take part in its meetings, but should have no vote. The Committee is supported by a technical secretariat located at the Foreign Ministry and is headed by the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Human Rights, International Humanitarian and Social Affairs. In the past the Ministry of Justice or that of Parliamentary and Legal Affairs would since 2007 consult with other concerned ministries and government and human rights national institutions while drafting reports to be submitted to UN human rights bodies. The Prime Minister’s decree entrusts the new Committee with managing the human rights ‘file’ and responding to ‘claims’ about the human rights situation in the country. The Committee should also prepare the upr to be sent to the UN Human Rights Council, but the decree does not refer to the human rights treaty bodies’ reports.³¹ The Assistant Foreign Minister for Human Rights, who is also the Secretary of the Committee, stated that the Committee was in charge of preparing all reports to human rights bodies.³² This might happen in future but the last four reports submitted by Egypt in 2020 were all prepared by relevant ministries with the participation of all four national human rights institutions, and were finally reviewed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.³³

The delegations sent to Geneva to take part in the discussion of periodic reports usually comprise senior officials of the ministries or the government bodies concerned by each treaty body together with members of the country’s permanent mission in Geneva. Quite often the delegation would be led by an official of legal background from the Ministry of Justice or of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The report submitted to the cedaw Cttee in 2008 had the President of the ncw, herself a former minister, heading the Egyptian delegation.

The cos are not published in Egypt, whether in Arabic or any other language. The only way that an Egyptian citizen would know about them is to search for them on the website of the ohchr.³⁴

Egyptian human rights organizations were present in the last meetings of the treaty bodies that discussed reports by the Egyptian government, including meetings of committees of cerd (one organization), cedaw (four organizations) and in large numbers in the meetings of cescr in 2014 in which they numbered seven, but 24 associations put their names in joint declarations. The individual reports of these organizations were quite comprehensive but the joint declarations were thematic in nature. None of those who took part in meetings of treaty bodies was persecuted by the government, although some of those who took part in the discussion of the country’s upr were all victims of repressive measures.³⁵

Finally, there are no indications that the government has accepted to make public reports of the Sub-Committee against Torture. In fact, the Committee was denounced in Egyptian newspapers as being politically-motivated and biased against the country.³⁶

4.1.5 Domestic Implementation Mechanism

There is no one single mechanism or process for the domestic implementation of the treaty body recommendations. Several government departments had directorates in charge of human rights, such as Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Interior, the Office of Public Prosecutor and the Council of State. Reports to UN bodies were usually the responsibility of the Minister of State for Parliamentary and Legal Affairs. This task is to be entrusted to the Technical Secretariat of the newly-formed Permanent Supreme Committee of Human Rights (pschr).³⁷ It is assumed that the institutional entities in charge of the specific domain of certain treaties, namely, the national councils for childhood and motherhood, women and persons with disabilities will be responsible for coordinating government efforts in view of the implementation of recommendations of concern to their targeted constituencies.

4.1.6 Treaty Body Membership

The nomination of members to treaty bodies is entirely in the hands of the government, and particularly the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The rules are quite informal. Civil society organisations have no insight into how this process is conducted.

Egyptian nationals had been elected to the cerd, ccpr, cescr, cedaw and crc Cttees. An Egyptian national served continuously on the HRCttee between 2001 and 2019, and – with the exception of the period 2002 to 2004 – on the cescr Cttee. Egyptian female nationals were particularly active in the cedaw Cttee. Three Egyptians were elected in different cycles to be members of the crc Cttee, namely, Moushira Gabr, the late Azza Ashmawy and Gehad Madi. An Egyptian national was also elected Chairperson of the HRCttee and cedaw Cttee. Despite this level of representation, the country’s reporting to the human rights treaty bodies has been quite irregular with delays in some instances extending to more than a decade.³⁸

The Egyptian representatives who had served on the cedaw and crc Cttees, respectively, had the opportunity to benefit from such experience in running state bodies committed to enforce such treaties, when they were later appointed as heads of relevant national bodies. However, very little is known about subsequent involvement in human rights issues of other Egyptian representatives who had served on UN human rights treaty bodies.

4.2.1 Incorporation by the Legislature and the Executive

The first direct material impact of all eight treaties is that they became part of domestic law once they have been approved by the country’s legislature and ratified by the President and published in the official Gazette. A second direct material impact is that they inspired the adoption of laws that were closely tailored along the structure of specific treaties, or which borrowed the exact language of some treaty provisions. This is the case of domestic legislation on the rights of the child, combating human trafficking, and the law providing protection for persons with disabilities. This material impact could also be seen in several amendments of existing laws in response to recommendations of various treaty bodies, such as the amendment of nationality laws to allow mothers married to foreign husbands to transmit their nationality to their offspring, and redefining racial crimes to correspond to the definition stipulated in cerd.

The symbolic impact could be seen in changes of attitudes on the part of the state or civil society towards some important matters that were not regarded as worthy of special law provisions. This is the case with some practices of sexual harassment of women. Under the influence of cedaw, these became criminalized in the Penal Code. The call for empowerment of women and persons with disabilities led both the executive and legislature to propose and enact electoral quotas for them. The electoral quota provided for women increased their presence in the House of Representatives to unprecedented levels in the history of the country.

However, the more easily politicized treaties such as ccpr or cat did not have a similar impact. In fact, they engendered hostility against that part of the UN human rights system monitoring their observance. Responding to statements by these bodies that government officials acted in violation of some of their provisions, the government rejected such statements as inaccurate while continuing the very same practices. Disapproval of such practices by the ohchr or the cat Secretariat resulted in the media and spokespersons of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs accusing them of being politically motivated with the head of state objecting to the universal character of human rights or their indivisibility.³⁹

4.2.2 Reliance by the Judiciary

There are very few indications that the treaties were used by the judiciary either as a source of remedy or interpretation., with the exception of the Supreme Constitutional Court and criminal tribunals, mostly as sources of interpretation. Judges who were asked why they were reluctant to use international treaties and particularly human rights treaties in their rulings, given that these constitutionally have the force of the law, they responded that articles 93 and 151 of the Constitution address the legislature and not the judiciary. There are few cases in which judges accepted defendant lawyers’ arguments based on provisions of human rights treaties. The most famous of these is the case of Public Prosecution against defendants Salah El Din Mostafa Sharaf and 37 others, which involved striking rail workers who had a team of lawyers for their defense including the late lawyer Nabil el Hilali. El Hilali used cescr as a remedy to argue that their strike of 1986 was lawful due to the government’s ratification of cescr with its provision of the right to peaceful strike. His argument was accepted by the Supreme Emergency State Security Court.⁴⁰ In the case of the president of the council of administration of the Islamic Ahl Al-Khair Society against the Minister of Social Affairs and other government officials, the Supreme Constitutional Court upheld freedom of association using paragraph 2 of article 22 of ccpr as a remedy.⁴¹ Finally, in the Khaled Saéid case, the Court of Cassation accepted the argument of the civil lawyer that what the two policemen did with the late Khaled Said in fact was a practice of torture according to cat, and not cruel treatment as lawyers of defendants had claimed.⁴² In a few cases also lawyers used the treaties as a source of remedy such as crc in which a plaintiff’s lawyer found support for his arguments before a court in Alexandria in the summer of 2019.

4.2.3 Impact on and through Independent State Institutions

The nchr publishes an annual report on the human rights situation in the country, which offers an objective account of this situation. The report is sent to the President and senior officials of the government but is not easily accessible to the public.⁴³ The nchr is committed to the universal bill of human rights and monitors the situation of all these rights in its annual report and also carries out activities aimed at raising awareness of the rights for which they provide.⁴⁴ The three functional human rights institutions established by the government, the ncw, the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, and the National Council for People with Disabilities, had framed or amended their statutes to align with the rights and commitments included in the treaties most relevant to their missions. Moreover, they have formulated national strategies to attain their objectives inspired by these relevant treaties, which they admit in the opening pages of such strategies. The ncw had taken the initiative of establishing an Ombudsman Office, while the nchr receives and investigates complaints by citizens of violations of their rights.

4.2.4 Impact on and through Non-state Actors

Most non-state actors in Egypt concerned with human rights uphold the universal concept of human rights and take treaties relevant to their work as a guide in their activities. Such activities include disseminating the content of these treaties, using them as the framework for monitoring the situation of human rights in the country, engaging at the regional and international level in commenting on government’s reports and in some cases tailoring their activities so as to promote the rights provided for therein. In a few cases they would even attempt to propose draft laws to rectify defects of national legislation that could allow human rights violations to escape accountability, as was notably the case with the United Lawyers Group. Several of these organizations engage in disseminating ideas of human rights through workshops that address different groups of people in different parts of the country. The two most comprehensive reports are those of the Egyptian Organization of Human Rights and Cairo Institute of Human Rights.⁴⁵

The training of lawyers in particular is very crucial as most of these organizations rely on lawyers to monitor the human rights situation and to file cases in defense of victims of human rights violations. The focus of training would vary depending on the specific interests of the organizations concerned, but the analysis of human rights conventions would constitute an important component in this training.

Egyptian academics manifested a keen interest in the cause of human rights through teaching, research and publications. A sample of over 100 books published in Egypt on human rights shows that most of these books dealt with human rights in general. The themes that were current in many of these publications were the comparison between the universal concept of human rights and Islamic teachings, human rights in Western countries and of all the core human rights treaties, only cedaw was a privileged theme in their publications.⁴⁶

4.2.5 Impact of State Reporting

In assessing the overall impact of the eight core human rights treaties, it should be noted that three of the treaty bodies have received no report from the Egyptian government for a period ranging between one and two decades despite the fact that the due dates of these reports have passed years ago: nineteen years in the case of both cat and ccpr, and ten years for cescr. The rate of positive response by the Egyptian government to cos varied from one treaty to another. One finds more of the positive response with the so-called functional treaties, which deal with specific categories of people or situations, such as cerd, crc, cedaw, cmw and crpd, compared to ccpr and cat and even cescr which provide rights for all people. However, the Egyptian government was careful to reply to all the queries formulated by the relevant committees. Apart from ccpr and cat, there are several instances of direct and indirect material as well as symbolic impact, manifested in the adoption of new laws or amendment of existing ones in response to observations by treaty bodies.

Examples of positive material impact abound, such as the adoption of a Child Law or Law on Combating Human Trafficking and Illegal Migration, amendments of laws on nationality, increasing the penalty for sexual harassment and criminalizing female genital mutilation (fgm). This positive impact also includes withdrawing the government’s reservations on certain articles of treaties such as those related to the separation of a child from his parents under articles 20 and 21 of crc or the definition of family members of the migrant worker under cmw. The positive material impact includes elaborating national strategies to improve the situation of some underprivileged groups such as women and children or dealing with the crime of human trafficking. It also includes institutions that take care of the promotion of human rights in general or certain categories of human rights. The symbolic impact is manifested in encouraging attitudes to welcome women’s political empowerment or associating children with discussion of laws and initiatives of concern to them.

On the other hand, the government has been reluctant to change laws or policies that it perceived to be enhancing national security or inherent in Islamic Shari’a. It therefore continued to renew the state of emergency despite calls by ccpr and cescr to lift it or to join the Optional Protocols attached to any of the conventions, with the exception of the ops on banning the recruitment of children in armed conflicts and the sexual and economic exploitation of children. More importantly, it remains reluctant to access ced. It is perhaps the government’s perception of what it considers threats to national security which drives its members not to respond positively to the cat Cttee or to disallow trials of children before criminal and state security tribunals, as was demanded by the crc Cttee. The government continued to insist on maintaining its reservations on articles 2 and 16 of cedaw which call for equality between men and women in general, and particularly in family and personal status matters, arguing that such equality is incompatible with Islamic Shari’a.⁴⁷

The Egyptian government, perhaps under a statist understanding of its sovereignty, has declined to accept individual communications or procedures of inquiry, with the exception of the inquiry procedure under article 20 of cat, which had proved difficult to put into effect. This procedure was invoked in the context of the examination of the cat Cttee of an Egyptian government report as well as claims by Amnesty International and a number of ngos of the practice of torture in Egypt. During the consideration of such claims from November 1991 to November 1994, the Committee proposed that the Egyptian government invite the two experts who had examined its report to visit the country. A letter to that effect was sent to the Egyptian government on 28 January 1994 and brought to the attention of its representative in Geneva on 28 April 1994. The cat Cttee did not receive a reply to this request. The Committee explained the details of its contacts with the Egyptian government on this matter in its report to the UN General Assembly in 1996. The inquiry procedure included in article 20 of cat has never been invoked with regard to Egypt since then.⁴⁸

4.2.6 Impact of the UN Human Rights System in General

Egypt’s membership of the UN and its adherence to all but one of the core human rights treaties has impacted Egyptian politics and society in many other ways. The celebration of human rights treaties has not been manifested only in their all becoming part of the domestic legal order. The last Constitution adopted in January 2014 and amended in 2019 has given them a special status by devoting an article that stated that such treaties have the force of law once they have been ratified and published in the official Gazette. The successive Constitutions of Egypt since 1971 have kept a prominent place for human rights. The 2014 Constitution as amended has listed all the categories of these rights: in article 5 in general, and in chapter 1 of Part ii which includes social and economic rights and Part iii which provides for public rights and freedoms.⁴⁹ It is true that provisions of the Constitution require the exercise of these rights to be according to the law or regulated by the law. One would find such phrasing, for example, in article 57 with respect to the right to privacy in the use of public means of communications; in article 65 with regard to the establishment of worship places for followers of Abrahamic religions; in article 67 on freedom of artistic and literary creativity; in article 68 on freedom of information; in article 70 on publishing newspapers, and establishing and owning visual, and radio broadcasts stations and online newspapers; and, finally, in article 77 on the establishment of professional syndicates. Some laws in fact limit the exercise of these rights, as was the case of the Law on Terrorist Entities, the Law of Peaceful Assembly and the Law of Association 70 of 2017, amended later in 2019. However, this is not the case of all laws. Laws on the rights of the child or human trafficking and amendments to laws on nationality or sexual harassment have led to the expansion of rights guaranteed by the law and the broadening of the public’s understanding of human rights.

The celebration of the universal concept of human rights has encouraged the government to finally authorize the establishment of ngos devoted to the defense of human rights, set up within government special bodies to promote and protect the exercise of these rights and to order the teaching of human rights in schools and universities.

An awareness of the importance of human rights has emboldened victims of human rights violations to resort to the courts calling for redress of these violations and compensation for the suffering they caused. On several occasions – not in all cases – judges responded favorably and sentenced the perpetrators of these violations within the limits of the Penal Code.

As a result of these treaties and the activities of their treaty bodies, the Egyptian public has become aware of the fact that human rights are not limited to civil and political rights but that they also include rights to be protected for women, children and persons with disabilities. The Egyptian public also became aware that their government is accountable for its practices, not only in reports of international human rights organizations but more importantly before UN inter-governmental organs.

5.1.1 Incorporation by the Legislature

The principle of non-discrimination has been embodied in Egypt’s Constitutions, including the 2014 Constitution, which states in article 53 that all citizens are equal before the law and that they are equal in freedom, rights and public duties without discrimination. The article enumerates the bases on which discrimination is prohibited such as religion, belief, sex, origin, race, color, language, disability, social class, political and geographic affiliation. It adds that discrimination or incitement of hatred is a crime punished by the law. The principle of equality is also mentioned in other articles of the Constitution such as articles 1, 4, 9, 19 and 74, which either elevate equality to be the foundation of the political system or stress that it must be respected in certain areas such as equal opportunity and education.

The Constitution does not refer specifically to cerd, but states in article 93 that all human rights treaties are binding on the state and have the force of law once they are ratified and published in accordance with the relevant procedures.⁵⁰ The 2014 Constitution in article 236 calls on the state to establish a plan aimed at the socio-economic development of citizens in border and underprivileged areas in Upper Egypt, Sinai, Matrouh and Nubia, while respecting their cultural traditions. These areas include several groups that are described in the cos as requiring particular attention by the government, mainly Christians,⁵¹ Nubians and Bedouins. It further responded to demands of Nubians to be resettled in their original areas from which they were relocated as a result of the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s.⁵² The author found no citation of this treaty in the work of the legislature. The government carried out actions dealing with attacks on Christian churches by Muslim fanatics or terrorist groups, but the treaty was not cited on such occasions.⁵³

5.1.2 Reliance by the Judiciary

cerd has not specifically been mentioned or referred to in any court in Egypt. Egyptian judges recognize only articles of international treaties when they are embodied in the country’s laws.

5.1.3 Impact on and through Independent State Institutions

The nchr had participated in the 88th meeting of the cerd Cttee and presented information commenting on the state party report. Several of its recommendations echoed the Committee’s observations, particularly with regard to the adoption of a comprehensive legal definition of racial discrimination and the lifting of restrictions on freedoms of associations and peaceful assembly.⁵⁴

5.1.4 Impact on and through Non-state Actors

There are no indications that the treaty was specifically used by non-state actors such as lawyers, academics or business groups. Even activities by some human rights organizations, such as the Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies, in monitoring cases of violations of minority rights were inspired more by their commitment to provisions of non-discrimination in ccpr.⁵⁵ Few academic writings dealt with this Convention. Two books, written in Arabic, published by law professors, dealt with the question of discrimination in general, referring to cerd and the work of the cerd Cttee.⁵⁶

5.1.5 State Reporting

Reports on observance of cerd were submitted during the period 1970–1986 with a delay ranging between two months and two years. However, the delay in submitting reports became longer since 1986, ranging between 2,2 years and 6,8 years. The 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th reports were consolidated in one single document submitted to the cerd Cttee on 9 October 2000. These were the reports due in 1994, 1996, 1998, and 2000. The report submitted on 15 April 2014 was also a combined report merging the 17th to 22nd reports.

While accepting the statement in the country’s report that Egypt is a very homogeneous country, the Committee formulated a number of observations, some of which relate to the situation of minorities while others relate to human rights covered under other treaties. The cerd Cttee invited the Egyptian government to provide information on social and economic conditions of some numerically small ethnic groups such as the Berber, Nubians and Egyptians of Greek and Armenian origins. It called on the government to introduce in its legislation a comprehensive definition of racial discrimination and recognition that ethnic and racial motives are defined as aggravating circumstances for criminal offences. It also called on the government to involve religious leaders in awareness campaigns aimed at promoting religious diversity in the country. On political participation by minorities, the Committee asked the government to consider minorities in the quota electoral system.⁵⁷ It called on the government to train its officials in the field of criminal justice in the spirit of respect for human rights,⁵⁸ so that they would not have to resort to forceful methods during the interrogation of citizens under investigation, irrespective of their ethnic or religious identity. Moreover, it asked the government to declare its acceptance of the optional declaration provided for in article 14 of cerd recognizing the competence of the Committee to consider individual communications.

Some progress has been made with respect to some of these observations, particularly with respect to associating religious leaders with awareness-raising campaigns promoting religious diversity, the introduction of a quota system that increased representation of Christians in the country’s legislature and setting one electoral constituency for Nubians. The country’s Penal Code adopted in 1937 already included chapter 11 on misdemeanors related to religions and combating discrimination but it focused on acts targeting people of certain religious communities.⁵⁹ The amendment of the Penal Code introduced in 2015 went some way towards accommodating observations of the cerd Cttee.⁶⁰ However, no legislation was adopted to consider ethnic and racial motives as aggravating evidence for criminal offenses. There is no evidence that such progress was due in all cases to the influence of the cos of the cerd Cttee.

On the other hand, the government has not heeded the call to make a declaration in terms of article 14 of the Convention, although the Egyptian delegation at the 88th meeting of the Committee stated that the matter was under consideration at the time.⁶¹ This stand is quite consistent with the statist position taken by the Egyptian government on similar provisions in other UN human rights treaties.

5.1.6 Brief Summary

Amendments of the Penal Code in 2015 specifying grounds of discrimination criminalized in articles 161bis and 176 were introduced perhaps in response to recommendations of the cerd Cttee as the representative of Egypt had promised. In this way, it could be said that this perhaps was the only concrete impact of this Convention in the country.

5.2.1 Incorporation by the Legislature and the Executive

In terms of the country’s 2014 Constitution, human rights, as all other treaties approved by the House of Representatives and ratified by the President, have the force of law once they are published in the official Gazette.⁶² Egyptian Constitutions, including the present Constitution adopted in January 2014 and amended in April 2019, provide for almost all the rights included in ccpr. Some of these laws would specify conditions for the exercise of these rights that would make the exercise of these rights quite problematic as was the case with the law of associations adopted in 2017 and amended in 2019.

It would be difficult to point to a specific policy to enforce civil and political rights,⁶³ with the exception perhaps of including the teaching of human rights in the curricula of pre-university schools and university colleges and the training of several categories of government employees, including judges and police officers, in the spirit of respecting human rights. However, these instances cover all generations of human rights, not specifically civil and political rights.

The monitoring mechanisms provided for in several human rights treaties, including ccpr, led the government to establish several bodies entrusted with the task of responding to claims of violations of human rights in the country, investigating complaints and helping in reporting to international human rights bodies. These include the Supreme Permanent Human Rights Committee within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs set up by the Prime Minister in 2018 headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.⁶⁴ The Committee works in coordination with offices or departments of human rights that have been operating within certain ministries and state bodies, such as ministries of Justice, Legal Affairs, Interior, and Social Solidarity and both Council of State and the Public Prosecution. Together with the nchr, established in 2003, all these bodies, with the exception of the Ministry of Solidarity, have a mandate covering all categories of human rights and not specifically civil and political rights. According to the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, the intention of the Supreme Committee of Human Rights is to establish a unit for human rights in all ministries.⁶⁵

Resources that could be used in the enhancement, promotion and protection of civil and political rights are to be found in the budgets of several ministries, including Justice, Interior, Solidarity and Education. However, it would be difficult to pinpoint which part of these resources is exclusively meant for human rights purposes as these ministries undertake other functions. The Secretary-General of the Supreme Permanent Committee of Human Rights declined to specify a figure for the budget of that Committee. Although the nchr has a broad mandate covering all categories of human rights, its modest budget is an indication of the limited resources allocated to the promotion of civil and political rights. Its budget for the financial year July 2016 to June 2016 did not exceed 23 882 551 increasing to 33 659 596 Egyptian pounds, equivalent to $1 326 and $1 872 million.⁶⁶

5.2.2 Reliance by the Judiciary

The Supreme Constitutional Court used ccpr as a source of a remedy in several cases, one of which referred to freedom of association which has been mentioned in part 4, and in another case, that of Public Prosecution v Mohammed Saéid Abdel Rahman, it stressed the principle that an accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a fair and legal trial according to articles 2 and 14 of the Covenant.⁶⁷

5.2.3 Impact on and through Independent State Institutions

Of the four independent state institutions (the nchr, one for Childhood and Motherhood, one for Women, and one for Persons with Disabilities) only the nchr is concerned with all categories of human rights including civil and political rights. It monitors the human rights situation in the country, receives complaints and communicates with the government with regard to these complaints and organizes visits to prisons to investigate the conditions of imprisonment. It prepares a report submitted to the President on the situation of human rights in the country.⁶⁸ It is committed to all core UN human rights treaties, including ccpr, on which it organized several awareness-raising and training workshops for different categories of people.⁶⁹ Its fourteenth report of 2018–2019 pointed out several training workshops that targeted 1 012 trainees of various backgrounds including national service volunteers, government employees in different governorates and students. In all these workshops, explaining basic principles of human rights including civil and political rights was a fundamental part of the training.⁷⁰

5.2.4 Impact on and through Non-state Actors

The country’s human rights organizations, which number more than 200, are committed to promoting and defending human rights treaties, including ccpr. Several human rights organizations include ccpr in the training workshops they organize for lawyers working for them which they should use as a framework for monitoring the human rights situation in the country. However, aware that judges in Egypt normally rely on provisions of the Constitution, laws and national jurisprudence in their rulings, Egyptian lawyers are reluctant to refer in their pleadings to human rights treaties, including ccpr, even when they are fully familiar with these.⁷¹ There are no indications that ccpr was ever used by Egyptian business groups.

University textbooks on human rights, particularly those taught in faculties of law and political science, refer to UN efforts in the domain of human rights, particularly ccpr and cescr.⁷² Scholars concerned with human rights do not seem to focus specifically on this Covenant. A survey of all books written in Arabic on human rights at the library of the American University in Cairo found 68 books dealing with different human rights issues, but none of which was exclusively devoted to ccpr. A survey of all ma and PhD dissertations on human rights at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science of Cairo University found only one ma dissertation focusing on civil and political rights.

5.2.5 State Reporting

Egypt’s 2001 state report, its most recent under ccpr during the period of study,⁷³ was drafted by the Ministry of Justice in consultation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The nchr established in 2006 had not come into being at the time of drafting the report. The report was presented to the HRCtee by the then president of the Court of Cassation. The HRCttee’s cos on the 2001 state party report identified 23 issues, the most important of which were what the Committee considered to be the semi-permanent character of the state of emergency, discrimination against women, impunity of state employees accused of practising torture, the large number of offences that carry the death penalty and concern about the impact of efforts to combat terrorism on the exercise of human rights.⁷⁴ In its reply to the list of questions identified by the HRCttee, the Egyptian delegation referred to the Egyptian Constitution and laws as well as courts’ rulings to confirm that the country’s legal system offers remedies to all the issues of concern to the Committee in a way compatible with Egypt’s commitment under ccpr. The reply of the Egyptian delegation was accompanied by statistics on the number of alleged cases of torture that were brought before Egyptian courts and the penalties imposed on perpetrators convicted of such crimes.⁷⁵ However, reports of the hrc as well as the nchr continue to point to the persistence of the practices that caused concern to the HRCttee, such as the semi-permanent character of the state of emergency, the unlimited duration of pre-trial detention, the frequent practice of torture, and the large and increasing number of offences that carry the death penalty.⁷⁶ The Committee also raised the issue of restrictions on activities of NGOs, particularly their capacity to get foreign funding for their activities.⁷⁷

Some progress has been made with respect to a few of the issues raised by the HRCttee, particularly political participation of women. The law of associations has been the object of several legislative efforts, with a new law adopted in 2002, followed by a law of a much more restrictive character in 2017 (Law 70 of 2017). Following protests by Egyptian ngos and aid donors, it was replaced by the Law 149 of 2019, which is less restrictive, but still retains many features that seriously inhibit the operation of csos in the country.⁷⁸

5.2.6 Impact of Individual Communications

The government has not accepted op1-ccpr. The Assistant Foreign Minister in charge of Human Rights, International Humanitarian and Social Affairs, explained that this is a matter of general policy on the part of the Egyptian government not to adhere to any optional protocols or inquiry procedures.⁷⁹ A possible explanation by the author is that such a stand reflects a statist position on human rights in general, which rejects subjecting Egypt to accountability before any inter-governmental body, considering such accountability to be violation of its own sovereignty.

5.2.7 Other Forms of Impact

ccpr had also a symbolic impact with civil and political rights becoming an important public issue. This has been reflected in the establishment of governmental, semi-governmental and non-governmental bodies concerned with the promotion and protection of human rights. These included a Supreme Permanent Committee for Human Rights, including representatives of several ministries, government bodies and government established human rights organizations. A nchr was established. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights won judicial recognition and was followed by close to 200 other organizations catering for different categories of human rights. A committee for human rights was also created within the country’s House of Representatives elected in 2015.

5.2.8 Brief Conclusion

In a few cases, legislative developments echoed the HRCttee’s cos, as in the case of the Law of Associations in 2002 and 2019, but that was also due to pressures from civil society organisations and aid donors. The government had taken measures to remove instances of discrimination against women and to increase their political participation, particularly since June 2015, and to encourage the teaching of human rights in schools, universities and to members of security forces and the judiciary. The Covenant was used by both lawyers and judges in cases brought before the Supreme Constitutional Court. Other more important recommendations were not heeded, particularly those related to the continuation of the state of emergency; the long duration of pre-trial detention; the large number of offences carrying the death penalty; the absence of an independent machinery to investigate claims of the practice of torture; and the failure to declare the acceptance of most optional protocols of human rights conventions as well as ending violations of the rights to liberty, expression and peaceful assembly.⁸⁰

5.3.1 Incorporation and Reliance by Legislature and Executive

Most articles of this Covenant have been incorporated into Egyptian Constitutions. The present Constitution recognizes in article 11 the equality of men and women in all rights including economic, social and cultural rights. The following rights are recognized: work (in articles 12 and 13); strike (article 15); social security (article 17); health care (article 180); education (articles 19, 20); housing (articles 41, 78); food (article 79); cultural identity, and rights to culture (articles 47, 48). Article 9 recognizes the family as the basis of society and calls on the state to support its stability and cohesion and defend its values. Successive governments, whether before 2011 and since 2013, have adopted several policies to improve the economic and social situation in the country, allocated resources and established institutions but none of them in their documents referred to the Covenant. The cescr Cttee noted some direct material instances of impact. These included the adoption of a national program to reduce disabilities in 2009; the adoption of Law 71 of 2009 providing for the care of psychiatric patients; and the criminalization of female genital mutilation under Law 1266 of 2008 and article 242 of the Penal Code.

5.3.2 Reliance by the Judiciary

The author found only one case in which the defense lawyer (the late lawyer Ahmed Nabil Al-Hilali) invoked cescr before a court in Egypt, and his pleading was accepted. Al-Hilali invoked the right to strike provided for in article 8(d) of the Covenant in his pleading in defense of striking train workers before the Emergency Supreme State Security Court in 1986. His argument was accepted by the Court against objections by the Public Prosecutor.⁸¹

5.3.3 Impact through Independent State Actors

The nchr carried out a number of activities monitoring the situation of socio-economic rights in the country and provided suggestions on the inclusion of these rights in the then new Constitution drafted in 2014.⁸² cescr exerted an indirect impact in this case as it had set the agenda for the nchr extending its monitoring activities to include socio-economic rights.

5.3.4 Impact through Non-state Actors

Some human rights organizations, run mostly by lawyers, focus on socio-economic rights, and use the Covenant in their awareness-raising campaigns to inform workers of their rights therein and they file cases in defense of victims of violations of such rights. The most active organizations in this respect are the Hisham Mubarak Centre, the Centre for Economic and Social Rights, and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.⁸³

Human rights courses at Egyptian universities include syllabi explaining the categories of rights enshrined in cescr. This is the case at Cairo University, and Ain Shams and Alexandria Universities, as well as at the American University in Cairo.

Few books published in Arabic deal with cescr. Of the 68 books found at the library of the American University in Cairo, only one dealt with the right to education. Few dissertations at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science of Cairo University dealt with economic and social rights, including particularly the right to establish trade unions, taking cescr as the basis of their analysis of the situation of these rights in the country.⁸⁴

5.3.5 Impact of State Reporting

Upon examining the combined state party report, submitted on 11 May 2010, seven years later than its due date and including the second, third and fourth reports, the cescr Cttee formulated a number of recommendations. It first noted some positive aspects including accession to crpd in 2008 and the ratification of two Optional Protocols to crc as well as the adoption of a number of policy and legislative instruments. It also identified a number of principal subjects of concern and recommendations.⁸⁵ While expressing its concurrence in general with the views of the Committee, the Egyptian delegation offered replies to the issues that had been identified in the cos. The replies of the Egyptian delegation were based on constitutional, legal and judicial arguments, supported by relevant statistics and accounts of the actions undertaken by the government in order to comply with its engagements under the Covenant.⁸⁶

Some of these recommendations have been heeded by the government, particularly amending the statute of the nchr to be compatible with the Paris Principles, adopting legislative measures that provided for a higher quota for women in the House of Representatives, and probably allocating more financial resources for social services although their share of total expenditure has diminished. A new law on trade unions was adopted in 2019, allowing in principle the formation of independent trade unions upon meeting certain conditions. Trade union activists complain that none of the independent unions that asked for recognition under the new law were granted the official authorization to start operation although they had submitted all the required documents. No comprehensive law banning discrimination has been adopted. On all these issues, the Committee had joined other international and foreign actors, such as the International Labor Organization (ilo) and Amnesty International and aid donors, who had called on the government to introduce these reforms.

However, the government has not acceded to op-cescr. The Committee had also recommended the timely submission of the country’s fifth periodic report.⁸⁷ The fifth report, due in November 2018, as at June 2020 has not yet been submitted.

5.3.6 Other Forms of Impact

The engagement of the Egyptian government in activities under this Covenant resulted in several forms of material and symbolic impact. Some of the instances of this impact were due exclusively to cescr, while others were the combined outcome of cescr and other core human rights treaties, particularly ccpr. The ratification by the Egyptian government of this Covenant inspired some civil society organizations to come into being with the specific goal of promoting socio-economic rights. This was the case of the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre and the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights, established in 1999 and 2009, respectively.⁸⁸ The symbolic impact of cescr of a negative kind is that it emboldened the Egyptian government to reply to those governments and organizations that criticized its record on civil and political rights by claiming that human rights are not limited to those covered by ccpr, but also include socio-economic rights which it has been promoting in the country.⁸⁹

5.3.7 Brief Conclusion

The overall impact of cescr has been a mixed bag. It had an indirect material impact in those constitutional articles that mirror most of the rights enshrined in the Covenant as well as in some laws that have been adopted in response to recommendations of the cos, as well as a part of its own agenda. The government of President Sisi has adopted policies and undertaken initiatives in order to facilitate access to education, health care, housing and employment. In very few cases, its provisions were invoked by lawyers as a remedy and their arguments were accepted by judges. Some human rights organizations have come into being with the declared objective of promoting the rights enshrined in this Covenant. On the other hand, several recommendations of the cescr Cttee have not been followed through, such as adhering to op-cescr and crpd. Despite the call to respect trade union freedoms, activists of independent trade unions were harassed and their unions could not be registered despite the fact that they had submitted all required documents.⁹⁰ More importantly, the neo-liberal economic policies carried out by the government led to an increase in the rate of poverty in the country, which reached 32 per cent of the population in 2018, two years after the adoption of an ‘economic reform’ package supported by the International Monetary Fund.⁹¹

The Egyptian government finds it relatively easy to give effect to some ‘soft law’⁹² commitments under this Covenant because such action corresponds to the so-called ‘Arab social contract’ between Arab governments and their people, by which the government undertakes to provide social services to the people in return for their political acquiescence. For this reason, Egyptian leaders at present claim to be giving priority to socio-economic rights over civil and political rights. This populist social contract for generations has been a fundamental feature of Egyptian politics, and more particularly since the 23 July revolution, which brought army officers to run the country. It would be difficult, therefore, to conclude that the selective approach of giving effect to some provisions of cescr has varied over time, at least since it was ratified in 1982. Compared to other treaties, particularly ccpr and cat, the Egyptian government has been more responsive towards the ‘softer’ obligations under this Covenant.

5.4.1 Incorporation and Reliance by Legislature and Executive

As will be discussed in the following paragraphs, a number of laws have been adopted in compliance with the text of the Constitution echoing several recommendations of the cedaw Cttee on issues varying from the economic empowerment of poor women, combating sexual harassment, eliminating inequality in terms of granting nationality and increasing women’s representation in elected bodies, particularly the House of Representatives. The government has also acted to improve the presence of women in the government at its highest levels with the number of female Ministers soaring to almost 25 per cent of all cabinets since 2016.⁹⁵

Policies: These legislative developments reflected the government’s commitment to improve the status of women in the country. The major orientations of these policies are outlined in two documents adopted by the National Council for Women (ncw), a semi-governmental body whose members are appointed by the President of the Republic and includes representatives of relevant ministries. The first document is a National Strategy for Combating Violence against Women 2015–2030, and the second is a National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2017–2030 which specifically mentioned the Convention.⁹⁶

Institutional reform: Although cedaw was not specifically mentioned in Presidential Decree 90 of 2000 establishing the Council, nor in its amended version of 2018, the reference in it to international treaties ratified by Egypt is understood to include cedaw. The amended version of this decree in 2018 entrusted the Council with the task of promoting women’s rights according to the Constitution and woman-related international conventions (article 2). The Council is also responsible for expressing views on woman-related regional and international conventions, to follow-up those that had been ratified and to work to ensure that their provisions are incorporated as required in national legislation (article 7(7)). It should also represent Egypt in woman-related international meetings (article 7(9)). Finally, it should participate in the preparation of reports that Egypt should regularly submit to woman-related international treaty bodies (article 7(11)). Although articles 2 and 7 of the amended law of the Council of 2018 did not specifically mention cedaw, it is certain that it was meant by its recurrent reference to woman-related international treaties, of which it definitely is the most important.⁹⁷ Another institutional reform was the establishment of Equal Opportunity Units (eous) in all ministries between 2000 and 2004. Their main task is to promote gender equality within each ministry, working under the Minister concerned. The Ministry of Finance established its eou in 2001. This unit became the link between the Ministry and the ncw.

5.4.2 Reliance by the Judiciary

There are no indications that the judiciary referred to cedaw, either negatively or positively, in their rulings concerning women’s rights disputes. Egyptian judges usually base their rulings on Egyptian laws and rarely refer to international treaties.⁹⁸

5.4.3 Impact on and through Independent State Institutions

The preceding paragraphs have pointed out how the ratification by Egypt of cedaw led to the expansion of activities of the ncw. The Council was also guided by cedaw in drawing up its strategy for the promotion of women’s rights in the country. Representatives of the ncw participated in meetings of the cedaw Cttee. Dr Fatma Khafaguy, who was in charge of the Ombudsman Office at the ncw, stated that the Council had organized an orientation workshop on the Convention to a group of about hundred lawyers and urged them to use it in their statements of claim before Egyptian courts. She also said that the Council, together with women groups, used the Convention in campaigns to reform the nationality law in the 1990s. Such campaigning contributed to the reform of the nationality law by the government and its withdrawal of its reservation to article 9(2).⁹⁹

5.4.4 Impact of Treaty through Non-state Actors

Mrs Azza Soliman, president of the Centre of Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance, pointed to awareness-raising activities focused on cedaw carried out by the Centre.¹⁰⁰ Seven women groups took part in the 2010 session of the cedaw Cttee submitting shadow reports on Egypt’s compliance with provisions of the Convention.¹⁰¹

Whenever it took women’s complaints to the courts, the legal profession relied more on relevant national legislation.¹⁰² Both Khafaguy and Soliman held the same view, explaining judges’ reluctance either due to their ignorance of the Convention or their conservative beliefs regarding women’s issues.¹⁰³ However, while admitting that the Convention had little impact on the legal profession, Salem argued that it nevertheless had a moral value as women’s groups would use it in defending their claims for legal reform.¹⁰⁴

As for academic writings, the author found six out of 68 books on human rights written in Arabic at the library of the American University in Cairo dealing with cedaw, comparing it often with the status of women in Islamic Shari’a.¹⁰⁵ However, none of the 18 Master’s and doctoral dissertations on human rights submitted to the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University between 2000 and 2019 dealt with the Convention.¹⁰⁶

5.4.5 Impact of State Reporting

Commenting on the report submitted by Egypt in 2008, the cedaw Cttee in its 2010 session formulated 60 recommendations and later identified a number of issues for follow-up. Some of these recommendations were echoed in legislative developments. Amendments to the Penal Code in terms of the Decree Laws 11 of 2011¹⁰⁷ and 50 of 2014¹⁰⁸ increased the penalty for acts of aggression against women, and introduced an article defining sexual harassment. Also, the establishment of the Ombudsman office within the ncw went some way towards responding to recommendations 20 and 24 of the cos. The first urged the government of Egypt to ‘strengthen the legal complaint mechanism to ensure that women have effective access to justice’ and to ‘accelerate the establishment of the general ombudsman’s office with a mandate to consider complaints’. The second called on the government to adopt comprehensive measures to address violence against women and girls.¹⁰⁹ The call for the political empowerment of women in recommendation 9 was indirectly heeded by Constitutional¹¹⁰ and electoral law provisions, as well as presidential decrees,¹¹¹ which gave women a larger presence in the House of Representatives and the Council of Ministers.¹¹² In addition, for the first time in the history of the country, a woman was appointed as governor and several were appointed as deputy governors.¹¹³ The government also amended the nationality law to allow Egyptian women married to foreign husbands to transfer their nationality to their offspring with a foreign husband, thus providing for equality between women married to Egyptian men and those married to foreigners. This amendment enabled Egypt to withdraw its reservation on article 9(2).¹¹⁴

The government did not respond to recommendations of the cedaw Cttee on two other matters, namely, achieving equality of men and women in marriage and family matters, and ratifying op-cedaw. The government maintained its reservation on article 16 of the Convention as it found the equality called for in this article to be incompatible with certain interpretations of Islamic Shari’a. It continued to claim that the withdrawal of the reservation to article 2 and the accession to op-cedaw were under consideration.¹¹⁵

Progress in these areas could be attributed to political will on the part of the head of state, particularly former President Hosny Mubarak and President Abdel Fattah El Sisi. Under Mubarak, the ncw was established and was headed by his wife, Mrs Suzan Mubarak, who was interested in promoting women’s rights. President El Sisi condemned sexual harassment since his first days in office as President of the country in July 2014 and inspired the drafting of constitutional provisions that provided women with a quota in the House of Representatives, which raised the presence of women in the Egyptian Parliament to unprecedented levels.¹¹⁶ This perhaps was part of his wish to build political capital with Egyptian women who were believed to have supported the uprising on 30 June 2013 against the Muslim Brothers’ rule. Part of this progress is due also to campaigns launched by Egyptian women organizations, through the ncw and women’s rights groups.

It is true that the Egyptian government still retains its reservation on articles 2 and 16, which call for complete equality between men and women, including in respect of family matters. The state party report of 2008 acknowledged that these matters, together with ratification of op-cedaw, were under consideration in government circles.¹¹⁷ The government’s position on these two articles has up to December 2019 not changed. The Egyptian Muslim clergy, judges and the political elite in general are rather divided on the extent to which equality between men and women should go with no prejudice to the interpretation of texts of Islamic Shari’a.¹¹⁸

5.4.6 Other Forms of Impact

The symbolic impact of cedaw is seen in the favorable attitude towards women’s issues manifested by the government and civil society alike under both Presidents Hosny Mubarak and Abdel Fattah Sisi, and in the presence of two independent state institutions that strive to promote the rights of mothers and women in general, namely, the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (nccm) and later the ncw. The ratification by Egypt of cedaw encouraged the coming into being of several women’s rights groups which made their presence felt at both the domestic and international levels.

5.4.7 Brief Conclusion

Although the progress that has marked the position of women in Egypt in terms of legislative changes, state policy, institutional innovations and growth of Egyptian women in public life cannot be attributed exclusively to the impact of the Convention, it is still safe to say that such developments, referred to in preceding paragraphs, are in line with both the provisions of cedaw and the cedaw Cttee’s recommendation. Some of these developments followed political pressures by civil society and particularly women’s groups in Egypt and in international fora. The government’s response to the cos of the cedaw Cttee had been mostly positive, rarely disagreeing with these recommendations. It is true, however, that the response usually came late and that the failure to submit reports on time continued years after the submission of the combined sixth and seventh reports in 2008.

Most of the legislative developments that paralleled articles of the Convention took place under the administration of President Hosny Mubarak, including the establishment of the ncw and the withdrawal of Egypt’s reservation to article 9(2). Political participation of Egyptian women substantially increased under President Sisi, although the House of Representatives, which witnessed this spectacular increase in the number of female members, acts mostly as a rubber stamp to the government. Long delays in the submission of state party reports under this Convention were particularly marked following the fall of Mubarak in February 2011.

Compared to the three preceding instruments, the provisions of cedaw strike a positive note within the executive authority in Egypt, get support from semi-governmental and civil society institutions and are echoed in several legislative acts and policies by the Egyptian government.

5.5.1 Incorporation by the Legislature and the Executive

Several articles of the amended Constitution of 2014 specifically ban torture as in articles 52 and 55. Article 52 states that torture in all forms is a crime that is not subject to prescription.

The Egyptian Penal Code, adopted in 1937, nearly five decades before the conclusion of this Convention, has qualified in the strongest of terms torture as a crime and provided for the punishment of the perpetrators whether they were officials of the government or even people claiming to be working for the government using forged identities. This was spelled out in articles 126, 129 and 282. The three articles came close to defining the crime of torture as an act carried out by a public official to force victims to confess (article 126), employs cruelty, commits a breach of honor, incurs bodily harm to the victims (article 129), threatens to kill the victim or torment him or her with physical torture.¹¹⁹

It is difficult to point out a specific policy on the part of the Egyptian government concerning the practice of torture, although the country meets some of the conditions to combat this crime as set by cat. The absence of a specific policy on torture is quite consistent with the government’s claim that there is no systematic practice of torture in Egyptian prisons and that claims of the practice of torture relate only to individual cases in violation of the law. The government would insist that effective measures are taken when such claims are made with their perpetrators being brought to trial and punished according to Egyptian laws when proven guilty. The last state party report submitted to the cat Cttee on 18 October 2001 detailed actions taken by the government with respect to complaints of violations covered by this Convention. Such actions ranged from administrative sanctions, disciplinary and criminal trials and the number of officers subjected to these measures throughout the period 1996 to 2000. It included a table of the number of civil compensation awards and those that had been implemented. A total of 17 awards were ordered during this period but only three were finally implemented. However, the amount of compensation varied between 7 000 and 10 000 Egyptian pounds, equivalent at the time to no more than $2 000 to less than $3 000.¹²⁰ The report referred to some institutional reforms that related more to ensuring respect for human rights in general and not specifically to combat the practice of torture, such as unannounced visits to prisons by public prosecutors and the establishment of a Human Rights Committee at the Ministry of Interior in 1991.¹²¹

5.5.2 Reliance by the Judiciary

There are very few instances of judges referring to cat in their rulings. Dr Hafez Abou Se’da, a lawyer and president of the Egyptian Organization of Human Rights, informed the author that he used cat in the trial of police officers accused of beating to death a young Egyptian, Khaled Sa’eid, believing that he was about to divulge news about corruption within the security forces in Alexandria.¹²² The defendants’ lawyer insisted that what happened to Khaled Sa’eid was cruel treatment, an argument that was initially accepted by the Penal Court in Manshiyyah, Alexandria. The Court, therefore, sentenced the two policemen to seven years’ imprisonment. Using the Convention, Hafez Se’da argued before the Alexandria Court of Appeal that what Sa’eid was subjected to amounted to torture. He added that the Court had accepted his argument and sentenced the two policemen to ten years in prison. The Court of Cassation later supported this sentence.¹²³ The definition of the crime of torture remains a controversial matter in Egypt, with judicial authorities reluctant to consider cruel and inhuman treatment as constituting torture.¹²⁴

5.5.3 Impact on and through Independent State Institutions

The nchr referred in its 2015–2016 report to complaints of torture which it had communicated to the Egyptian Ministry of Interior but got no positive response from the Ministry.¹²⁵ Its President met with the head of state and informed him of such abuses and was promised cooperation on such issues.¹²⁶ cat was specifically mentioned in this report with the knowledge that Egypt had ratified the treaty and therefore was bound by its provisions.

The nchr, together with the Egyptian Human Rights Organization and the Kemet Boutros Ghali Foundation for Peace and Knowledge, in October 2019 convened an international conference on Legislation and Machinery Necessary for Combating Torture in Arab Countries. The 100 participants in the conference included representatives of governmental bodies concerned with human rights as well as eight Arab national human rights institutions, African ngos, law scholars and diplomats. The Conference discussed 16 papers, four of which specifically compared national legislation on torture to the cat provisions. Recommendations of the conference called on Arab countries that had not ratified cat to do so, and on other Arab countries to respond to their reporting commitments under cat in due course, to lift their reservations on articles 20, 21, and 22 of the treaty and to adhere without delay to its Optional Protocol.¹²⁷

5.5.4 Impact on and through Non-state Actors

The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights convened seminars to inform lawyers of the content of the Convention urging them to use it in their claims before Egyptian courts.¹²⁸ The United Group: Lawyers and Legal Advisers, a human rights organization that filed many suits against torture in Egyptian prisons, notified public prosecution of 465 cases of torture in 18 months from January 2014 to June 2015. These notifications, numbering 163, referred to the Convention. It had, moreover, commissioned two judges of the Council of State, namely, Mr Assem Abdel Gabbar and Hesham Ra’ouf, to propose a draft law to ban torture in Egypt and organised a seminar on 11 March 2015 to discuss this draft.¹²⁹ This draft referred to cat and was in fact tailored to translate the Convention into Egyptian law. However, the two judges were charged with violating ‘their professional duty not to engage in politics’. Mahfouz Saber, at the time the Minister of Justice, asked the President of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary to appoint a judge to examine the eligibility of the two judges to keep their posts following their involvement in working on this draft. The United Group was later banned by the government.¹³⁰ Nineteen human rights organisations published a statement deploring measures taken by the government against the two judges of the Council of State and the United Group.¹³¹ The Eligibility and Disciplinary Body within the Supreme Council of the Judiciary on 29 June 2019 found that the two judges were eligible to keep their posts but warned them against repeating the same action.¹³²

The United Group had also published a study on the practice of torture in Egypt in which it analysed the socio-economic background of 79 victims of torture.¹³³ In the introduction to this study, the Group referred to the Convention as binding on the Egyptian government.¹³⁴ The Egyptian Initiative of Personal Rights had also referred to the Convention in one of its reports on torture in the country.

Mr Negad Boraéi, director of the United Group, explained to the author that despite the fact that lawyers of the Group had filed more than 150 cases of torture in Egyptian courts, calling for the conviction of the perpetrators using the Convention to qualify the acts constituting the object of these claims as torture, the judges did not accept reliance on the Convention as a source for defining torture. He added that judges usually argue that the constitutional provision on the legal force of international treaties is addressed to lawmakers and not to judges. They would, therefore, base their judgment on Egyptian laws rather than the Convention. The acts claimed by lawyers of the Group would be qualified by judges to be cruel treatment rather than torture and the perpetrators would receive light sentences. He added that even when police officers were convicted and condemned to a few years’ imprisonment, their actions would not be considered by the Ministry of Interior as dishonoring and they would return to the service at the termination of their imprisonment, keeping all the privileges of their ranks as well as their seniority.¹³⁵

5.5.5 Impact of State Reporting

The first four state party reports were submitted close to their due dates. The delays ranged between one month for the first report submitted in 1988, and eight months for the fourth report submitted in 2001. The fifth report was due on 25 June 2004 and had not been submitted by 30 June 2019.¹³⁶ No report was submitted until December 27,2021.

Commenting on the fourth state party report submitted by the Egyptian government in 2001, the cat Cttee had listed nine issues of concern in its report of 11–12 November 2002.¹³⁷ Judging by reports of human rights organizations and the nhri itself, these issues have not been resolved. Most of these issues were reiterated in the list of questions addressed by the cat Cttee in its 44th session in 2010 to be considered by the Egyptian government in its preparation of the fifth periodic report. This report has not been submitted nine years after the communication of these questions to the state party.¹³⁸ The Committee addressed 59 questions relating to articles 1 to 16 of the Convention.¹³⁹ In fact, most of the issues of concern to the Committee have not been resolved. The state of emergency is continually renewed, and reports of the persistence of torture and ill-treatment are frequently issued by credible local and international human rights organizations. Administrative detention is often used by the government. Several human rights organizations that monitor claims of torture not only face restrictions on their activities but some have even been banned by the government, such as Al Nadim Centre, the United Group and Hesham Mubarak Centre for Human Rights Legal Assistance.

In replying to the list of questions in the last session that examined conclusions of the fourth periodic report of Egypt on 24 March 2002, the head of the Egyptian delegation, while noting what he considered as the encouraging attitude of members of the Committee towards him and the third and fourth reports of Egypt, nevertheless found the recommendations that were read not in the same spirit and departed from the general trends that prevailed during the examination of the report.¹⁴⁰ He added that some of the responses given by the Egyptian delegation were not taken into account in the recommendations, and that some of the recommendations had already been applied while others were far from the reality that prevailed in the country or were so unclear and too general to be applied. He described the recommendations to be more of a political judgment and that some of them went beyond the mandate of the Committee. He ended by saying that he had hoped that the recommendations would have been concrete and applicable so that they would contribute to progress along the path of promoting human rights. He promised that his delegation would examine these recommendations attentively and would transmit them to his government, hoping that the session would not be the last phase of dialogue between the Egyptian government and the Committee.¹⁴¹ No other meeting between the Egyptian delegation and the Committee has taken place since 24 March 2002 up to 30 June 2020.

5.5.6 Other Forms of Impact

The symbolic impact of cat has been manifested in different ways. The debate about Egypt’s report before the cat Cttee and statements by cat on torture in Egypt and protests by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and media raised awareness by the Egyptian public not only of claims of torture in the country but, more importantly, that this practice has become an object of concern in the international community. It also became aware that a specific UN body could hold the Egyptian government accountable for such practices. The Convention has also encouraged a number of civil society organizations in the country to focus much of their activities on monitoring cases of torture and helping their victims in several ways, whether through suggesting a law to combat torture or offering psychological and medical care. This is what the United Group, the Nadim Centre, Hisham Mubarak Centre for Legal Aid as well as the Egyptian Initiative of Personal Rights, and the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights attempted to do. The first three of these organizations have been closed down by the government.¹⁴² On the other hand, the government since 2002 tended to ignore its reporting commitments under cat and pro-government media even denounced the cat Cttee as politically motivated and biased against Egypt.¹⁴³

5.5.7 Brief Conclusion

The mixed symbolic impact of cat notwithstanding, its impact is limited by the following considerations: the narrow definition of torture in the Egyptian Penal Code, which ignores cruel and inhuman treatment; the reluctance of judges in general to take cat into account in their judgments; the priority attached to security considerations by government officials; and restrictions on the activities of human rights organizations attempting to monitor torture practices. The government was more conscious of its responsibility under cat during the first two decades of the Mubarak presidency. Following the examination of its third and fourth reports in 2002, its relations with the treaty body were strained. Since 30 June 2013, the Egyptian government has become dismissive of such reporting commitments. This sequence of events demonstrates that the willingness to abide by provisions of the treaty corresponds to the perceived value of the treaty by policy makers as well as the state of security in the country.

5.6.1 Incorporation and Reliance by the Legislative and Executive Authorities

Although not specifically mentioning crc, the 2014 Constitution includes an article that reflects the spirit of the Convention. Article 70 prohibits child labor during the period of compulsory education in jobs that are not fit for their age or that prevents them from continuing their education.¹⁴⁴

A law of the child (Qanoon al-tifl) was adopted in 1996 and amended in 2008 taking a rights-based approach to the situation of children mirroring in many respects the provisions of crc.¹⁴⁵ The law mentioned crc in article 1. In fact, article 1(2) states that ‘[t]he state ensures, as a minimum, rights of the child as provided for in the Convention of the Rights of the Child and other relevant international instruments in force in Egypt’.¹⁴⁶ Two years before the ratification of crc, on 24 January 1988, the government established a National Council for Childhood and Motherhood to take care of the situation of children and mothers.¹⁴⁷ Ten years later policy documents of the Council and many of its activities took crc as a basic reference.¹⁴⁸

The most recent and comprehensive policy document of the nccm adopted in 2018, called the Strategic Framework and the National Plan for Childhood and Motherhood in the Arab Republic of Egypt 2018–2030, prepared with the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (unicef), referred to the crc as a basic reference for all members of the drafting group who were required to reach consensus on the activities related to ‘each of the fundamental Rights included in the Convention on the Rights of the Child’.¹⁴⁹ The process of preparing the strategy involved meetings with groups of children to establish their expectations of what the nccm and the government should do for them.¹⁵⁰

The semi-governmental body that exclusively takes care of children and mothers is nccm. Data available about its 2020–2021 budget suggests that it is not sufficient to carry out its own projects. It has been allocated le 46.250 million, nearly half of which is allocated towards salaries (le 19.918 million), leaving le 19.500 million for investments. With this meager budget, equivalent to than $2.803 million, it is hardly conceivable that it could accomplish much for Egyptian children and mothers. In fact, the nccm has a budget deficit of le 3.250 million, or nearly 6% per cent of its annual budget, covered by the government.¹⁵¹

5.6.2 Impact on and through Independent State Actors

The strategy declared by the nccm is a rights-based approach drafted so that the activities it called for would lead to the realization of all the rights included in crc. This was explicitly recognized by the Council in its Strategic Framework and National Plan for Childhood and Motherhood 2018–2030, as follows:¹⁵²

The Strategic Framework aims at improving childhood and motherhood conditions within the framework of the goals of the Sustainable Development Strategy and the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the new articles in the Constitution of 2014, so that they would be all be embodied in practical mechanisms to be carried out for the benefit of children and mothers.

Moreover, the nccm in 2015 organized several workshops for children to inform them about the Convention so that they would be able to play a meaningful part in the discussion of the country’s sixth periodic report which was due in 2016 but which was submitted only in February 2020.¹⁵³ Besides, the nchr participated in a workshop convened by the National Committee for Combating and Preventing Illegal Migration in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration on The International Legal Framework of the Migration of Unaccompanied Children on 29 and 30 September 2017. One of the items on the agenda of this workshop was crc and the challenges faced in its implementation.¹⁵⁴

5.6.3 Impact on and through Non-state Actors

On 22 June 2019 a number of local human rights organizations issued a statement condemning the criminal trial of children younger than 18 years which, they argued, constituted a violation of crc by the Egyptian government.¹⁵⁵ These organizations complained that the relevant crc provisions had been completely ignored by Egyptian authorities who brought children younger than 18 years and even 15 year-olds to trial before criminal and state security tribunals. Some of these children were even initially sentenced to death, but this sentence was later reduced to a lesser penalty by the Court of Appeal. They asked for the referral of these children to the children’s courts. crc was used in this case as a source of remedy.

The Egyptian Coalition of the Rights of Child, which grouped over 100 ngos concerned with children, submitted a list of proposals to the Committee of Fifty that drafted the Constitution of 2014 to be included in the then new draft Constitution. According to the statement of the Coalition, these proposals were inspired by the four guiding principles of crc.¹⁵⁶

The Al-Ahly Sports Club, the most popular sports club in the country, on 21 July 2019 signed an agreement with unicef aimed at providing health and physical care to the most vulnerable children in the country. The agreement calls for raising public awareness about children’s rights. The country resident representative of unicef declared that the agreement was in line with crc, which called for mobilizing support in view of enforcing children’s rights and reaching solutions to provide equal opportunities for girls and boys in order to realize their potential.¹⁵⁷

Finally, a lawyer filed a suit at the Administrative Court calling on the Court to commit the government to the enforcement of crc, particularly its provisions related to the shared custody and hosting of a child by the non-fostering family. The Court postponed the date of its ruling to 31 July 2019. In this particular case the lawyer used crc as a source of remedy since the Law of the Child in Egypt, unlike the Convention, limits the right of the non-fostering parent to see the child rather than hosting him or her. It is not clear whether this case represented a precedent or that there had been other cases in which both lawyers and judges used the Convention.¹⁵⁸

5.6.4 Impact of State Reporting

The most recent report examined by the crc Cttee is the combined third and fourth report, submitted in 2008, and examined in 2011. The combined fifth and sixth report was due in March 2016, but was received on 4 February 2020.¹⁵⁹ In its 2011 cos, the crc Cttee expressed its appreciation of the government’s efforts at implementing past reports and outlined the difficulties that impeded the implementation of the Convention. The Egyptian government responded positively to some of the 85 recommendations, including the withdrawal of the reservations to articles 20 and 21. It has also acted upon other recommendations in several ways. In its recommendation 13, the Committee called on the state party to continue work in order to adopt a strategy inspired by a rights-based framework paralleling the child rights provided for in the Convention and to invite children and civil society organisations to take part in its preparation.¹⁶⁰ The nccm involved children in discussions of the draft combined fifth and sixth periodic report and conducted a number of workshops to raise their awareness of their rights under the Convention.¹⁶¹ The statement of seven human rights organizations in 2019 condemning criminal trials of children younger than 18 years demonstrates the delay by the Egyptian government in sufficiently responding to recommendations of crc in 2011 to reform the administration of juvenile justice.¹⁶² The Committee noted the large number of children aged between 12 and 18 years who were deprived of their liberty during investigation and called on the government to ensure that the deprivation of liberty of children is only a measure of last resort and for the shortest possible period.¹⁶³ The statement by these organisations noted that some of the children who had been tried were condemned to the death penalty.

The difficulties that obstruct the full implementation of crc and the cos are due to the perception by the government of threats to political instability and national security. Budget constraints required by an agreement signed with the imf in 2016 probably was one of the reasons explaining the insufficient resources allocated to activities that could contribute to the improvement of the situation of children. Those children suffer the full impact of the high rate of poverty in a country where poverty afflicts 32 per cent of the population.

5.6.5 Other Forms of Impact

The nccm could obtain financial and technical assistance from foreign governments (Italy) and specialized UN agencies (unicef) to support implementation of some of its activities, such as increasing awareness of crc by children and preparing a national strategy to improve the conditions of children and mothers.

5.6.6 Brief Conclusion

Some instances of the direct material impact of this Convention include the withdrawal of Egypt’s reservations on articles 20 and 21 of the Convention, and the inclusion of a new definition of the child, consistent with provisions of crc, in the new draft labour law. The indirect material impact of the Convention is seen in the new framework strategy and national plan for childhood and motherhood, which was specifically inspired by crc. The symbolic impact of the Convention was manifested in the establishment of numerous children’s rights associations, which formed a coalition that sought to secure the inclusion of provisions stressing children’s rights as stipulated in crc in the 2014 Constitution.

The Convention served as a guide for nccm, the institution that was established to help improve the conditions of children and mothers. It inspired several of its activities and, more notably, was used as a framework in the preparation of its national strategy for childhood and motherhood, deliberately tailored to match the range of children’s rights in the Convention.

The impact of the Convention was enhanced during the first two decades of the life of the nccm by the political support from Mrs Suzan Mubarak, the President’s wife, who at the time chaired its Technical Advisory Committee, and the assistance it received from some foreign governments and unicef. With political instability in the country and at the top of the nccm, the government did not heed the recommendation of the cos of 2011 to submit its periodic report on time. The combined fifth and sixth report was due in 2016, but was only submitted in February 2020.

Compared to other human rights instruments, crc had more of an institutional, legislative, material and symbolic impact perhaps because of its relatively ‘soft’ character as it targets a group of the population, namely, children, who are not seen as constituting a security threat to the government. However, if they were seen in this light, the administration of justice also disregarded children’s rights under the crc.

5.7.1 Incorporation and Reliance by Legislature and Executive

The 2014 Constitution refers only to the right of Egyptians to migrate to foreign countries as part of their freedom of movement, stating in article 62 that freedom of movement, residence and emigration shall be guaranteed to all Egyptian citizens.¹⁶⁴

The Convention was not specifically cited in the legislation dealing with the status of foreign migrants in Egypt. The most relevant of these are the Law on Combating Human Trafficking No 64 of 2010 and the Law on Combating Illegal Migration and Smuggling of Migrant Workers No 82 of 2016.¹⁶⁵ Law No 82 of 2016 provided for the establishment of the National Coordinating Committee for Combating and Preventing Illegal Migration and Human Trafficking, operating under the authority of the Prime Minister and located at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.¹⁶⁶ However, foreign workers would fall under the scope of this law only when they are victims of illegal migration or trafficking in persons. Otherwise, those who enjoy the status of being legally recognized migrant workers would be covered by the Labor Code adopted in 2003, which provides for rights and obligations of workers in general with no distinction based on nationality.¹⁶⁷

The establishment of a national committee to coordinate government efforts in dealing with human trafficking was an institutional development responding to the call by the Convention and recommendations of the Committee to the state party to undertake efforts to combat human trafficking and to deal with the situation of migrants in irregular situations.¹⁶⁸ This Committee was preceded in 2007 by the National Coordination Committee to Combat Trafficking in Persons and in 2014 by the National Coordination Committee to Combat Illegal Migration, which were merged on 23 January 2017 under the name of the National Coordinating Committee for Preventing and Combating Illegal Migration and Human Trafficking (nccpimtip). The Committee has undertaken a number of activities in many areas, including raising awareness about the risks and dangers caused by human trafficking and illegal migration; capacity building for Egyptian, Arab and African institutions working in this area; the protection of victims of human trafficking and illegal migration; and cooperation with other regional and international organizations and foreign governments concerned with such issues, particularly the International Organization for Migration, unicef, the ilo, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (unodc), the European Union (EU) and with the governments of Italy and Germany. It also helped in the preparation of the national law on fighting human trafficking and illegal migration as well as in elaborating a national strategy to this effect. The Committee was headed by an Egyptian former ambassador who had served four times on the cedaw Cttee.¹⁶⁹

5.7.2 Reliance by the Judiciary

There are no indications that this Convention was used in legal proceedings before Egyptian courts.¹⁷⁰

5.7.3 Impact on and through Independent State Institutions

The Convention was used by the nchr in its monitoring of the situation of migrant workers in Egypt as was made clear in a statement by a representative of the Council during the consideration of Egypt’s report to the cmw Cttee in 2007.¹⁷¹

5.7.4 Impact on and through Non-state Actors

One human rights organization, the Egyptian Initiative of Personal Rights, was guided by the Convention in its reporting on the situation of migrant workers in Egypt.¹⁷² The presence of migrant labor in Egypt has attracted a number of scholars and research centers. The detention of migrants in Egypt also attracted the attention of the Global Detention Project.¹⁷³ This could be regarded as an indirect impact echoing concerns of the Convention. One study focused on irregular workers in Egypt and discusses the government’s position on this Convention.¹⁷⁴

5.7.5 Impact of State Reporting

The Egyptian government submitted only one periodic report to the cmw Cttee in 2007. A second report, due by 1 May 2018, had not been submitted until May 2020. In its cos on the first report, the Committee noted positive steps taken by the state party to carry out commitments under the Convention and asked the government to undertake further action for its compliance with the Convention to become complete. The issues of concern covered 27 paragraphs of its report.¹⁷⁵

On the one hand, the Egyptian government had already implemented a number of these cos. Some of these recommendations related to the civil rights of migrant workers, such as freedom of association, have been covered also by other treaties. In terms of the Electoral Law in force since 2012, the government extended voting rights to migrant Egyptian workers as well as to all Egyptians of voting age residing abroad.¹⁷⁶ It has incorporated combating illegal migration and human trafficking in one law, Law 82 of 2016 on Combating and Preventing Illegal Migration and Human Trafficking, and established a committee to enforce its provisions.¹⁷⁷ The scope of the Law as well as the jurisdiction of its Committee could relate to cmw only when the status of foreign workers is considered by Egyptian authorities to be illegal or when they become victims of human trafficking.

On the other hand, the government has not heeded other important recommendations of the cmw Committee. The most pertinent are: the government maintaining its reservations on articles 4 and 8(6) of the Convention; the non-acceptance of communications by individuals; and the non-acceptance of ilo Conventions 97 and 143.

5.7.6 Other Forms of Impact

One manifestation of the symbolic impact of cmw is the fact that the EU, and Germany in particular, encouraged Egypt to take an active part in combating illegal migration and offered assistance to the country to help it meet this challenge. The Egyptian government has done more in recent years to combat illegal migration and human trafficking than it did in order to take care of foreign migrant workers in the country whose numbers have been estimated, according to official statements, to range between 300 000 and five million (but with no distinction drawn in these numbers between refugees and migrant workers).¹⁷⁸

5.7.7 Brief Conclusion

The government has responded to calls by the cmw Cttee to protect Egyptian workers abroad and to grant them some constitutional rights, such as participation in elections which they did not enjoy in the past. However, the government has maintained its reservations to articles 4 and 18(6) of the Convention. For this reason, it is fair to conclude that unlike the other human rights treaties of a functional character, interest by the Egyptian government in this particular Convention has been more limited, with no discernible difference among successive governments.

5.8.1 Incorporation in Legislation and the Executive

The rights of persons with disabilities are enshrined in several articles of the 2014 Constitution. Article 53 bans discrimination among citizens on a number of grounds, including disability. Article 81 recognises the economic, social, cultural and political rights as well as educational and sporting rights of persons with disabilities. It commits the state to provide jobs and allocate a certain percentage of job opportunities to these persons. It also calls on the state to adapt public facilities and their surrounding environment to their special needs.¹⁷⁹

The Convention was incorporated in three legal documents: Law 10 on Persons with Disability of 2 February 2018; Law 11 of 5 March 2019 establishing the National Council for Persons with Disabilities; and Law 2733 of 2018 which set out the ground for the implementation of Law 10. These three pieces of legislation identify their objective as ensuring the rights of persons with disabilities in light of international treaties ratified by the government, including crpd. The Law on Persons with Disability is divided into eight parts, closely echoing the structure of the Convention. It recognizes the necessity of adhering to the Convention both in its introduction and in the explanatory note attached to it.¹⁸⁰ The Prime Minister further issued a bylaw (2733 of 24 December 2018) to the Law of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities). Measures in favor of persons with disabilities were detailed in the bylaw of 2018. It called on the government to provide a number of public services and facilities for those persons in areas of health, education, rehabilitation and employment, as well as private facilities used by people with disabilities.¹⁸¹ However, once they knew of the draft of the bylaw, ngos concerned with the rights of persons with disabilities complained that the Prime Minister’s text restricted the exercise of rights of persons provided for in the relevant law. They added that the text of the bylaw left some important provisions of the law unexplained.¹⁸²

Law No 10 of 2018 in its article 20 stressed the State’s obligation to ensure their rights to professional instruction, training and work and to ensure their right to receive equal work opportunities commensurate with their academic qualification and professional training and to provide protection to them in fair labor conditions on equal footing with others. Article 22 of the same law required firms with 20 or more employees to ensure that at least 5 per cent of employees are disabled. However, difficulties were encountered in implementing this requirement. Another policy was to issue a special identity card for persons with disabilities to enable them to have free access to state services including a pension from a conditional cash transfers scheme known as Karama and Takaful, carried out by the Ministry of Solidarity.¹⁸³

The country already had one institution caring for the situation of persons with disabilities. A ‘National Council for Handicapped Affairs’ was established by the Prime Minister in 2012, but was replaced on 13 January 2019 by a ‘National Council for Handicapped Persons’. The law of the new council stressed in article 1 that it should aim at protecting the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities provided for in the Constitution and consolidating and promoting such rights in light of international treaties ratified by Egypt. Its functions, according to article 5, include proposing public policies for rehabilitating persons with disabilities, coordinating its work with all state-concerned ministries and entities and sharing its views with other governmental and non-governmental bodies in view of preparation of reports to be periodically submitted by the state in terms of clauses of the international treaties on persons with disabilities.¹⁸⁴

5.8.2 Reliance by the Judiciary

Few cases were submitted to vindicate the rights of persons with disabilities in Egypt. In one such case, the ruling referred to international treaties, without specifically naming the Convention. The case was filed before the Administrative Court of the Presidency and was concluded on 28 May 2016. The first sentence preceded the adoption of the Convention in 2006, but the second came almost ten years after the adoption of the Convention. The two sentences referred to international instruments providing care for persons with disabilities and cited the UN General Assembly Declaration on Rights of Disabled Persons of 19 December 1975. It could be understood why the Supreme Constitutional Court did not mention a relevant international instrument that did not exist at the moment of its deliberations.¹⁸⁵ The Administrative Court of the Presidency did however not have the same excuse as the Convention had already been concluded and ratified eight years earlier.¹⁸⁶

5.8.3 Impact on and through Independent State Institutions

A national Council for Disabilities Affairs was established and strove to carry out activities aimed at facilitating life and improving conditions of persons with disabilities. One of its tasks is to try to increase from 5 to 7 per cent the percentage of people with disabilities employed in government.¹⁸⁷ The electoral law provides for a quota of eight people with disabilities in the House of Representatives. The total number of elected members is 540.¹⁸⁸

5.8.4 Impact on and through Non-state Actors

There are no indications that lawyers used the crpd in their statements to advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities, nor was there a reference to it in activities of the few ngos that cater for them. The only exception was Ma’t for Peace, Development and Human Rights, a human rights organization which published a study suggesting a new approach to improve conditions of persons with disabilities using the Convention as one element of the legal framework of this new approach.¹⁸⁹

5.8.5 Impact of State Reporting

The first periodic report was due on 3 June 2010, but was submitted to the Committee only on 4 February 2020, ten years later, and has by 30 June 2020 not yet been examined.¹⁹⁰ A possible cause for this delay is the political instability in the country following the 25 January 2011 revolution, which was accompanied by organisational and leadership changes in the institutions that are in charge of preparing the report. The ‘National Council for Handicapped Affairs’ was established in 2012 and was replaced in 2019 by the ‘National Council for Handicapped Persons’. A law on the rights of persons with disabilities was adopted in 2018, and a bylaw issued to facilitate greater access for persons with disabilities to public services.

5.8.6 Other Forms of Impact

The crpd alerted the Egyptian government to the gravity of the situation of persons with disabilities. Interest in the issue was manifested by the President who invited young people with disabilities to take part in the youth conferences he has held since 2017. This presence of people with disabilities in media-covered public meetings attended by the President as well as their membership in the House of Representatives in terms of the electoral law should be seen as signs of the symbolic impact of the Convention.¹⁹¹ Another sign of this symbolic impact is the international support Egypt received particularly from the EU in its efforts to deal with the situation of persons with disabilities.

5.8.7 Brief Conclusion

cprd stimulated interest by the Egyptian government in the state of persons with disabilities. It encouraged the government to adopt three legal documents, namely, two laws and one executive regulation, a law on promoting their rights and its accompanying regulation and another law establishing the institution that would suggest relevant public policies and coordinate work of the government in this regard. Political interest in the situation of persons with disabilities drove the government to adopt these measures. However, a lack of clarity on how to implement the provisions of the laws in both the government and private sector constituted difficulties which hampered their full implementation. There was not much of a follow-up of the country’s commitment under the Convention for almost one decade following it becoming a party to crpd in 2008, but renewed efforts have been undertaken since early 2018.