Egypt

Cairo on 7 May 2006

Recommendations of the Conference on Legislative Organization

Of the State of Emergency in Egypt

The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary (ACIJLP) organized a conference titled The Constitutional and Legislative Organization of the State of Emergency in Egypt on Saturday, 6 May, 2006. Many law figures, diplomats, parliament members and journalists participated in the conference. The sessions discussed the position of legislation and international treaties towards declaring a state of emergency, the regulations governing it, as well as the Constitutional and legislative framework that control the enforcements of a state of emergency in Egypt in terms of the reasons for declaring and extending the state of emergency, the Constitutional and legislative controls that protect public rights and freedoms and the impact of the Emergency Law on the mentioned rights and freedoms.

Conference pariticpants reached the following recommendations:

1.      The declaration of the state of emergency issued by Sufi Abu-Taleb, parliament speaker in 1981 violated Article 148 of the Constitution which states that "the president shall declare a state of emergency as prescribed by the law…." It also violated Article 2 of the Emergency Law 162 of 1958 which states that "the declaration and end of the state of emergency shall take effect through a presidential decree…." Due to the country's circumstances at the time, the parliament speaker temporarily occupied the president's position in accordance with Article 84 of the Constitution and declared the state of emergency before taking the Constitutional oath.

2.      The decision to declare the state of emergency was not presented to the parliament which means that the mentioned declaration is illegitimate because the issuing party was not entitled to promulgate laws. The decision was not presented to the parliament thus every extension of the decision is illegitimate from the legal point of view.

3.      Extending this exceptional law in Egypt lacks realistic grounds and misses the reasons stated in the Emergency Law itself, Article 1 of which states that "A state of emergency may be declared whenever security or public order are threatened in the Republic's territories or parts of it, whether through a war, conditions that threaten with war, internal unrest, natural disasters or an epidemic.

4.      Extending the Emergency Law did not result in more stability as the government envisioned. It increased the international's community's view of Egypt as an unstable area due to the continuous enfrocement of the exceptional state of emergency while the state is trying to convince the world and investors that Egypt is experiencing real stability. The extension of the state of emergency and the continued enforcement of its exceptional law results in negative reactions that will impact the economy in the coming period.

5.      The government pledged to refrain from resorting to the Emergency Law against intellectuals, writers and those who express their opinion, emphasizing that the law will only be used to pursue terrorism. However, daily events affirm the use of the Emergency Law against journalists, union members and human rights activists. Evidence to this are the many lawsuits currently considered by the Emergency Supreme State Security Court. Moreover, the provisions of exceptional nature present in the Penal Code –known as the Anti-Terrorism Law- would suffice to pursue terrorists.

6.       Extending the state of emergency for another two years constitutes a breach of the president's election program where he promised to lift the state of emergency.

7.      Similar laws are being enforced in the USA, UK, Italy, France and Germany. However, these laws have not been in force for 20 years although Egypt's stability exceeds that of the mentioned countries. Moreover, the enforcement of these exceptional laws in the mentioned countries is accompanied by many guarantees that protect the citizens' basic rights and freedoms, such as the right to resort to the citizen's natural judge, a right violated by the Emergency Law in Egypt.

8.      The continued enforcement of this exceptional law for such a long period affected the citizens' exercising of their Constitutional rights and resulted in fear of exercising such rights. On the other hand, law and police graduates have not exercised their roles during these long years in accordance with the provisions of the normal law which will have a negative impact on the security and legal leaders atural manner because their jobs were always performed under an exceptional law.

For the previously mentioned reasons and results, stated as examples, the conference participants have adopted the following recommendations:

1. Call upon all the forces of society to ask the president to immediately intervene to lift the state of emergency in accordance with the principles of legitimacy and to implement his election program.

2. Ask the state to compensate and rehabilitate victims of the Emergency Law and their families.

3.  Call upon all civil society powers to exert efforts to raise legal awareness of the negative effects of the Emergency Law on the rights, freedoms and the economic situation.

4. Exert efforts to create a public opinion that refuses the continued extensions of the state of emergency and demands the enfrocement of the non-exceptional laws.

5. Call upon human rights insitutions to organize conferences and workshops focusing on parliament members in order to raise the awareness of the negative impact of the enforcement of the state of emergency. The aim is also to create a general opinion among parliament members of the need to end the state of emergnecy and offer objective alternatives that do not infringe upon the basic rights and freedoms of citizens.

6. Ask political parties in Egypt to paly an effective role concerning ending the state of emergency.

7. Ask professional syndicates to raise the legal and rights awareness of their members, as well as inform them of the need to end the state of emergency.

8. Call upon the media, particularly the independent media, to broadcast the trials, investigations and cases that are based on the state of emergency.

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