Egyptian parties respond to Amnesty’s appeal

Most of the biggest Egyptian political parties have committed to delivering ambitious human rights reform in the country’s transition, but have either given mixed signals or have flatly refused to sign up to ending discrimination, protecting women’s rights and to abolishing the death penalty, a report from Amnesty International said on Tuesday. Ahead of parliamentary elections which began in November, the human rights watchdog asked political parties running in Egypt’s elections to sign a “human rights manifesto” containing 10 key measures to signal their commitment to bring in relevant reforms in the country. End the state of emergency and reform the security forces; uphold the rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression; end discrimination; protect women’s rights and abolish the death penalty are among the 10 pledges brought to the attention of 54 Egyptian political parties by Amnesty International. According to the humanitarian organisation, only nine of them signed up to the manifesto, either in its entirety or to some of the pledges, and three gave oral feedback. As reported in a press release, the Freedom and Justice Party, which won the most seats in the new People’s Assembly, was one of three parties not to respond substantively. “With the first session of the new parliament sitting this week, it is encouraging that so many of the major parties engaged with us and were prepared to sign up to ambitious pledges for change on combating torture, protecting slum residents' rights and ensuring fair trials,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's interim Middle East and North Africa Director. “But it is disturbing that a number of parties refused to commit to equal rights for women. With a handful of women taking up seats in the new parliament, there remain huge obstacles to women playing a full role in Egyptian political life. The only parties to sign up to all of the pledges contained in the manifesto were the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and the Popular Socialist Alliance Party. However, nearly all of the 12 parties who responded agreed to all of the first seven points of the manifesto, which include commitments on civil and political rights such as ending the three-decade-old state of emergency, combating torture, upholding freedom of expression and association, ensuring fair trials and investigating abuses committed under the rule of Hosni Mubarak. Pledge number 8 – ‘end discrimination’ – raised main concerns as, while it was signed up to by most parties, it was rejected by many others that declared themselves not able to avoid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. A number of parties had also reservations over the pledge calling for the preservation of women’s rights. Several parties invoked Islamic law to explain why they would not commit to the request. Islamic law appeared to be in breach of the pledge asking for the abolition of death penalty as well. Most of the parties who responded to Amnesty’s appeal said the case is undergoing a long debate and death penalty’s abolition is a long-term goal. "The real test for political parties will be to translate these pledges into initiatives in parliament to abolish repressive Mubarak-era laws, reform the police and security services, and pass laws which protect human rights and break with the legacy of abuse," said Philip Luther. "One of the first measures should be the lifting of the much-decried state of emergency.