en_10_2009

ARTICLESUN Takes One Step Forward and Two Leaps Back...

How Determined Are the Egyptian People?

http://www.eicds.org/newsletter.html

October 2009, VOL. 21, NO.178

The Monthly Publication ofthe Ibn Khaldun Centerfor Development Studies....................................................

NEWS Egyptian Ministry Of Interior Reveals Intentions To Hold Kareem Amer

Mourning the Death of Mohamed El-Sayed Said

“AlJazeera Net” Blocked on First Day of Ben Ali’s Fifth Term

Family Demands Release of ‘Outspoken’ Yemeni Journalist

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COMMENTARIESEgypt’s Recent Attack

on the Niqab

Political Illegitimacy in Egypt

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2 3

October 2009Vol. 21, No. 178

Ibn Khaldun Centerfor Development Studies

Eng. Ahmed RizkManaging Director, ICDS

Moheb Zaki Senior Consultant, ICDS

Aleksandra Sekinger Editor, Civil Society and Democratization in the Arab World

ICDS Board of TrusteesDr. Saad Eddin IbrahimMr. Gamal El-BannaDr. Barbara IbrahimMr. Bahie El Din El EbrashiAmb. Hassan EissaDr. Mokhtar HaloudaMr. Mohamed Farid Has-saneinMr. Hisham KassemDr. Medhat KhafagyMr. Mohamed NouhDr. Ayman NourAmb. Mahmoud QassemEng. Ahmed RizkMr. Hassan ElsawafMr. Morsy El SheikhEng. Youssef SidhomDr. Ehab Khalil

contents

Civil Society News from Around the Region

Algeria.......................... 3Egypt......................... 3-6Kuwait.......................... 6Libya............................. 7Morocco........................ 8Palestine....................... 9Syria............................. 9Tunisia........................ 10UAE............................ 11Yemen......................... 11

Commentaries on Civil Society Topics in the Region

Egypt’s Recent Attack on Niqab ................. 12-13Ms Aleksandra Sekinger

Political Illegitimacy in Egypt ......................... 13Ms Aleksandra Sekinger

Featured Articles

UN Takes One Step Forward and Two Leaps Back ............ 14-15Cairo Institute for Human Rights

How Determined Are the Egyptian People? .... 16-19Mr Hassan Elsawaf

Civil Society News from Around the Region...........................................................

Justice for Journalist Amer Al-Ghou

The Prosecutor General has accused journalist Amer Al-Ghoul of insult, libel and defamation of “governmental bodies” as well as the “abuse of power” in three different accounts. Penalties for such crimes range from 34 months to 14 years in prison.

Al-Ghoul, writer/ owner of the blog, http://ghalamer.katib.org/node/1, also writes for several independent newspa-pers, on the issues of corrup-tion, squandering public funds and the exploitation of power and influence.

He wrote many reports on police abuse, repression and torture of citizens. The cases filed against him are related to stories published in “Elwas-sat” newspaper during 2008.

ALGERIA

“Dr. Said laid the foundations for a special theory of

defense of human rights in the Arab

world, one that recognizes the

universality of hu-man rights while

also affirming certain elements of cultural partic-ularity that do not lead to affronts to human dignity.”

EGYPTMourning the Death of Mo-hamed El-Sayed Said

Egyptian human rights orga-nizations are mourning the death of prominent intellec-tual and rights advocate Dr. Mohamed El-Sayed Said, who passed away recently after a long life of struggle for free-dom. Throughout his life, Dr. Said remained a tireless sup-porter of popular struggles in Egypt and the Arab world as well as a fighter against repression by Arab authoritar-ian regimes.

His intellectual contributions have been an inspiration for the development of working programs in dozens of rights institutions around the Arab world. The human rights movement in the regime has been heavily influenced by Dr. Said’s intellectual and human legacy.

Dr. Said laid the foundations for a special theory of the de-fense of human rights in the Arab world, one that recogniz-es the universality of human rights while also affirming certain elements of cultural particularity that do not lead to affronts to human dignity.

Dr. Said

4 5

Egyptian Ministry Of Interior Reveals Intentions To Hold Kareem Amer

Officials at the Egyptian pris-ons department affiliate of the ministry of interior informed Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) lawyers that the release request for blogger Kareem Amer submitted by ANHRI will not be approved by State Security and that the release order has to come from “high above”, indicating the presi-dent.

Amer is a blogger who was arrested in 2006 for “defam-ing Islam and President Hosni Mubarak.” Amer has the right to be released on November 5, 2009, as he will have com-pleted his third year in prison. He has served three quar-ters of the four –year term sentence issued after unfair investigations and trials on the background of opinion ar-ticles he published on his blog and on “Al Hewar Al Motama-den” website.

Human rights organizations have asked President Muba-rak to instruct the minister of interior to set Kareem free, es-pecially since the ministry re-leased the police officer Islam Nabih, who had been convict-ed of torture. Nabih benefited from the legal stipulation of release after spending three-quarter the term as well as he was back to his work as a police officer. There is a big difference between a prisoner of conscience and a police of-ficer who had been convicted of one of the most shameful and ruthless crimes—torture.

Although the decision of the September’s appeal was meant to be announced on October 20, 2009, it has been postponed until December 22, 2009.

Civil Society News from Around the Region.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

EGYPTCONTINUED

“Al Badry consid-ered the works of the two professors as attacking Islam and its practices.”

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Emergency State In Egypt And More Prisoners Of Conscience

On September 27, 2009, secu-rity authorities in Damanhur arrested Gamal Heshmat and 12 others on the grounds that they were members of the Muslim Brotherhood and possessed publications that included plans to overthrow the government.

Although the court ordered the release of the accused, the security authorities re-arrested Gamal Heshmat and his companions and put them in Wadi El Natrun prison. Having committed no felony, Heshmat and the others join the long list of prisoners of conscience in Egypt.

Activists And Human Rights Organizations Launch A Campaign In Solidarity With Hassan Hanafi And Sayed Elqemany Against Hesba Cases In Egypt

Activists, lawyers and human rights organizations started a campaign in solidarity with Hassan Hanafi and Sayed ElQemany to support them against Hesba cases that were filed against them.

Hanafi and Qemany are re-cipients of State Merit Prizes for their writings. Following the award, much debate was stirred by conservatives and extremists who mostly have not read any of Hanafi and Qemany books.

Citizen Yousef Al Badry then filed a lawsuit before the Administrative Court against the Minister of Culture, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Culture and the Sheikh Al-Azhar de-manding the withdrawal of the award given to both profes-sors. Al Badry considered the works of the two professors as attacking Islam and its prac-tices.

Qemany has received several life threats as a result of some “Fatwa” (resolution) of some extremist Islamic figures and groups stating Qemany’s her-esy and blasphemy and that he was an infidel Muslim.

Police Bias To TV Channel “AlKahira Wa AlNas” At The Expense Of Law

Tarek Nour, influential and affluent businessman, filed a communiqué against internet activist Tamer Azab, accus-ing him of insult and libel, an accusation that could not lead to prison sentence in Egypt. Nour filed the communiqué after Azab revealed on Fa-cebook that “AlKahira Wa AlNas” TV channel, owned by Nour, had violated the intel-lectual property of the famous English ad “The Benny Hill Show.” Al-Dostor daily inde-pendent Egyptian paper re-ported on the same violation mid August 2009.

Tamer Azab was arrested on October 25, 2009, without a prosecution order and alleg-edly as a favor to Nour. Hu-man rights organizations in Egypt are calling this a clear incident of manipulating and disrespecting the law for a powerful businessman.

Instead of investigating the explicit violation of the in-tellectual property law, the police officer took the busi-nessman’s side, arrested the internet activist, seized his computer and detained him illegally. Tamer Azab is still being detained despite the release order issued by the prosecution on October 25, 2009.

Kareem Amer imprisoned after his sentencing

“There is a big difference be-

tween a prisoner of conscious and a police officer who has been convict-

ed of torture.”

“Tamer Azab was arrested on October

25, 2009 without a prosecution order.

It has been suggest-ed that this arrest

was a favor to Nour, an influential busi-

nessman.”

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Bedoun Draft Law

The Kuwait Society for Hu-man Rights welcomes approv-al of the legislation committee in Kuwaiti parliament of a draft law on the human and basic rights of the Bedoun. The Bedouns of Kuwait are a community of approximately 120,000 who are deemed stateless though living in the territory of Kuwait. They are deprived of civil and basic rights as stated by law.

MP Hassan Johar urged the government grant citizenship and basic civil rights to the Bedoun before the holding of the Human Rights confer-ence in Geneva next May. He threatened to witness against the government before the International Court of Jus-tice for its shortcoming over addressing the issue of the stateless people. The lawmak-er explained that the Justice Minister will appear before the Criminal Court of Justice to get accounted for the inhu-mane treatment of Bedouns.

KUWAIT

Free All Unjustly Detained Prisoners

Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently released a report celebrating the Libyan gov-ernment’s recent release of 88 prisoners as a positive step in the right direction.

Those released include 45 members of the Libyan Is-lamic Fighting Group (LIFG), most of whom had been in prison since the mid-90s after being convicted in unfair trials of an attempted coup against the Libyan leader, Mu’ammar Gaddafi. Their release came after the group renounced violence in August 2009. Au-thorities in Abu Salim prison also released 43 “members of other jihadist groups,” a Gad-dafi Foundation news release said.

Libyan prisons still contain dozens of prisoners who were sentenced after unfair trials for expressing their political views. Abdelnasser Al-Rab-basi, a writer, remains in Abu Salim prison, where Human Rights Watch interviewed him in April. He is serving a 15-year sentence for writing a novel about corruption and human rights.

By the Justice Ministry’s own reckoning, about 200 prison-ers who have served their sentences or who have been acquitted by Libyan courts remain imprisoned under

orders of the Internal Security Agency. Internal Security, under the Interior Ministry, controls two prisons, Ain Zara and Abu Salim, where “security” detainees are held. Internal Security has refused to carry out judicial orders to free these prisoners, despite calls from the justice minister for their release.

In another positive announce-ment, the Gaddafi Foundation also said that the govern-ment soon would demolish Abu Salim prison and move the prisoners to a temporary prison, but did not make clear when or how this would occur. The government has long used the prison, which is notorious for the torture and abuse of those held there, to detain political activists, writ-ers, and journalists who have criticized the government.

Abu Salim was the site of a 1996 prison massacre in which 1,200 prisoners were killed. The Libyan govern-ment has not made public any account of what happened or held anyone responsible. On September 6, 13 years after the killings, the acting secre-tary of defense established a seven-judge investigation panel, headed by a former military tribunal judge, to conduct an investigation into the incident.

LIBYAEGYPTCONTINUED

Police Arrest Christian Father

At dawn on Saturday, October 3, 2009, Egyptian State Secu-rity forces arrested a group of Christian Copts in different parts of the city in Alexandria, after severely assaulting them in front of their neighbors.

Their wives were also ar-rested, but because of intense objection protests by neigh-bors at the way they were handled and of the screams of their terrified children, they were released. The men who were arrested are relatives of Rafaat Girges Habib, a man who helped a Coptic father free his kidnapped daughter from her Muslim husband’s home. The arrests continued until Habib turned himself in to the police.

Habib received a telephone call on September 30 from his daughter Myrna, begging him to come and save her from her Muslim husband, Mohamad Hefnawy. Myrna was abducted 10 months ago, forced to convert to Islam and married by a ‘customary marriage contract’ by Osama Hefnawy to his son Moham-mad.

As Habib, his brother, his brother-in-law and a friend went to the apartment where Myrna was being held cap-tive, they were met by Osama

Hefnawy, father of Mohamed and five other Muslims, who threatened them. A struggle ensued, and Myrna left with her father. She was taken away to an establishment dealing with abduction cases like hers, especially because she was rescued six months pregnant.

Osama Hefnawy immediately filed a report with the police and the State Security Head-quarters in Al-Farana, Alex-andria downtown. Myrna’s paternal uncles were arrested and charged with abduction, together with her father. Myrna’s family apartment was broken into and the shop of Rafaat Girges Habib was completely demolished by the police.

!Myrna Hanna

“The Gaddafi Foun-dation has also said

that the govern-ment soon would

demolish Abu Salim Prison... The gov-ernment has long used the prison,

which is notorious for the torture and abuse of those held there, to detain po-litical activists, writ-ers and journalists who have criticized the government.”

“By the Justice Ministry’s own

reckoning, about 200 prisoners who have served their sentences or who have been acquit-

ted by Libyan courts remain imprisoned un-

der orders of the Internal Security

Agency.”

8 9

>> continued >>


Recent Violations of Free-dom of Press

Violations of freedom of ex-pression rights have escalated in the last three months. After publishing a survey about the King’s rule, two magazines, “TelQuel” and “Nichane” were confiscated in early August because they had disrespect-ed King Mohammed VI and “violated public morality.”

On 28 September, the Min-istry of the Interior closed down “Akhbar al-Youm” without a court order and the newspaper’s editor, Taoufik Bouachrine, and cartoonist, Kalid Kadar, were brought to court on charges for the pub-lication of a cartoon that was considered “disrespectful of a member of the royal family.”

Despite procedural violations, on October 15, 2009, a Rabat misdemeanor court sentenced

MOROCCODriss Chahtan, editor of “Al-Michaal” newspaper, to one year in prison for publishing articles on the King’s health. He was imprisoned directly after the ruling. Rashid Ma-hameed and Mostafa Hiran, reporters of the same paper, were also sentenced to three months in prison and fined 5,000 dirham (US$655).

In a separate case, editor Ali Anouzla and reporter Bochra Daou of the independent daily “Al-Jarida Al-Oula” are also being tried for publishing articles on the king’s health and accused of “intentionally publishing false information.”

These trials, all directed at independent papers, dem-onstrate severe setbacks to freedom of expression in Mo-rocco, which puts the press in jeopardy across the Arab region. The country was once a role model of press freedom for Arabic newspapers.

Stop Undermining Civic Groups

HRW recently released a 45-page report, “Freedom to Create Associations: A Declar-ative Regime in Name Only,” says that local representatives of the Interior Ministry often refuse to accept registration papers when a group’s objec-tives or membership displeas-es the authorities.

Moroccan law permits new as-sociations to come into being simply by registering with lo-cal authorities, rather than by requiring prior authorization. The law obliges officials to ac-cept the registration papers.

The report includes more than 10 case studies of as-sociations from which the government has withheld the “receipt” acknowledging reg-istration, impeding their ac-tivities. These include groups fighting corruption and others promoting the rights of unem-ployed university graduates, the Amazigh (Berber) popula-tion, Sahrawis, and sub-Saha-ran migrants.

PALESTINE

Israeli security forces posed as photojournalists

The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Free-doms (MADA), expressed its strong condemnation to Israe-li security forces who posed as photojournalists amongst Palestinian protestors at a demonstration against Israeli practices regarding Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on Octo-ber 8-9, 2009.

MADA’s statement stressed on that this is a violation of all international laws and char-ters—and it endangers the reporters’ lives. The Center called on the international community to push the Is-raeli government to stop such practices.

Children’s School Needs in Gaza

Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently spoke out against Is-raeli authorities, asking them to immediately lift the restric-tions that deny public school students in Gaza from text-books and basic school needs, such as paper and pens. Israel is tightening its restrictions and prevents Gaza’s imports of various commodities, from food to building materials.

Since the beginning of the new school year, over a month ago, Israeli restrictions have led to a serious deficit in school needs which caused the inability of students to get the tools such as paper books. The children of Gaza were forced to share the same textbooks with each other. Some of them did not get any books of their current school year. The smuggled needs which enter Gaza through the tunnels from Egypt are not sufficient to surpass the deficit brought about by the arbitrary Israeli restrictions on imports of educational materials.

Attacks from Security Forces

Sami Ma’touq and Joni Sulei-man were both killed by Syrian security forces in the village of al-Mishrefeh, near the city of Homs, on 14 Oc-tober 2008. A year later, little has been done to bring their killers to justice.

In anticipation of the first anniversary of the killings, Amnesty International has written to the Syrian authori-ties calling on them to uphold accountability and to ensure that legal action is taken against those alleged to be responsible.

To date it appears that no le-gal proceedings have been in-stituted by the Syrian authori-ties as a result of the report’s recommendations. The Mili-tary Security officers alleged to have committed the killings have not been summoned for interrogation, neither have they been suspended from their positions.

SYRIA !

Editor Bouachrine

After publishing a survey about the King’s rule, two mag-azines, “TelQuel” and “Nichane” were confiscated in early August because they had disrespected King Mohammed VI and “violated public morality.”

10 11

1

4

5

TUNISIA

Tunisian Government Silences Journalists and Activists Before Elections

In anticipation of the October 25th presidential and parlia-mentary elections, the Tuni-sian government launched a campaign to silence journal-ists and activists.

The Tunisian authorities arrested renowned journal-ist and human rights activist Zouhayr Makhlouf, who is also the correspondent of the “Assabilonline” newspaper on October 20 after reporting on the environmental problems in the industrial district in the city of “Nabeul.” He was charged with “insulting others via a public telecommunica-tions network.”

The timing of the arrest (dur-ing the election campaign) is a strong indicator of the regime’s desire to stop the Tunisian journalist who ex-poses the repeated violations of human rights. Makhlouf has already been assaulted and exposed to violent attacks and received death threats on

several occasions. His car was also hit and crashed. One of the previous assaults left him with a broken arm.

Radhia Nasraoui, a lawyer and President of the Tunisian As-sociation for Combating Tor-ture in Tunisia, had suffered a siege imposed on her home. She been prevented from


!

Radhia Nasraoui, Geneva, Sept.12 2008. Photo: M. Bührer

“AlJazeera Net” Blocked on First Day of Ben Ali’s Fifth Term

President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and the ruling Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD) won sweeping victories Oc-tober 25, 2009 in Tunisia’s presidential and legislative elections.

Ben Ali secured his fifth 5-year presidential term by winning 89.62% of the ballot af-ter NGO complaints that Ben Ali and the RCD had received disproportionate media cover-age with over 97.23% cover-age. It was reported that the other three candidates and parties shared the remaining coverage.

On the first day of his fifth term, President Ben Ali blocked “Aljazeera Net.” A few days prior, “MyPortail” news site was also blocked. It has been reported that both sites published reviews of the French book, “The Regent of Carthage,” which monitored the dominance of the strong wife of President Ben Ali and her family on Tunisia in the last years.

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President Ben Ali and his wife, Laila, on the day of his re-election

UAEIn Support of Freedom of Expression

“Hetta” e-magazine Editor-in-Chief Ahmad Mohammed Bin Gharib has been convicted and fined $5500 in a case filed by the Board Chairman of “Abu Dhabi Media” Company due to comments on an article published in the magazine.

The comments were consid-ered by the complainant and the General Prosecution as insult and libel.

Family Demands Release of ‘Outspoken’ Yemeni Journalist

Amnesty International recent-ly reported that the family of a Yemeni journalist believed to have been detained by the government has demanded his release.

Both the family of Muham-mad al-Maqalih and human rights activists believe that he is being held by National Security officials as a result of his strong opposition and criti-cism of the government over the armed clashes in Sa’da.

The journalist, a 49-year-old father of seven children, was abducted from a street in the Yemeni capital Sana’a on September17 by a group of men in an unmarked white van. There has been no news of him since.

YEMEN

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Muhammed El-Muqalih

This summary of news and developments regarding democratization, freedom and human rights in the Arab world was compiled from multiple sources including the Arab Network for Human Rights Informa-tion, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, IRIN and various Egyptian papers.

traveling to France to discuss the abuses she has endured under the Tunisian govern-ment and that of her husband, Hamma Hammami, Secretary General of the Tunisian Com-munist Workers Party.

“The journal-ist, a 49-year-old father of seven children was

abducted from a street in the Yemeni capital

of Sana’a on Sep-tember 17 by a group of men

in an unmarked white van. There

has been no news of him

since.”

12 13

It is no secret to anyone who lives in Cairo that the number of women who don the niqab, the black, face covering, floor-length ensemble, is increas-ing. Although official statis-tics have not been released, everyday Muslim Egyptians are becoming more and more outwardly Muslim, thus lead-ing to many children-young girls who have yet to reach puberty-donning the hijab or even the niqab.

The issue of the niqab in the public sphere was first chal-lenged by the American Uni-versity in Cairo in 2004 when it was decided that women wearing the niqab could not be permitted into the univer-sity for security reasons.

In 2007, Helwan University was criticized when university security guards prohibited female students wearing the niqab to enter university hostels. In the same year, Minister of Religious Endow-ments Hamdi Zaqzouq came under attack for dismissing an employee from a meeting after she refused to remove her niqab.

The matter of the niqab in educational environs recently resurfaced when the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Mohamed Sayed Tantawy asked a young student in one of the Azhar middle schools to remove her niqab, telling her that the niqab was “a tradition and had nothing to do with Islam.”

Egypt’s Recent Attack on the Niqabto Saudi religious organiza-tions that wish to spread an extreme version of Islam in Egypt.

The criticism against the deci-sions to ban niqab in Al-Azhar schools and Cairo university dorms has been tremendous, and many view the bans on niqab as violating the person’s right to worship God as she wishes.

In light of recent events, sev-eral Cairo-based human rights organizations have defended a woman’s right to wear niqab—or anything that she chooses—in schools, universi-ties and all private institutions.

However, what everyone in these human rights organiza-tions is too afraid to say—or perhaps to admit to them-selves even—is that they know the niqab, whether or not a woman chooses to wear it, strips her of all personal identity.

No woman in her right mind, uncoerced by family and community pressures, would choose to strip herself of all expression and isolate herself physically and emotionally from others. Thus, it’s not necessary a matter of per-sonal freedom or the right to wear whatever one wants. The issue is looking more deeply into the meaning of the niqab and the significance it bears upon women.

After observing several other young students (11-12 years old) wearing niqab in the classroom, the head of Al-Azhar decided to ban the niqab completely from Al-Azhar schools, educational institutions and universities.

In an unrelated but strangely coincidental decision shortly after the Azhar incident, Edu-cation Minister Hani Helal dis-missed female students who veil their faces inside Cairo University dorms. Afterwards, a law was passed by a Consti-tutional Court against the full face veil, giving authorities and institutions the right to ban it.

Anti-niqab advocates argue that niqab is not obligatory in Islam, but that argument is no grounds for its prohibition. It should also be noted that re-ligious governmental authori-ties have always spoken out against the niqab while they have no problem with hijab.

The government has an inter-est in fighting the spread of niqab. First, allowing niqab in governmental buildings and institutions can be a security threat as little can distinguish one person to another person. Second, the popularity of the niqab is widely attributed

Opposition groups in Egypt have started a campaign called Ma yehkomsh? to dis-courage all ambitions of Ga-mal Mubarak to succeed the presidency. The campaign’s title is loosely translated “Who gave you the right?”

It is organized by Ayman Nour, leader of the Al-Ghad party and a former presiden-tial challenger in 2005. In re-cent years, many have specu-lated the Gamal Mubarak (the president’s son), who holds a high office in the ruling National Democratic Party, is being prepared to assume the office of the Presidency.

It has been recently reported that 50 state security agents stormed into a Al-Ghad event, causing havoc and assaulting members of the party. Nour’s press secretary and others were arrested and personal items, such as Nour’s laptop were confiscated. This inci-dent took place before a con-ference called “Poets Against Succession.”

In other news of political illegitimacy and corruption, Egypt’s security chief re-cently stated that an “Islamist” election success won’t be repeated, predicting that the country’s largest opposition group (the Muslim Brother-

hood) would not make gains in next year’s parliamentary elections.

Last month, heavy security crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood landed many of its top leaders in prison. This month, the arrests have continued with dozens more arrested because of politi-cal assembly violations. An official told AFP “They are accused of having held a po-litical meeting at the home of one of them.”

Despite an official ban on the group, the Muslim Brother-hood is allowed to operate openly and has an office in central Cairo, although the group faces regular crack-downs by the authorities. In 2005, Muslim Brotherhood members running as “inde-pendents” won 88 seats out of 454 in parliamentary elec-tions.

The government’s continued assault on parties that threat-en or criticize the ruling party demonstrate the absolute lack in the freedoms of assembly, expression and though in Egypt. With parliamentary and presidential elections coming up, the government it doing all it can to make sure Egypt stays more like a king-dom and less like a republic.

Commentaries on Contemporary Civil Society Topics from Around the Region.................................................................................................................................

!

Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar

Aleksandra Sekinger

Political Illegitimacy in EgyptAleksandra Sekinger

14 15

The UN Human Rights Coun-cil at its 12th Session adopted a joint resolution by Egypt and the United States (US) which saved the Council’s annual resolution upholding Freedom of Expression.

However, according to the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) this breakthrough was tainted by the major failure of the Coun-cil to ensure accountability for war crimes committed during the invasion of Gaza by Israel earlier this year, and the adop-tion of a resolution on “tra-ditional values” that greatly undermines international human rights standards. A resolution proposed by Rus-sia and supported by repres-sive governments throughout the world, including all Or-ganization of Islamic Confer-ence (OIC) and Arab League states who are members of the Council, imposes the concept of “traditional values” into the international human rights lexicon. “Traditional values” is a concept that lacks any basis in international hu-man rights instruments and, in fact, is often used to justify repression, discrimination and other violations of human rights.

“The adoption of this resolu-tion is highly dangerous. It constitutes yet another attack on the universality of interna-tional human rights standards by the very UN mechanism that is supposed to uphold and strengthen these standards.”

Also highly disturbing was the Council’s inability to uphold the report of a UN fact find-ing mission into Israeli war crimes committed during the invasion of Gaza earlier this year. On the 1st of October, the Prime Minister of Israel threatened to take collective punishment against the Pal-estinian people and reject any US sponsored peace talks if the Council passed a resolu-tion upholding the recommen-dations of this report.

The report by the fact find-ing mission, also known as the Goldstone report, recom-mended that the Security Council take up the matter and demand credible inves-tigations by Israel and Pales-tinian actors into war crimes committed by armed forces, and to refer the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if no such investigations took place within six months. In response to heavy pres-sure by the US and threats by Israel, the Palestinian leadership and the other main co-sponsor, Egypt, decided to withdraw a resolution that was intended to uphold all recom-mendations of the Goldstone report. This decision delays any possible action on the re-

port’s recommendations until March 2010, and could end up killing the report entirely. “In effect, Israel and the US have once again worked together to ensure international impunity for war crimes committed in Gaza by Israeli forces,” said Jeremie Smith, Director of the Geneva Office of CIHRS, “Such impunity will only em-power extremist elements in both Israel and Palestine and entrench the cycle of violent retribution that always derails the peace process. Unless the Council accepts the Goldstone report in full it will lose cred-ibility and send the wrong message that states who com-mit war crimes are above the law.” In a statement before the Council two days earlier CIHRS pointed out that any attempt to kill this resolution “will empower those govern-ments, including many mem-bers of the Arab League, who would like to systematically dismantle the international human rights system, and may also ensure that future ef-forts by the Council to give a voice to human rights victims throughout the world, includ-ing in places like Darfur, will be undermined by accusa-tions of hypocrisy and double-

standards.” In a positive development, Egypt and the US worked to-gether throughout the Coun-cil Session to lobby member states and create the text of a Freedom of Expression reso-lution that acknowledges the need to combat discrimination and incitement of hatred and violence, but avoids the inser-tion of vague concepts like “defamation of religion” which are used to violate human rights standards. This annual resolution on Freedom of Expression has been in danger of being killed off through inaction because of attempts by the OIC and Arab states to insert the concept of “defamation of religion” and other vague restrictions to freedom of expression into the resolution; concepts which are often used by governments to forcefully repress freedom of expres-sion and discriminate against minorities, including Muslim religious minorities. “The Freedom of Expression resolution proposed by Egypt and the United States was ad-opted by all member states of the Council, and represents a major breakthrough. It is the

UN Takes One Step Forward and Two Leaps Back: UN Human Rights Coun-cil Revives Freedom of Expression But Imposes “Traditional” Limitations on Rights and Allows Impunity for Gaza War CrimesSource: Cairo Institute for Human Rights

“A resolution pro-posed by Russia

and supported by repressive govern-ments throughout

the world...imposes the concept of “tra-ditional values” into the international hu-man rights lexicon.”

strongest message yet that the concept of defamation has no place in the Human Rights Council and should be left out of its deliberations,” said Mr. El Fegiery. Pakistan , on behalf of the OIC, explain-ing its vote, hinted that the OIC may be moving toward a position more in line with the international legal standards and away from the concept of defamation of religions. According to Mr. Smith, “De-spite a positive resolution on Freedom of Expression, the Council’s failure to provide accountability for victims of War Crimes in Gaza while also imposing undue limitations on rights in the form of “tradi-tional values” has once again caused it to fall well short of its obligations to uphold and strengthen human rights.”

said Moataz El Fegiery, Exec-utive Director of the CIHRS, “Such a concept has been used in the Arab region to jus-tify treating women as second class citizens, female genital mutilation, honor crimes, child marriage and other practices that clearly contra-dict with international human rights standards. Does this resolution now mean that such practices are accept-able under international law?”

“The Freedom of Expression resolution pro-posed by Egypt and the US was adoped by all member states of the council and represents a

major breakthrough. It is the strongest message yet that the concept of defamation has no place in the Human Rights Council and should be left

out of its deliberations,” said Mr. El Fegiery.

16 17

Far from being a rare oc-currence, one of the most frustrating discussions I have is over the degree of determi-nation held by the people of Egypt in purging the injustice they have endured for so long and in obtaining freedom from the chains of a thuggish regime.

Most democracy-apprehen-sive pundits maintain that it falls far short of what is needed to effect real change and restore the nation to its rightful place on the global map. To achieve what others have gained, the people of Egypt must show far more spunk and willingness to pay the price, goes the theory.

Until they rise in droves and are prepared to suffer and even die for their cause, there will be no change and the dictatorship will continue. A disturbing common statement in such discussions is: every nation deserves its ruler.

Such negative claims raise the controversial question of whether or not Egyptians are complacent and lack the verve to fight for their rights, as have so many nations before them. Most observers dismiss the notion that Egyptians are as eager as anyone to live in freedom but face stakes too high to entice them to do something about it, insisting that they have grown accus-tomed to living under perpetu-al tyranny.

Examples can perhaps be drawn from history and from contemporary similar situa-tions to better understand the Egyptian picture.

The French Revolution and the American War of Indepen-dence are cogent examples of the kind of commitment needed to demonstrate what it takes. In the upheavals unleashed in recent times, the nations of Eastern Europe and South America are frequently cited as success stories that firmly buttress the supporters of the ‘you-must-earn-your-freedom’ view. According to that view, those people have all paid the price for their freedom and have been conse-quently rewarded.

Yet other nations still languish in the throes of tyranny and cannot be accused of being any different genetically from their more successful breth-ren. Cuba is an example of a nation well educated and aware of its political predica-ment, while utterly helpless to realise the kind of changes oc-curring in other Latin Ameri-can nations such as Chile and Brazil.

The central Asian ex-Soviet republics are still as oppres-sive as they come. China is certainly the largest country still living in antiquated auto-cratic misery. North Korea and Burma are far worse. The Arab nations and plenty of Af-ricans still endure middle-age

authoritarian rule with little hope of any imminent change of fortunes.

What is conveniently over-looked in the sweeping ob-servations soiling the fighting reputation of many peoples still living under tyranny is the degree to which autocratic rule dominates some regions in a manner most conducive to ongoing oppression. It is not fair to judge nations be-fore making sure they have a level playing field.

It would be difficult from a study of the reasons behind the existence of a determined desire among the general masses in their quest for freedom to extract certain na-tional traits that would favour one people over another.

Since it must be assumed that all people yearn for a life devoid of tyranny and oppres-sion, the more logical conclu-sion would probably revolve around the prevalence of circumstances that either en-

How Determined Are the Egyptian People?

courage or deter the masses from rising collectively. Some have the chance to rise in defi-ance of totalitarianism; others are unable to.

In order to put the issue in its proper context, modern Iran is probably a good example to use for setting standards. It has had two incidents of uprisings that can be used to compare to the Egyptian model. In 1979 the shah was overthrown by a determined national uprising that ended up heralding a theocracy. Thirty years later nationwide protests and rebellion against the rigged elections resulted in nothing.

The first movement achieved its target; the second failed. The Iranian uprising that led to the downfall of the shah is often superficially evoked to depict the need to rise collec-tively before tyranny can be defeated.

The clear message is that the Egyptian people lack the

Hassan Elsawaf

What is conveniently overlooked in the sweeping observa-

tions soiling the fighting reputation of many peoples still liv-ing under tyranny is the degree to which autocratic rule domi-nates some regions in a manner most

conducive to ongoing oppression.”

spunk of their Iranian coun-terparts who were also faced with daunting odds like SA-VAC, the shah’s vicious secret police, but still managed to stage a national tour de force that resulted in the overthrow of a dictator. Never mind what came out of that.

In the quashing of the mass uprising against the recent rigged elections, the world was witness to a scandalous suppression of a sweeping popular movement by an au-tocratic regime ill prepared to relinquish power.

So, the Iranian people, within a thirty-year span, a blip in historical terms, had two op-posite results when confront-ing oppression.

Why?

Well, a recent BBC television documentary on Iran, cover-ing the events of 1979, clearly reveals that it was only after the shah gave strict orders to avoid firing live ammunition

Post Election Riot/ Police Crash in Iran, June 13, 2009

“Yet other nations still languish in the throes of tyranny and cannot be ac-cused of bring any

different genetically from their more

succesful brethren.”

18 19

“... In trueEgyptian regime fashion, those who question

corruption and poor governance

are the problem—not corruption

and poorgovernance.”

into the crowds that the thrust of angry mobs gathered steam and managed to shake the establishment, eventually forcing the shah to flee for his life.

The obvious conclusion to draw is that, were the shah to have stuck to his guns and al-lowed a few hundred civilians to be shot, there would never have been enough momen-tum to overthrow him. When the tanks take to the streets and the army is under strict orders to shoot rebellious elements at first sighting, it is unrealistic to expect a positive outcome.

Many examples support that reasoning, including Tianan-men Square in 1989 and various incursions by Soviet forces into European coun-tries in the 1950’s and 60’s.

In the second Iranian example - the recent elections - the authorities acted swiftly and brutally suppressed the din of the furious protestors, pre-venting the demonstrations from getting out of control. Several people were shot and waves of arrests took place, sending the ominous message that they meant business. As a result, the masses headed back to their homes, the intensity waned and the upris-ing faded.

The point here, if we are to use the Iranian analogy, is that nothing in the Egyptian people’s behaviour indicates cowardice or a lack of resolve. They are fed up and would love to see the end of the military dictatorship that has stifled them for decades.

The comparison between Iran and Egypt only becomes

fair when the conditions are similar. Try announcing on national radio that the secu-rity forces have been ordered to refrain from attacking the crowds on the streets of Cairo and watch the reaction.

In fact, anyone vying to rise against the system in Egypt and attempting so much as a five-person gathering is quickly crushed by the ubiq-uitous security apparatus. That aura of intimidation by the authorities extends to all public places and is particular-ly pronounced on university campuses, traditional sites for instigating mass uprisings. No demonstrations are allowed unless closely monitored and are clearly not hostile to the regime, such as the innocu-ous public denunciations of Israel whenever it attacks the Palestinians.

The intimidation extends to the media where audacious reporters frequently face ludi-crous charges when stepping out of line, sometimes doing time over trivial issues such as being accused of spreading rumours on the health of the strongman.

Watching some television footage recently, I was im-pressed to see scenes of pub-lic defiance by sizeable Egyp-tian crowds chanting slogans and brandishing banners no less potent than their counter-parts in Iran when they were robbed of a fair election in June.

As with Iran, the regime thugs successfully quashed the movement and instilled sufficient fear in the hearts of the protestors to buy time. There will be more protests, no doubt about it; but it will take time and require more organised opposition.

What is overlooked when assessing the future of the nation is how the crackdowns are undermining the chances of something positive coming out of an eventual demonstra-tion that will be telling and

that will result in change, hopefully not just of regime, but of political system as well.

In applying harsh and cal-lous tactics in dealing with dissent, the authorities are, probably deliberately, reduc-ing the quality of the type of leadership that could emerge when the dust has settled. Faced with the ferocity of a security apparatus concerned only with protecting a cor-rupt and illegitimate dictator, opposition will always tend to become less ethical itself.

It has been compromised, legitimate avenues of dissent having been shut down, and has been heavily infiltrated by regime henchmen in order to depict any opposition force as rash and irresponsible. The regime deplores peaceful demonstrations, not because they risk turning violent, but because they will expose the degree of exasperation of the public with its rotten policies.

In arguing over the merits of allowing peaceful dem-onstrations and the right to free speech, there lies more than the philosophy of mak-ing government accountable and transparent; there is also the important aspect of main-taining civilised conduct and preserving an environment of calm and proper behaviour that eventually becomes a way of life. Even when dis-pleased with their govern-ments, crowds will remain non-violent when they know the authorities will not molest them in their peaceful quest for change.

In Egypt it is the regime that is solely responsible for any violence since it is always the

uncontested instigator. The Egyptian regime, in its egotis-tical and unrelenting strive for unopposed power is sabotag-ing the quality of its people by undermining the opposition parties to the point of making sure that whatever comes out of the debris of a collapsed government, will also be op-pressive and intolerant.

That outcome serves as a con-venient anti-democracy argu-ment, utilised to full effect by regime stalwarts to portray all opposition as unruly and, therefore, unqualified, in what has become a desperate at-tempt to thwart any move to-wards a more liberal approach in national political conduct. The regime is quite brazen when it comes to conjuring ways to deflect any threat to its precarious existence.

In its tenacious drive to hold on to power, the Egyptian re-gime is destroying the fabric of its people. Little hope re-mains for the existing regime to make things better. Do they have to destroy our future hope as well?

Do not misjudge or underes-timate the Egyptian people; they are just as determined as any other nation to get rid of the military dictatorship and start to live like human beings. Their problem is that they lack opportunity not desire.

Tanks in Tiananmem Square, 1989

“In its tenacious drive to hold on to

power, the Egyptian regime is destroy-ing the fabric of its

people.”

“The aura of in-timidation by the

authorities extends to all public places and is particularly

pronounced on uni-versity campuses, traditional sites for

instigating mass uprisings.”

The Civil Society and Democratization in the Arab World Newsletter (CS), founded in 1991, is published monthly by the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies (ICDS). The articles in Civil Society do not represent any consensus of beliefs. The editorial team does not expect readers to agree with the arguments presented, but asks readers to value the necessity of open debate. In order to further this objective, readers are invited to respond.Copyright 2006, all rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be used or produced in any form without prior written permission of the publisher. The Ibn Khaldun Foundation for Applied Research Limited is registered in Dublin, Ireland under Companies Act 2963-1990. Number: 192603

ICDS Address:17 Street 12Moqattam, CairoTelephone:+2 (02) 2508 1617/ 2508 1030 / 2667 0974CS Website:http://www.eicds.org/newsletter.htmlContact Editor:[email protected]

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