The National Council for Human Rights holds a workshop on the priorities of legislation in the next stage

The National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) (Civil and Political Rights Committee), with the participation of the European Union, held a workshop on "Priority Legislative Packages on the Egyptian State's Agenda in Light of the National Strategy for Human Rights". This came within the framework NCHR interest in activating the vision and objectives of the National Human Rights Strategy.

The workshop was opened by Ambassador Moushira Khattab, NCHR President, who explained that this workshop comes within the framework of several workshops that NCHR will hold during the coming period, due to what Egypt is witnessing from a very active and distinguished situation with regard to reviewing rules and procedures related to the situation of human rights and guarantees of a decent life for all citizens as part of vision of the state for the new republic

Khattab added that it is one of the most important ways to draw a work map for the priorities of legislative work and to identify the most important laws that need to introduce amendments in order to comply with human rights standards, as well as the obligations stipulated in the Egyptian Constitution 2014.

While Mr. George Izhaq, Chairman of the Civil and Political Rights Committee and a member of NCHR, said that this workshop comes within the framework of the committee’s program to hold several workshops to discuss a number of legislative priorities that need to be quickly considered for issuance and join hands in order to reach formulations consistent with human rights standards.

The first session, which was titled “Priority Legislations on the Egyptian State’s Agenda in Light of the National Strategy for Human Rights,” dealt with several important points summarized as follows:

- Giving the right of the injured person in some crimes to obtain punitive compensation.

- Amending some provisions of the Children's Law regarding the justifications for the precautionary detention of children.

- Amendment of some provisions of the Children's Law regarding failure to prosecute child offenders with others.

- Amendment of some provisions of the Penal Code regarding domestic violence.

- The Environment Law and the Natural Reserves Law must be amended with regard to toughening penalties to reduce attacks on nature reserves on an ongoing basis.

In a related context, the second workshop discussed the harmonization of national legislation for civil and political rights with Egypt's obligations under the human rights conventions in force and the priorities of legislation in light of the national strategy for human rights, which accelerates the advancement of the human rights situation in Egypt.

 This discussion reached the following points:

-There must be a law for the circulation of information, especially in light of the existence of the National Strategy for Human Rights.

- The importance of the philosophy of personal status law to consider granting women rights (citizenship), whether in the personal status law or other laws.

-There must be a real political will to put education as a national project for Egypt within 10 years, and it has nothing to do with changing governments.

-Existing legislation on the ground, such as the application of penalties for harassment and female genital mutilation, must be implemented clearly and harshly by the judiciary.

A number of parliament members, parliamentarians, representatives of ministries, civil society organizations, university professors and specialized experts participated in the workshop. The dialogue was rich and varied, with different viewpoints and visions, and positive and active participation.