A number of human rights activists confirmed that the National Strategy for Human Rights has achieved several goals and gains in all fields over the past three years, and has also achieved the comprehensive concept of human rights.
National prescription
Abdel Gawad Ahmed, Chairman of the Arab Council for Human Rights and member of the National Council for Human Rights, said that the strategy is a national prescription in which all parties concerned with human rights in Egypt have contributed, whether the government, national councils or civil society organizations, which came without any external pressure.
Abdel Gawad explained that the strategy in its third year has had a notable and prominent success and has stirred stagnant waters at all levels, as everyone relies on the principles of the strategy, whether national councils, national dialogue sessions or civil society organizations, stressing that the stage of evaluating the results is one of the most important stages.
He also praised the continuous consultation by the Permanent Supreme Committee for Human Rights through presenting its reports on the evaluation of previous years, saying: “The report of the third year of the strategy was presented and this helped us in developing solutions and we are working to implement them with the involvement of other parties, and we must bear responsibility as partners In this country, through participation in evaluating what the strategy has reached, we praise what it has accomplished, and we demand the rapid achievement of the remaining targets.”
The member of the National Council for Human Rights called on the Permanent Supreme Committee for Human Rights to hold several expanded meetings with the participation of all civil society organizations to consult and survey opinions on what has been implemented and what is planned to be implemented and to evaluate previous stages, stressing the need for civil society organizations and national councils to interact in evaluating previous years of the strategy.
Strategy objectives
Ahmed Fouki, head of the Misr Al-Salam Foundation for Development and Human Rights, explained that the National Strategy for Human Rights aims to achieve about 226 results distributed over four main axes, which are: civil and political rights, economic and social rights, and the rights of women, children, youth, and persons with disabilities, in addition to education and capacity building in the field of human rights.
He added, “After about three years have passed since the launch of this strategy, we can talk about the existence of positive indicators for achieving a group of the strategy’s targets, especially opening An extensive discussion at the national dialogue table to set controls and justifications for pretrial detention resulted in a set of important recommendations to which the President of the Republic responded quickly, as he directed that the recommendations announced by the national dialogue regarding the pretrial detention file be referred to the government and that the necessary measures be quickly taken to activate the agreed upon recommendations.”
The President of “Egypt Peace” praised By issuing a law that allows the appeal of judgments issued in felonies by all types of courts, as well as plans to develop and modernize prison facilities to improve the standard of living and medical care for prisoners, as more than 25 prisons were closed under their old name, and prisoners were transferred and distributed to modern reform and rehabilitation centers that were established in recent years, which enhances the conditions of care for inmates and protects them from overcrowding. Ahmed Fouki stressed the need to consider issuing a legislative amendment that guarantees the protection of victims, informants and witnesses, as it is one of the strategy’s targets and one of the most important legislations that enhance human rights, and the need to work on issuing a comprehensive law to protect women from all forms of violence, calling for increased work on building the capacities and training of workers in human rights units in the governorates of the republic.
