The decision to bring the newly proposed National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) under the purview of the Shura Council has confirmed some MPs' worst suspicions. Gamal Essam El-Din reports The Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee of the People's Assembly is expected to debate next week a package of draft legislation putting into effect the political reform initiatives which the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) wants to see passed before parliament adjourns in June. The reform package -- which includes revoking Law 108 of 1980 on state security courts, abolishing the penal code's hard labour penalty and creating a National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) -- were approved by the cabinet on Monday. According to Justice Minister Farouk Seif El-Nasr, the proposal to do away with Law 108 would end the procedure of trying civilians on criminal charges before state security courts. "Once the bill is approved by parliament, defendants will be referred to trial before criminal courts rather than state security courts," noted Seif El-Nasr. Political and judicial observers, however, complained that in this respect the reform is still incomplete because the sweeping powers which the public prosecution acquired through Law 108 -- such as holding defendants in custody for indefinite periods pending investigation of charges -- will be retained by the new bill. Seif El-Nasr indicated that the revocation of Article 14 of the penal code pertaining to hard labour is a progressive step towards respecting human rights in Egypt. Critics, however, described this reform as cosmetic, since the hard labour penalty has not been applied in Egypt since 1983. The most controversial reform proposal is the creation of the NCHR. Sources at the Ministry of Justice revealed last week that the suggested council would include 20 public figures with proven records of expertise in human rights issues. The president will appoint these public figures for a renewable term of three years, sources said. On 21 May, President Hosni Mubarak decided that the NCHR would be affiliated to the Shura Council. The functions of the NCHR, as outlined by Seif El- Nasr, include fostering a culture of human rights, examining bills dealing with human rights issues before they are presented to parliament and verifying applications in which citizens complain of rights abuses by the government. The NCHR will also release an annual report on the situation of human rights in Egypt and coordinate with the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM), headed by Mrs Suzanne Mubarak. The NCHR will be funded out of the state budget and run by a special secretariat. The three draft laws, which are the outcome of a three-month study by the NDP's influential Policy Secretariat, have stirred controversy in parliament, the media and amongst political observers. Several political commentators have expressed their scepticism over the genuineness of the reforms, since they were first introduced on 6 March by Gamal Mubarak, chairman of the NDP's Policy Secretariat. Critics warned that unless formulated in the context of a homegrown and orderly process of democratisation, they may prove to be merely superficial cosmetics. Such scepticism, critics argues, proved to be well-founded last week when it was announced that the NCHR would be affiliated with the Shura Council. Adel Eid, an independent MP and a veteran human rights activist, told Al- Ahram Weekly that this implies that " [the NCHR], like other political entities affiliated with the council, will be stillborn." For their part, NDP leaders Gamal Mubarak and Secretary-General Safwat El-Sherif have been keen to emphasise that the NCHR will be completely independent of the state. Eid countered that it was "a joke to claim that the proposed NCHR will be independent while under the supervision of the Shura Council". He said that previous experience shows that in addition to the fact that it is a hollow and autocratic institution, the 22-year-old Shura Council "has been systematically manipulating the political entities affiliated with it in order to stifle political and press activities in Egypt". The two political entities that the NCHR will join under the Shura Council's purview are the Higher Press Council (HPC), established in 1980, and the Political Parties Committee (PPC), created in 1977. In his capacity as chairman of the Shura Council, Mustafa Kamal Helmi heads the HPC, PPC and will be the NCHR's chairman once it is created. Hamdeen Sabahi, independent MP and member of the Press Syndicate Council, told the Weekly that the HPC has been politically manipulated by the Shura Council to strip political activists of their voices and ensure that the national press is loyal to the government. "Most, if not all, of the press licenses granted by the HPC over the past 23 years were confined to non-political publications," Sabahi said. As for the PPC, political analyst at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies (ACPSS), Wahid Abdel- Meguid noted that by law the PPC should be headed by the chairman of the Shura Council and include ministers of justice, interior and parliamentary affairs. This was meant to ensure that no strong opposition parties could defy the NDP's hegemony over political life in Egypt, said Abdel-Meguid. A report recently released by the ACPSS stated that out of 61 requests submitted by citizens to establish political parties over the past 26 years, only seven were approved by PPC. "Unfortunately, this has encouraged many political activists to go underground, leading to radicalisation and encouraging the growth of terrorism," Abdel-Meguid said. Eid believes that under the Shura Council's purview, the NCHR will not escape the fate of the HPC and PPC. "It will also be manipulated by the Shura Council to undermine independent human rights organisations, while touching up Egypt's image in the eyes of America," argued Eid. Proof of this, Eid said, is the formation on 23 May of a National Council for Human Rights in Saudi Arabia. "Following the 11 September attacks, Saudi Arabia and Egypt were sharply criticised in the American press as two breeding grounds for terrorists and human rights abuses," Eid said. These councils, he added, will act more as a camouflage than part of a genuine political reform programme. In fact, Eid believes that the protection of human rights does not require establishing a special national council. "The regime has to embark on a serious democratisation process, accept rotation of power, abolish military tribunals and the Interior Ministry's repressive practices, and turn the constitutional principle of the rule of law into a reality," Eid said. However, Shawqi El-Sayed, an independent member of the Shura Council, believes that affiliating the NCHR with the Shura Council is a natural and progressive step. The Shura Council is empowered by Article 194 of the Constitution to debate laws on freedoms and civil liberties before they are submitted to the People's Assembly. "This will help provide the NCHR with enough concrete power to realise its objectives," said El-Sayed, who predicts that most of the NCHR's members will come from within the ranks of the Shura Council.
