CAIRO: The International Federation for Human Rights called on the US administration to link its military support to Egypt with the human rights situation. They called for making tangible progress in improving human rights and combating impunity for acts of extrajudicial killings, as well as torture and enforced disappearances. The federation also demanded the European Union to immediately address human rights violations committed in the name of combating terrorism. The federation confirmed in a press conference last week to announce its annual report on the documentation of torture in Egypt, under the title “Egypt: combating terrorism within the state of emergency does not end.” It said that many of the violations observed by the report are being committed under the terms and provisions of the emergency law, saying that the emergency law and the relevant resolutions and arbitrary legal provisions should be completely eliminated, “and that any draft law to combat terrorism must be based upon the requirements of international law and take into account the requirements relating to the definition of terrorism and respect for the guarantees of a fair trial and the absolute risk of torture and the application of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.” The federation noted that that member states of the UN anti-terrorism Committee should address the issue of human rights violations taking place under the slogan of fighting terrorism, and urged the Egyptian authorities to provide “figures and details of all detainees currently held in administrative detention, and the abolition of judicial rulings that allow administrative detention of any person and maintain respect for the judicial authorities, through judicial decisions in particular concerning the release of the detainees, where the Executive Authorities must comply with it and implement the rulings.” The federation also stressed that violations monitored by the report, are committed under articles and provisions of the Emergency Law, and therefore the state of emergency and the relevant resolutions and the legal arbitrary rulings “must be completely abolished.” For his part, Gamal Eid, the Director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), told local newspapers that the most important means of reducing torture are public prosecutor's independence, and launched a sharp attack on the role played by the public prosecution in its investigate in cases of torture inside police stations. “That the prosecution does not investigate the communications filed by citizens against officers of police stations in the crimes of torture thoroughly … the prosecution turned into a ‘filter' in cases of torture as it is sent to the courts only a few of the lawsuits.” Hafez Abu Saada, Chairman of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), said “I do not agree that the public prosecutor is complicit with the police, and the problem lies in the Penal Code, to be amended to redefine the crime of torture with the need to sign the Optional Protocol on torture, which criminalizes all those who participated in this crime,” adding that the laws in Egypt do not criminalize the perpetrators of the torture, which helps to conceal the crime, calling for “commitment to the provisions of the International Convention on Torture, with modifications of the Penal Code to allow identifying those responsible for such crimes, in addition to abolishing the state of emergency.” Aida Seif el-Dawla, director of the el-Nadim Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture, warned of what she called a “mess” that could “rise to civil war as a result of torture, which has become a daily and systematically practice. “It is natural that the families of the victims of torture in reaction to violence against their families” use violence. “If torture has occurred to my son, I will not promise you that I will wait for trial and legal proceedings and I could even use violence against those who tortured my son,” she added. El-Dawla confirmed that the cancellation of torture needs a political decision and she expected more violations of human rights in the period ahead. Stephanie David, Director of the Office for North Africa and the Middle East for the International Federation for Human Rights, called on the Egyptian government to immediately cease secret detentions, “which are permanent and ongoing basis to the emergency law.” Stressing the need to abolish the emergency law, she did warn against “the replacement of the emergency law by more restrictive laws of freedom, like the Terrorism Act.” BM
