Archive for council members

State human rights council appointments raise concerns

by admin
September 5th, 2012

While dubbed mostly Islamist, the new formation of the National Human Rights Council raises critical concerns about the entity’s mandate, members say.

The Shura Council officially declared Tuesday the final list of appointments to the 27-member council. It will be headed by Judge Hossam al-Gheriany, who also heads the Constituent Assembly, and Socialist Popular Alliance Party Abdel Ghaffar Shokr will be vice president.

Council members include renowned rights lawyer Ahmed Seif al-Islam Hamad, leftist activist Wael Khalil, and prominent Muslim Brotherhood figures including Mohamed al-Beltagy, Safwat Hegazy and Mahmoud Ghozlan, among others.

In public discourse, the predominance of Brotherhood figures in the council has overshadowed concerns over its mandate. But for human rights defenders, who for long advocated the Islamists’ plea against the old regime’s oppression, the mandate of the council is more urgent than its political makeup.

The council’s current mandate, issued by the Shura Council in 2003, kept its role to an advisory level, allowing it issue reports and make recommendations. The council’s first formation in 2004 was dominated by members of the Hosni Mubarak regime and his now-disbanded National Democratic Party.

Beltagy tells Egypt Independent that changing the council’s mandate and its internal bylaws would be on top of his agenda to reform the performance of the council. Talk about enshrining the council’s mandate in the upcoming constitution has been on the rise.

The former Brotherhood lawmaker says the proposed new mandate would give the council the right to monitor the performance of state institutions, especially the police. The new mandate would also identify new mechanisms to translate the council’s recommendations into legally binding commitments.

Hamad, the human rights lawyer, refers to the need to intervene in two important draft laws — the Emergency Law and the law that would restructure the Interior Ministry.

“The council needs to widen its powers to laws that limit personal and civil freedoms. These two laws are very crucial to determine the fate of civil liberties and should be on top of the council’s agenda,” he said.

Furthermore, Hamad calls for widening the council’s powers to inspect prisons administered by the military, intelligence and national security bodies. The National Human Rights Council is the only human rights organization in Egypt that is legally entitled to visit civilian prisons, but with permissions from prison’s administration.

“Preventing torture and political detentions will enjoy a great consensus among the council members, and I can say that Islamists will be more enthusiastic in this regard due to their experience in this field,” Hamad argues.

In the long run, Hamad proposes that the council focus on socioeconomic rights. Yet whether the Brotherhood will allow an empowered body to monitor their performance remains unanswered.

“With the [contradicting] current formation of the council, and with the possibility of some its members to stick to their narrow party affiliations, it is very difficult to determine how empowered this council could be,” Hamad says.

Hamad also purports that consensus can be difficult over issues like freedom of thought and expression, women’s rights, freedom of religion and other minority issues.

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Lawyer files suit against military council over Constitutional Declaration

by admin
June 18th, 2012

 

A lawsuit demanding the cancellation of the complementary constitutional declaration issued by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces was submitted on Monday to the administrative court.

On Sunday the SCAF passed amendments to the Constitutional Declaration voted in by popular referendum in March 2011. The amended articles grant the SCAF full legislative and financial powers, outline the role of the next president and govern the formation of the Constituent Assembly that would draft the new constitution.

Lawyer Ali Dergham filed suit against head of the military council Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, as well as all other council members, judicial sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

The lawsuit says that "the complementary constitutional declaration is in essence a military coup, which lessens the president’s responsibilities and grants the military council wider latitude and powers that should be given only to the president and no one else."

The SCAF’s amendments to the Constitutional Declaration are a form of procrastination by the military council that would postpone their scheduled handover of power, the lawsuit added.

The lawsuit demanded to "cancel the Constitutional Declaration and consider it null and void.”

Former presidential candidate Khaled Ali said Monday that the complementary constitutional declaration is "a crystallization of the domination of the military council over the country, with the shrinking of the elected president's powers."

The declaration gives a special status to the military council which is not granted in any other democratic state, Ali said in his statement.

It is not normal that the president would be able to declare war only with the agreement of the military council, said Ali. The president should consult with the military council, but the final decision should rest with the democratically elected president, he added.

Ali said that the complimentary constitutional declaration takes powers away from the elected president and grants them to the military council. The military council’s members were appointed by the ousted regime, and they could still maintain power in the country no matter who comes to the presidential office, he concluded.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Advisory Council to stay on until power transfer

by admin
March 8th, 2012

Despite some members' calls to dissolve the Advisory Council to the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the advisory board announced Tuesday after its weekly meeting that it would remain in office until power is transferred to an elected president.

“The majority of members rejected the dissolution of the Advisory Council as Sameh Ashour, deputy head of the council, suggested,“ Osama Borhan, the council’s secretary general, said in a press conference Tuesday evening, noting that Ashour announced his resignation before the weekly meeting.

Borhan said Ashour believed the functions of the Advisory Council should have ended after the Parliament's upper house, the Shura Council, was elected.

The role of the council is limited to advising military rulers to help them run the country during the transitional period, while the Shura Council and People’s Assembly have legislative power and monitoring roles, Borhan said.

Ashour, who is also president of the Lawyers Syndicate, told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Monday that Advisory Council head Mansour Hassan and a majority of council members supported dissolving the body, but that the decision had yet to be issued formally.

The SCAF formed the council in December, but its numbers have shrunk from 30 to 18 as members resigned in protest of the military's decisions and use of violence to supress protests.

The ruling generals have pledged to hand over power to an elected president by the end of June.

Hassan, a veteran Egyptian politician close to the country's military rulers and the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, announced on Wednesday he would run in the presidential election set to begin on 23 May.

Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Advisory Council to consider request to dissolve itself on Tuesday

by admin
March 5th, 2012

The Advisory Council will consider on Tuesday a request from a number of council members to dissolve the council, particularly after the election of the People's Assembly and Shura Council, Sameh Ashour, deputy head of the Advisory Council and president of the Lawyers Syndicate, said on Monday.

Ashour told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Advisory Council head Mansour Hassan and a majority of council members agreed with the calls for dissolution, but that the decision must be issued formally. He expected a unanimous decision to be issued during the meeting on Tuesday.

Ashour explained that the council had played the role required of it at a time when the state was suffering from the absence of a legislative framework.

He went on to say that only the People's Assembly and Shura Council represent the Egyptian people now and will take action on any matter relating to the future of Egypt during the ongoing transitional phase.

Ashour said the council’s role was merely advisory and that it does not have the authority to make or implement decisions. He added that dissolving the council has nothing to do with recent events or the resignation of a number of its members.

The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces formed the Advisory Council in December. A number of its members have resigned in protest against the SCAF’s management of the transitional phase and violence against protesters.

Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Two more members resign from Advisory Council

by admin
February 23rd, 2012

Former head of the Democratic Front Party, Osama al-Ghazaly Harb, and journalist Sekina Fouad said they submitted their resignations from the Advisory Council in protest of the military council’s handling of the Port Said incidents and the NGO raids.  

Harb told Al-Masry Al-Youm that “the Advisory Council is an insult and a shame. I feel regret for the period I during which I was a member.” Harb added that the council includes members who have tight relations with security forces and officials.

The council’s handling of the NGO foreign funding investigation was one of the reasons he resigned, Harb said.

He added that some council members were trying to tarnish the images of civil society organizations that had exposed violations of the previous regime or were engaged in political or revolutionary activism.

Harb claimed that the Advisory Council is merely a tool to grant legitimacy to the Supreme Council of the Armed forces, evidenced by the fact that state-run newspapers would report on the agenda of Advisory Council meetings days before they even happened.

Fouad said that she does not want to take part in tarnishing the image of the revolution and the revolutionaries.

She said she demanded greater transparency and clarity more than once during council discussions, especially concerning the detainment of activists and accusations involving foreign agendas and foreign funding.  

Fouad said that membership in the Advisory Council at this point is tantamount to supporting the counterrevolution, adding that she had joined the council with the hope of helping honest citizens and correcting societal ills. 

Many members have already resigned from the council, including the council’s secretary general, Mohamed Nour Farahat.

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