July 2013
Position Document of the constitution
women's organizations Alliance
Position Document of the Egyptian women's organizations Alliance
on the Issue of the Egyptian Constitution
July 28th, 2013
Starting with the conviction alliance of women's organization that the Egyptian people made a great
revolution, millions of females and males Egyptians raised their demands for freedom, justice, and
dignity. We see that the new Egyptian Constitution, as the supreme legal document, should include
the demands of the revolution and all the various segments of the Egyptian society, headed by our
rights to justice, equality, non-discrimination, and equal opportunities. Thus, the alliance
organizations keen on providing its vision of the writing path of Egypt Revolution Constitution, by
introducing related standards and mechanism to the committee of writing the Constitution, and
women's participation in it. As well as, formulating women's demands in Egypt's new constitution,
based on a study of the Egyptians constitutions, people's opinion, and drafting a document " Women
in Constitution " which we turned a feminist discussion around it and then we presented it to
members of the constituent assembly to write the Constitution without having any resonance in the
constitution of year 2012. Since, the presidential announcement of revising the 2012 constitution in
response to the Egyptian people's demands, which came out on 30th of June, demanding dropping
the Brotherhood system, including their defective constitution. We turned to the Constitution
Committee, formed by legal and constitutional experts, our vision and demands in Egypt Revolution
Constitution.
General Principles:
We believe that the Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt should be based on a set of general
principles can be summarized as follows:
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To achieve the basic demands of the25th January revolution represented in freedom, social
justice, human dignity and national independence.
To be based on the heritage of the Egyptian Constitution, expressing pluralism and diversity
characterizing the Egyptian society.
To be based on democratic basis, raising the state Law.
To Establish the rules of citizenship on the basis of equality and non-discrimination caused
by sex, race, color, language, religion or belief, social status, pregnancy, or other forms of
discrimination.
To ensure the basic rights and freedoms, public and private, and to criminalize
discrimination.
To ensure citizen's dignity, and to criminalize torture, inhuman, and degrading treatment in
public or private life.
To emphasize authority separation, and to empower people's supervision on the state
institutions.
To ensure adherence to the international conventions.
The constitutional article should be clear, comprehensive, and free of contradictions. The
constitutional articles are not referred to the law, only in exceptional cases.
To emphasize the National independence, and to be the protector of the state's limits,
territories, and properties.
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July 2013
Position Document of the constitution
women's organizations Alliance
Defects of the 2012 Constitution:
we believe that the 2012 Constitution, was not worth to the Great Egyptian people, and did not
reflects our glorious revolution spirit, for the following reasons:
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Did not reflect the revolution's sprit and demands in form and content.
The formation of the assembly responsible for the writing of the constitution was
defeated and did not represent the various segments of the Egyptian society.
Did not pay attention to the national and revolution forces' proposals, and ignore the
demands of the various categories of the Egyptian people, men and women, as well as
the proposals of the unions, parties and civil society.
Did not include the rights and freedoms insurance, which is one of the core revolution
demands, and Did not obliged the state to the economic, social and human resources
rights .
Was published despite the prior knowledge of the need to modify many of its articles.
Large number of amendments will only lead to incomprehensible constitution.
The Constituent assembly's validity, which wrote it, is doubtful, and the parliament
which chose it, was dissolved by judicial order. Beside, the dominance of only one
political group after the withdrawal of the Egyptian civil forces and churches because of
the dominance of the Islamic stream on its writing.
It is appealed before the courts, and consequently threatened by its cancellation.
Objectionable material in the 2012 constitution:
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Article (64): rejecting the paragraph that permits the imposition of labor by the Law, as it is
unacceptable to impose any job at all.
Article (81): rejecting the paragraph concerning the exercise of the rights and duties
inconsistent with the principle provisions stated in the State and society section, because the
provisions represents human effort and vary according to time and place, and the paragraph
here, restricts the rights and freedoms and impose the Fakih's state instead of Law state.
Article (219): rejected as it contains a violation of the constitutional norms for being an
explained of another constitution article, stating the disputed sharia provisions among the
scholars and reinterpreted and switches are the main source of legislation threatens the
social and legal stability.
Article (227): The Constitution Articles should be general , abstracted, does not allow
exceptions to punish, or favor, otherwise it will be wasting the Constitutional legitimacy
rules.
The Demands of women in the Constitution:
Preamble
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Egypt is modern democratic state, based on the law rule principle, authority separation,
ensure justice and equality among all citizens without any discrimination on the basis of sex,
race, religion, intellectual, religious affiliations, class, or geography. The state guarantees
respect the human dignity for each citizen in its land.
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July 2013
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Position Document of the constitution
women's organizations Alliance
The State is committed to respect human, civil, political, economic, social, cultural and
environmental rights states in the human rights charters. The state is committed as well to all
treaties and conventions on the women rights, and prohibits the violation of national
legislation of these international agreements and conventions.
Constitution Doors
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Male and female citizens are equal before the law, and are equal in rights, freedoms, and
public duties. The state guarantees equal opportunities for all of them in all fields, a
legislative or other measures could be taken to protect specific person or group to advance
their situation.
Discrimination is criminalized against any citizen because of sex, race, color, language,
religion, material status, or pregnancy. Discrimination of any form is considered a crime of no
statute of limitations.
The state promotes women's rights through policies and mechanisms of positive
discrimination stated in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW). The state is working on combating the harmful customs and
traditions which undermine women's dignity and status.
The state is committed to ensure gender equality in holding jobs and general positions.
The state is committed to ensure the right of every citizen in privacy, personal freedom,
physical and mental integrity, and to protect the sanctity. Criminalizing all forms of Violence
and torture, all forms of inhuman treatment that degrades the dignity, in public and private
fields.
Work is a right, duty, and honor, guaranteed by the state for every citizen for a fair salary in
accordance with the terms of decent work, Protection of the labor rights for all forms of
employment- seasonal and non-permanent- and it cannot be imposed on the citizens.
Good and Free education is a right guaranteed by the state in all its stages. It is obligatory for
boys and girls in the stage of basic education, and the State is working to extend the
obligation to other stages, and to ensure equal opportunities and non-discrimination in
educational institutions.
The state is committed to ensure media and information freedom in accordance with the
constitutional values of citizenship and criminalize discrimination among citizens. All citizens
without discrimination have the right to access information, circulation and production of
culture without any form of discrimination, and access the technological development and
provided to all without distinction.
The state is committed to all citizens to provide free, decent, and dignified health care
services, including reproductive and mental health. The state committed also caring all
segments of the society that needed certain health services such as handicapped, disabled,
people of special needs, and other society segments.
The state ensures the protection of children in accordance with the Rights of the Child
Convention. Ensures the child's best interest. Committed to the provision of child care
services in all different places. The state sees that the care and upbringing of children is the
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July 2013
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Position Document of the constitution
women's organizations Alliance
right and responsibility of both the mother and the father. The states undertake to supervise
the rights of children insurance, and all children have the same rights, regardless the parents'
material stats.
The State is committed to create a mechanism to ensure and promote equality, such as the
office of the General Lawyer is specialized to prevent discrimination. It is a mechanism
established and supervised by the Parliament, specialized in the realization of the principle of
equal opportunities between women and men, resolution of the conflict of distinction
among any citizens, or any other party, whether a person or body. The Attorney General shall
present an annual report to the parliament on the number and quality of these conflicts and
how to solve it. These conflicts includes discrimination against women in access to
employment and promotion, training and equal pay or discrimination against working
women due to pregnancy and childbirth or sexual abuse of women and any other abuses.
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