Recommendations of Workshop on" Discussions on the draft of the Egyptian constitution"

Cairo, 13^th December 2012   

Recommendations of

Workshop on" Discussions on the draft of the Egyptian constitution"

 

The Arab Center for the Independence of Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) has concluded the workshop on" Discussions on the draft of the Egyptian constitution" on 10th and 11^th December 2012 with the participation of 70 participant from lawyers, judges, activists in the field of human rights and professors of constitutional law. The workshop has reached a set of recommendations and the results including the following:

First: workshop generally discussed that the Constitution as consensual document, should not be affected by political or intellectual orientation and far away from the rest of intellectual and political trends for the rest of the social trends, which is the fait accompli regarding the drafting of the constitution, and contrary to what was expected after the January revolution.

Second: Most of the articles for the rights and freedoms in the formulations loose, threaten these rights nor to ensure sufficient constitutional protection moreover, the draft of the constitution did not get rid of the same thought and philosophy, which represent a clear default in the Constitution of 1971, in terms of parental authority of the President of the Republic and the expansion of its powers.

Third: when the draft of the constitution addressed public rights and freedoms adopting the same approach the Constitution of 1971 has undermined position of the Constitution as the father of laws and delegated ordinary legislator the power to insert phrases such as "according to the provisions of the law - in the circumstances prescribed by law - within the limits of the law ........etc. "in the organization of many of the rights and freedoms. This threatens the rights and freedoms contained in the heart of the constitutional provisions to the extent that made the ordinary legislator imposing several restrictions on the exercise of the rights guaranteed by constitutional provisions by using ordinary provisions of the legislation and the laws.

Fourth: the draft of the constitution is free of the rights and freedoms set forth in international covenants and commitments made by Egypt through the ratification of the treaties and conventions related to human rights. The draft of the constitution is also free of the statement of the status of these agreements and commitments on the ladder of national legislation and is free of those provisions which provide for the criminalization of crimes against humanity and its non-obsolescence, the crimes that might be committed by the regimes against their people.

Fifth: the period between the completion of the drafting of the Constitution and the call for a referendum is not sufficient enough to allow the existence of a social dialogue, to show the extent of the pros or cons that marred this draft.

Sixth: many of the values ​​and concepts contained in the draft of the constitution understood as a directing provisions, i.e. it direct legislator to what should be done, but it do not commit legislator to do something, a matter which contrasts with the concept of the constitutional document, which should be an obligation of each State authorities.

Seventh: the draft of the constitution undermines the judicial mechanism entrusted with the protection of the Constitution itself, shrinking powers and reluctant its role in protecting the Constitution and the monitoring agreement of legislation with the provisions, values ​​and concepts of the Constitution, while the draft of the constitution fortifies electoral laws of censorship on constitution in a precedent that recalls article 76 of the Constitution of 1971 that fortified decisions of the Supreme Committee for the presidential elections to challenge them. Furthermore, the draft of the constitution gives the president the discretionary power to refer the laws relevant to national or parliamentary elections to the Supreme Constitutional Court to exercise control over it, a matter which does not only breach the role of the Constitutional Court in constitutional control over laws, but also breach the principles of equality and equal opportunities.

The workshop recommended the following:

First: calling upon the president to reconsider the votes to the referendum on the draft of the constitution, as well as the formation of a constituent assembly gathered all intellectual and political spectra and accurately expresses all spectrums of Egyptian society taking into account the geographical distribution and equality and not to be issued by the majority of political power in the people's Assembly which may represent the majority now and was not represented in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Second: calling upon all civil society organizations, to intensify their efforts to demonstrate the pro and cons in this draft which threatening all rights and freedoms, among others, is dedicated to the tyranny of the President of the Republic, and establish the presence of a religious state.