Egypt – Social Humanitarian Position Paper
A common definition for indigenous people is, “the descendants of those who
inhabited a country or a geographical region at the time when people of different cultures or
ethnic origins arrived.” Egypt has three recognized indigenous groups, the Nubians, the
Bedouins, and the Berbers. All three face problems with language and discrimination which
cause them to have little to no rights. Because the Berbers and the Nubians speak completely
different languages than the rest of Egypt, they are unable to do anything in Egyptian society and
especially they are unable to get educations. The Bedouins are also unable to get education, but
not because of language difference. Because of lack of education, all three groups are unable to
get seats of political power, which could be used to grant these groups more education. The
Nubians used to live where the Aswan High Dam currently is, but they had to move due to the
destruction of the valley. They were not granted new land for their own, but land with houses
unlike their traditional houses and crops unlike there traditional crops. Now, the difference in
culture and language leads to discrimination of these groups, and with no political power, there is
little chance of stopping it.
Egypt has made progress towards evenly distributed rights. Many articles from the UN
and parties that Egypt is part of have stated that all people should have equal rights despite
language, cultural beliefs, and ethnic background. While Egypt is forced to follow these articles
due to membership in certain parties, the discrimination still occurs. In addition to these articles,
it is part of the Constitution of Egypt that all men are lawfully equal.
Egypt would support a resolution that creates a more lawful public, with less
discrimination that allows all people to live without fear of persecution, a multi-linguistic
education system, the ability for people to live the way they want, and for the Indigenous people
to be able to attain seats of power that would create better chances for the Indigenous population.
In Egypt, there has been a history of forced marriages for various reasons. Many young
women younger than 16 are forced to marry older men because their family needs money or land.
Other forced marriages occur because of tribal feuds and blood lines. Women also have arranged
marriages, where their family will choose someone to marry. In all of these cases, the education
of the women suffer the longer they stay married. Divorce is a difficult matter in Egypt because
for a women to get a divorce, she has to have very specific reasons, such as violence, or if the
man leaves for a year or more without a reason.
When a minor “agrees” to marry an older man, the consequences for the minor are much
greater. The minor cannot get a divorce, and therefore is stuck with the man until she can get a
divorce. Because she will be with the man from a young age and for so long, it will seriously
hamper her educational opportunities. Also, because the wife is a minor, the man can more easily
take advantage of her and force her to do what he wants, which will eventually spawn violence.
Some people say that arranged marriages are crimes against humanity, and should be
stopped. This would be very difficult because so many lesser developed countries have traditions
that involve arranged marriages. One tradition says that if a man rapes a women, she must marry
him in order to uphold the reputation of her family. One way that these arranged marriages could
be stopped is by increasing women's rights in the countries, which would allow women to have to
choice to become married instead of their families.
Increasing women's rights would benefit the country as a whole because women could
become more educated and give back to society. Increasing women's rights in a male dominated
society would have faults, but with proper enforcement could be achieved.
There are thousands of refugees, or, "owing to a well-founded fear of being
persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social
group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or,
owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.", all
over the world. In Egypt alone, there are approximately 39,461 refugees and asylum
seekers ( people seeking another country to become a refugee). Although refugees
usually make it to their destination, there is still a chance that they will not be able to stay
in the country and will get deported back to their home country. This problem could
easily be fixed by creating a system that keeps track of refugees and provides
transportation for them. By keeping track of how many refugees are from each country,
and where they are going, the refugee population could easily be controlled.
Ever since terrorism took a rise, more actions have been made preventing asylum
seekers from entering countries. Terrorism has made it very difficult for the actual
asylum seekers to become refugees because of increased security measures.
Because refugees are staying for elongated periods of time, they should be
allowed to have power, but only in small things such as city laws, or other small bills. In
Egypt, there is a large number of Sudanese refugees, and if more came and were able to
influence the political structure, Sudan would be able to control Egypt, so the voting and
political power of refugees should be limited.
In the case that Egypt does harbor a terrorist that attacks another country, Egypt
should be only charged of unknowingly harboring a terrorist, because Egypt does not
support terrorist organizations.
Egypt would support a resolution that makes it easier for refugees to reach their
destination, puts up more security against terrorists, preventing to many refugees from
entering one country, and not allowing refugees to have too much political power in their
asylum countries.