The National for Human Rights joins the defense team in the case of the child Shenouda

The National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) joined the defense team in the case of the child Shenouda in Case No. 73338 of 1976, which aims to reunite the alternative family in order to achieve the best interest of the child.

NCHR had called in its session in early January for the need for the return of the child, Shenouda, to his family. And based on the competence of NCHR in the text of paragraph 17 of Article 3 of Council Law No. 197 of 2017, NCHR assigned the Legislative Committee of NCHR to consider how to intervene in the judicial case in accordance with the provisions of the laws regulating this, and to study and propose the necessary legislative and procedural amendments to be submitted to the parliamentary bodies and the concerned government, in addition to communicating and coordinating with all concerned parties until this case is resolved in a way that guarantees the best interest of Shenouda, which is to return again to his family, as the right of a child at this early age is to live in a family and not in a care home.

Ambassador Moushira Khattab, President of the NCHR, stated that removing the child from his family, in whose care he lived for the first five years of his life, and placing him in a shelter is contrary to the text and philosophy of Article 80 of the Constitution and contradicts the philosophy and essence of the Child Law, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and minimum standards Child Rights.

NCHR affirmed that the human nature of this situation requires us to take action in the interest of the child to ensure his rights and implement the principles of mercy until the case is decided, which should not be an obstacle to the child’s enjoyment of a decent life in the family in which he is raised for a full five years.

The court decided to postpone hearing the case to the session of March 18, 2023, while obligating the Public Prosecution to join its investigations in the case to the case before the First Circuit of the State Council.