CAIRO: Egypt's Prime Minister Hisham Qandil said on Saturday that the country will see a new constitution draft completed by the end of September. It will then be submitted for a countrywide referendum after, he said in comments published by the state-run MENA news agency. A number of Egyptian human rights organizations have expressed concerns over the lack of transparency surrounding the drafting of the post-revolution Constitution in the country. Secretary General of the Constituent Assembly Amr Darrag, also a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), said recently in comments published by the Brotherhood's official Ikhwanonline website. But rights groups are worried that the lack of public knowledge of the document and the drafting process could lead to worries over its final look. They have also called on President Mohamed Morsi to make a plea to the assembly to be more open and public about their work. “The undersigned organizations fear that the sole objective of the formal hearings and meetings called by the committee is to improve the image of the Constituent Assembly and give the impression that all segments of society, including human rights groups, participated in drafting Egypt's new constitution," a group of NGOs led by the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies said in a press statement published on Thursday. “This was seen clearly in the agenda for the meeting proposed by the committee members, as it was overly general and did not focus on rights and liberties. “The agenda included questions concerning the system of governance, the status of the Shura Council in the new constitution, civilian-military relations, and the status of the president vis-à-vis the military establishment, reserving questions on rights and liberties as a final point of discussion in the meeting." The groups argued that the assembly has not been forthcoming with the ideas and information surrounding the drafting of the Constitution and has raised fears that the final outcome will not be a symbol of unity and all of Egypt's myriad political groups, instead reflecting the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood in the drafting process. This was evident in the hearing that was held to ostensibly garner their advice on the new Constitution, but those present were unsure what their purpose was at the meeting. “This confused attendees, as it was not clear if they were invited to discuss economic and social rights in the post-revolution constitution or whether they were invited in their capacity as representatives of Egyptian civil society to offer their opinions on various issues, which turned out to be primarily political rather than rights-related. “This question remained unanswered throughout the hearing, but if the impressions of the organizations indeed reflect the reality, the situation is extremely serious and represents a continuation of the same flawed political dialogue and social debate of late, in which all attention has been focused on political issues related to the system of governance and the shape of the state at the expense of rights-related issues," the statement said. “The interventions offered by the undersigned advocacy groups during the hearing addressed various types of rights. Some focused on civil and political rights, while others dealt with economic and social rights. The interventions presented several proposed constitutional provisions to the Proposals, Dialogues, and Social Communications Committee for the purpose of submitting them to the Constituent Assembly's Core Components Committee for review," the organizations added.
