CAIRO: A recent report issued by Egypt's National Council for Human Rights has said the country's record has dropped considerably in the past three years. The report cited a number of issues that they felt have left the country worse off than it was only a few short years before, including the continuation of the emergency law since 1981, constitutional changes and the passing of an anti-terror law that has enabled President Hosni Mubarak to detain and try any citizen in a military court. Released this past Tuesday, the report looks into human rights in Egypt from 2006 through the present and has subsequently been sent to the United Nations for the global body to look over the report before meeting with Egypt in February 2010 to discuss its findings. There are, however, solutions offered to help curtail the falling human rights standards in Egypt, the NCHR said. It demands that the government deal and cooperate with UN human rights officials and to prepare police officers, detainees and Egyptian judges for a post-emergency law period in Egypt, which was imposed after Mubarak took power following the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in October 1981 at a military parade in Cairo. Although the NCHR is a government body and has in the past been criticized for its lack of objectivity, a number of rights groups have commended the report, saying it is the first time that there has been a critical approach by a government organization towards human rights in the country. “It is a new step that will add greatly to the mass of reports by independent human rights organizations who have said similar things in recent years,” said Hafez Abu Saeda, the head of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR). The Cairo-based rights group also issued its own report last week that details extensively the ills of Egypt's human rights record. That report said the situation of human rights in Egypt suffers from “severe degradation,” focusing on the approximately 285 cases of torture and 118 deaths due to torture. It also noted that in 2007, three people died as a result of torture. 2008 was worse, EOHR said, reported that of 46 cases of torture, 17 people were killed. Five of those deaths in prison and 10 in police stations. Concerning the conditions of prisoners and detainees, the report monitored the occurrence of some 26 cases of poor health care and two deaths and 11 cases of ill-treatment and one case of preventing education in 2007, compared to 20 cases of poor health care and two deaths and 6 cases of ill-treatment and one case of prevention of education last year, showing the country's slide in the wrong direction. “Yes, it is getting worse, but hopefully people will take notice of these reports and put an effort into creating a new policy for Egypt,” Abu Saeda said. Many rights groups and activists have called on American President Barack Obama to intervene in order to pressure Cairo to change its ways, but with Washington embroiled in a health care battle and two wars, the likelihood for pressuring allies is unlikely, argued an American military analyst in Cairo. “I don't see Obama doing much at this point. I don't think it is because he doesn't care, there are just other issues that need to be handled first,” the analyst said, asking to remain anonymous. **reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam BM
