Policy Brief:
Initiatives of the human rights organizations to draft Egypt's new constitution
Egypt goes through one of the most important periods of its recent history in regards
with writing the new constitution for the next generations. Drafting the new
constitution shouldn't be limited on the members of the Constituent Assembly, but
should include all the Egyptian people's political parties, professional and labor
unions, associations, organizations and other different groups, which illustrates the
importance of the different actors' initiatives on drafting the new constitution to
express the aspirations of the Egyptian people and to guarantee their fundamental
rights and freedoms.
The importance of consensus on the new constitution derives from his value as the
supreme law which sets the fundamental principles to govern the state, defines the
principles upon which the state is based, determines the type of government and the
nature of relations between its powers, and delineates the authorities for each one of
them, along with addressing both public and individual basic rights and freedoms.
Meanwhile, Egypt witnesses controversy surrounding some of the new constitution
articles amongst media figures, civil society actors and political elite under fears of
the domination of one political current on the rest of the Egyptian people. The
controversial issues in the new constitution include; the type political system, public
freedoms and president authorities.
From this context stems the importance of the initiatives of different civilian powers
particularly human rights organizations that were keen on presenting proposals to
guarantee respecting the international standards of human rights in the new
constitution, which was reflected in their proposals regarding civil and political
rights, economic and social rights and fundamental rights and public freedoms as
well.
As for the civil and political rights, the initiatives of human rights organizations
stressed on respecting the citizens fundamental rights and freedoms such as;
the freedom of association and protection of the right to organize, the right to form
and join trade unions, criminalizing discrimination, equality before the law, freedom
of expression, the right to publish newspapers and prevent all forms of administrative
control over them and the freedom of information; some proposals suggested
releasing those freedoms in a way that makes the restriction as the exception. Other
organizations proposed articles surrounding women rights considering that the 1971
constitution neglected the women rights completely. Most of the initiatives focused on
highlighting Egypt's international commitments in this regard along with indicating
the equality of both men and women in some of the proposed articles similar to the
constitutions that establish for equality and prevent gender discrimination.
In respect to economic and social rights, the initiatives emphasized that the articles of
1971 in this regard are outdated and inadequate, those articles drafting was vague and
ambiguous, in addition, this constitution had neglected the rights consolidated in
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the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights such as the right
to housing, besides, a new generation of economic and social rights emerged during
the past 30 years such as; the right to water, the right of access to land and food
sovereignty.
Examples of the full text constitution initiatives and the ones that presented its
proposals to the Constituent Assembly:
First; some of the full text constitution initiatives: the Regional Center for
Research & Consultancies (RCRC), has presented a full draft of 256 articles for
Egypt's constitution, the draft adopted the commonalities in the constitutional
documents along with a set of updates and additions, the following are the draft
outlines:

Technically;
1. The draft is divided to 8 parts, starting with the basic constituents of the
state and the Egyptian society, public freedoms, rights and duties, from the
public authorities, regular forces, local administration, and the
independent auxiliary authorities, control agencies, religious officials along
with final and transitional provisions.
2. The absence of any preamble or introduction in the draft due to the fact that
the Supreme Constitutional Court never based in its rulings on
the preamble of the 1971 constitution and to stop the juristic controversy on
the legal value of the constitution's preamble.
3. Standardization of the terms and concepts of the constitution articles unlike
the constitution of 1971, for instance, addressing the terms of government,
ministry or the workers and employees....etc.
4. Aggregation of the one subject in one article along with preventing
its fragmentation in more than an article, for instance, the right
to compulsory, free education is included in one article instead of its
division on several articles. As well as, the right to work, employment, state
ownership, private property, cooperative ownership and state public
budget...etc.

Objectively speaking;
Regarding the basic constituents and public rights and freedoms:
1. Assembling the state political constituents, including the independence and
unity of the state, the completion of the democratic regime to include both
citizenship and respect for human rights, peaceful transformation of power
and political and partisan pluralism, as well as, guaranteeing the opposition
political rights, preventing the regular forces from intervention in the
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political process along with determining the foundations of the state foreign
policy and activating the rule of law.
2. Stabilization the principle of the Egyptian state independence and public
sovereignty over its territory, and the fact that the Egyptian people are part
of the nation of Islam, the African community and the global civilizations
beside being part of the Arabic nation in the front of the political
constituents of the state.
3. Asserting Islam as the state religion, the principles of Islamic Sharia are the
main source of legislation; the principles of non-Muslims canons are the
main sources of their personal and religious affairs regulating legislation.
4. Expanding the social constituents by adding needed articles on the freedom
to choose marriage partner and prohibiting human trafficking.
It's worth mentioning that the Regional Center for Research & Consultancies (RCRC)
depended on several basic sources in drafting the proposed constitution articles from
31 Arab and international comparative constitutions.

Al Tagamoa Party also presented a full draft constitution of 185 articles
drafted by some of the party leaders relying on the 1954 constitution and the
amendments of the constitutions of 1923 and 1971 prepared by Al Wafd and
Al Tagamoa parties. The constitution project depends on the mixed
presidential/parliamentary system, the following are the main features of this
project:
1. Building the political system on pluralism.
2. Releasing public and individual freedoms along with stipulating them in the
constitution, preventing criminal prosecution regarding the freedom of
expression along with adopting the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR) and the international covenants, conventions and protocols
as mandatory references in this regard.
3. Confirming on civil state along with re-drafting article (2) of the 1971
constitution and the constitutional declaration in order to prevent the
discrimination against the non-Muslims and eliminate any suspicion
of theocratic state. Article (184) stipulated that; "Islam is the religious of the
majority of the Egyptian people, Arabic is the state official language
and heavenly religions and religions higher values are the main sources of
legislation, the constitution guarantees the diversity of the sources of
legislation to reflect the different tributaries of the national identity and help in
consolidating the national unity along with preventing any
contradicted legislations to the citizens beliefs regarding their private lives, or
organizing the two councils in a contradicted manner to human rights and
public freedoms."
4. The draft constitution restricted the state president powers and stipulated that;
"the president undertakes all of his duties through the ministers and his
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signatures of the state affairs to be forced, shall be signed by of the Prime
Minister and competent Ministers after the approval of the Cabinet."
The legislative branch consists of one house which is the People's Assembly,
and thus the abolition of the Shura Council.
Adding new chapter for the local government.
Clear delineation to the role of the Armed Forces as one of the state
institutions subjected to the executive authority.
Achieving the Judicial authority independence including the Supreme
Constitutional Court (SCC).
Second; the initiatives of human rights organizations for the Constituent
Assembly:

The Egyptian Constitutional Front, including human rights activists, legal
experts, media specialists, law and political science professors, judges, and
political activists, representatives of political parties, minorities and all the
political powers. The front is considered a Constituent Assembly aiming to
draft a new democratic Egyptian constitution that's based on the principals of
citizenship, in regards with being a social contract of all the Egyptian people, a
constitution that establishes the state fundamental components, public rights
and freedoms, prevents discrimination between men and women and reflects
their vision in supporting the buildup of the modern democratic state.
It's worth noting that the front working mechanisms would include; on the legal side,
to file lawsuits demanding determining clear standards for the formation of the
Constituent Assembly along with popular pressure in order to interact with the
Constituent Assembly and promotes the constitution that is based on the principals of
citizenship and doesn't side with one political current.

The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, initiative
presented a proposal to the Constituent Assembly avoiding the present draft on
the rights and freedoms defected chapter, those articles release and protect the
freedoms in the face of the executive power and any attempts to coup against
them legislatively. The association stressed on the necessity to stipulate the
related freedoms to the freedom of expression in the constitution along with
liberating the constitutional freedoms of the law restrictions, in addition to
protecting the freedom of expression in the face of the executive power. In its
definition to the freedom of expression, the Association adopted the same
definition that was adopted by the Supreme Constitutional Court when it
stated that the freedom of expression is considered the origin of many public
intellectual and cultural rights and freedoms, the freedom of expression is
considered the real entrance to practicing those freedoms effectively such as;
the right to criticize, freedom of the press, publishing and printing, freedom of
scientific research, freedom of literary, artistic and cultural creation, the right
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to hold meetings for consultation and exchange of views and the right to
address public authorities.
The Association refused the freedoms status in the new constitution to be similar to
the one in the 1971 constitution due to the fact that it was defected when the
constitution entrusted the law to organize those freedoms, the same thing repeated in
the new article proposal as if it was reproduction to the restricted freedoms of the
previous regime, moreover, some freedoms were associated with loose texts like "the
public order of the society."
The Association prepared 12 proposed constitutional articles as an alternative to the
Constituent Assembly in an attempt to address the rights derogation in the drafted
chapter. Below are the proposed freedom articles:
1. The freedom of opinion and expression; everyone has the right to hold
opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
2. The freedom of creation; the sate guarantees the freedom of scientific research
and freedom of literary, artistic and cultural creation, and the participation in
the society cultural activity, and provide necessary encouraging means for its
realisation .The freedom of the press, printing and publishing; the freedom of
the press, printing and publishing is guaranteed, press censorship is forbidden.
Warning, suspension or abolition of newspapers by administrative means are
prohibited.
3. Media Freedom, the law guarantees the freedom of media by all means; the
law guarantees the media professionals' freedom in performing their duties
without any intervention.
4. Digital freedom, everyone has the right to use digital means of communication
and modern technology in interacting with others without any restrictions.
5. The freedom of information, everybody has the right to seek, receive and
impart information or ideas, regardless of the medium used, and regardless of
frontiers.
The rest of the articles were surrounding (the freedom of assembling, academic
freedoms, the right to strike and the right to organize and the right to address public
authorities.)

The Arab Organization for Human Rights memorandum of proposals; the
Organization sent memorandum of proposals to the Constituent Assembly, the
memorandum included technical proposals and fundamental needs regarding
writing the new constitution along with recommendation around; rights and
freedoms, protecting the constitution, responding the requirements of social
justice, proposal to establish the social and economic council and the
completion of the control institutional structure.
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Regarding the rights and freedoms chapter in the constitution draft, the memorandum
pointed out that the related constitutional articles to human rights and the public rights
and freedoms were interrupted and divided on some of the constitutional document
chapters, it suggested gathering those articles after upgrading and improving them in
one chapter under the name "the Act of Rights and Freedoms" and to include; civil
and political rights, economic, cultural and social rights along with illustrating the
relevance and integration between those rights and freedoms and taking those five
umbrella values into consideration (freedom, equality, justice, dignity and tolerance)
Some of the memorandum recommendations came as follows:
1. The
constitution
should
include
provisions
to
guarantee
the inadmissibility of amending the stipulated articles in the freedom and
rights chapter without special majority along with including them in the
principles of law with pointing out that the project of the constitution has
always included progressive texts regarding the rights and freedoms, when the
constitution entrusted the law to regulate those rights and freedoms, the latter
has always restricted and declined those rights instead of regulating them.
Thus, the new constitutional text should prevent any present or future
legislation on the new constitution from affecting those rights and freedoms.
2. Restructuring the Egyptian constitution articles in accordance with the state
legal commitments driven from the ratification of international conventions
and covenants on human rights, the constitutional document should recognize
the importance of the human rights regional and international conventions for
the national legislation, the memorandum suggested those conventions to be
considered as the constitution supplementary laws.
3. The importance that the rules and principles consolidated by the Supreme
Constitutional Court to be the guide for the constitution-maker in regards with
explaining the content and domain of the rights and freedoms when drafting
the related articles, this chapter should include recognition of the rules of
International Humanitarian Law, especially the provisions of the four
Conventions of 1948 ( as they identified the terms; crimes and crimes against
humanity ), both the constitution-maker and criminal legislator should amend
the penal and procedural laws in order to include these serious crimes along
with its sanctions and to distribute the jurisdiction of the Egyptian courts
concerning this sort of crimes whether occurs within the Egyptian territory or
with the Egyptians abroad.
The paper recommendations:
First; recommendations to the Constituent Assembly:
1. The recent initiatives of the human rights organizations shall be activated as it
stresses on the importance to consider human rights in the new constitution, it
also shall be illustrated through the new constitution provisions to guarantee
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the immediate implementation of the rights and freedoms under the rule of law
along with preventing enacting any law might violate or restrict the rights and
freedoms given by the constitution.
2. The importance that the Constituent Assembly takes seriously the results of
the community dialogue along with putting forward the constitution draft for
extensive community dialogue to include all the segments of the society in a
preliminary step before the constitutional referendum.
3. The Proposals, Debates, and Social Communications Committee of the
Constituent Assembly should announce periodically the progress of handling
the proposals of the human rights organizations regarding the considered
proposals and recommendations during writing the new constitution to
guarantee the transparency of the Assembly's work and its genuine outreach
with the social actors.
Second; recommendations to civil society organizations and the media:
1. The significance of intensive awareness campaigns on the constitution draft,
so that every Egyptian could be familiar with his new constitution and
determines his approval or rejection of the constitution. Civil society
organizations and the media should take their responsibilities in raising the
awareness.
2. The necessity to conduct popular pressure on the Constituent Assembly to
guarantee that the new constitution would maintain the basic rights and
freedoms along with responding to the aspirations of the Egyptian people after
the January revolution.
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