Ambassador Mushira Khattab, Secretary General of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM), said the Council and not the Egyptian Coalition on the Rights of the Child was responsible for setting the executive regulations of the 2008 children law. She said so to comment on the declarations made by Hani Helal, director of the Egyptian Center for the Rights of the Child, to Al-Masry Al-Youm yesterday. Mr. Helal had affirmed that there was no justification to the claim that the Coalition would submit the regulations to the Council, adding that it was more correct to say that it would put forward its suggestions in this regard. She said the Council was cooperating with the Coalition, all NGOs and civil society foundations as well as with concerned public organs. She also affirmed that the NCCM respected and wanted to preserve this partnership while always keeping in mind the bleak reality that the country was facing and that required the outmost seriousness and commitment, as she put it. Regarding the possibility of adding the mother's name in the birth certificate of children whose father is unknown, she said this is nothing new – contrary to what had been mentioned by Helal – as this is already set fort in the law on children. "I expected the coalition secretary general to be at least more aware of this, as we've already explained that the mother's name has its own space in the birth certificate and is not an alternative to the father's name" she said.
