1. Report of the Delegation to Egypt of Lawyers from the
International Coalition for Freedoms and Rights (ICFR)
11 to 14 March 2014
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2. 1. Introduction
The International Coalition for Freedoms and Rights (ICFR) organized a delegation of
international lawyers to Egypt a part of the ongoing effort to understand the situation
of human rights in Egypt after the removal of Mr. Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first
democratically elected President, on 3 July 2013.
The delegation met with a selection of government and non-government officials and
concluded that there are serious human rights concerns in Egypt today that are
amplified by the overthrow of the elected government in a military coup. Especially
disturbing were the indications of widespread abuse of the human rights of women.
Other significant concerns were raised about arbitrary detentions, the treatment of
prisoners, manipulation of the Egyptian judicial processes, and limitations on the
freedoms of expression, assembly, and association.
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This report summarizes the visit of the delegation led by Mr. Ramsey Clark, a former
US Attorney-General, and Mr. Abdeen Jabara, a former Arab-American Anti-
Discrimination Committee President and member of the Board of Directors of the
Center for Constitutional Rights that visited Egypt from 11 to 14 March 2014. This
visit was made in circumstances where a broad spectrum of commentators have
lamented the deterioration of the social and economic situation and in the wake of a
recent statement made by Egyptian Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Hisham Badr
at the 25th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland
that there were no serious human rights problems in Egypt. There is a wide
divergence of opinion between supporters of the military coup and Anti-Coup
Egyptians inside and outside Egypt about the human rights situation in Egypt after the
military coup.
Rather than being a comprehensive review of human rights in Egypt, this report
merely seeks to bring to light a few serious human rights problems that have been
indicated by the persons to whom the delegation spoke. The names of individuals
have been omitted as several people expressed fear of reprisals; thus the report
features solely the names of government officials who spoke to the delegation in
official capacities.
More information on the background to the human rights situation in Egypt, and
particularly the trials of President Morsi, can be found in the Report of the Delegation
to Egypt of Lawyers from the International Coalition for Freedoms and Rights (ICFR)
from 5 to 10 January 2014.
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3. 2. Terms of Reference
This delegation visit was organized by the International Coalition for Freedoms and
Rights (ICFR). It was asked to meet with government and non-government officials to
assess the state of human rights in Egypt. The delegation agreed that ITS terms of
reference would be as follows:
a. to meet with a broad number of people both from the authorities and civil
society to assess the state of human rights generally in Egypt; and
b. to assess whether human rights standards that have been agreed to by Egypt
as international human rights law are being respected.
3. Observers & Visits
The delegation of four lawyers was led by Mr. Ramsey Clark (United States of
America), Abdeen Jabara (United States of America), Mr. Arno Develay, (United
States of America and France), and Dr. Curtis F.J. Doebbler (United States of America
and State of Palestine). Mr. Ramsey Clark was the 63rd Attorney-General of the
United States, is a practicing lawyer, and is an internationally renown human rights
defender. Abdeeen Jabara an American lawyer, a former President of the Arab-
American Anti-Discrimination Committee, a member of the Board of the Center for
Constitutional Rights, and a foremost defender of Arab-American's civil rights. Mr
Arno Develay works on human rights and criminal law and is a practicing lawyer and
member of bar in both France (Paris) and the United States (Washington State). Dr.
Doebbler practices international human rights law before international bodies, teaches
law, and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar in the United States.
The delegation met with Egypt’s Minister of Justice Mr. Nayer Abdel-Moneim
Othman and the Vice-President of Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights
(NCHR) Mr. Abd El. Ghaffar Shokr. The NCHR is a governmental organization. The
delegation also met with the relatives of detainees, former women prisoners, students,
academics, activists, and defense lawyers. Requests to attend a public court session
and to visit President Morsi were rejected by the respective judge and the Prosecutor-
General. Both the Prosecutor-General and his deputy for International Cooperation
refused to meet the delegation. The Secretary-General of the Arab League also refused
a request to meet with the delegation. In five days in Egypt, delegation members had
more than 40 hours of meeting with Egyptians from the government and non-governmental
organizations.
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4. 4. Respect for International Human Rights Law
i. Applicable law
Egypt has ratified multiple international human rights instruments. Of importance to
this trial observation visit are especially the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR), G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at
52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, entered into force 23 March 1976
(Egypt has not ratified the first Optional Protocol allowing individual petitions), and
the African Charter of Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), adopted 27 June 1981,
OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, 21 I.L.M. 58 (1982), entered into force 21 October
1986. These two treaties have been the focus of the observation visit and report. They
reflect international law that the government of Egypt has agreed to respect.
Other treaties of relevance that Egypt has ratified are the Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Convention on
the Rights of the Child as well as the Arab Charter on Human Rights, which serves as
the basis of the work of the Arab Commission on Human Rights, and the Islamic
Declaration of Human Rights under Islam, which serves as the basis of the work of
the Permanent Commission on Human Rights of the OIC. Notably Egypt has not
ratified the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.
ii. Observations about the situation of human rights in Egypt
Both government officials and non-governmental actors stated that Egypt was
suffering from a state of insecurity and social and economic decline that has not been
seen in modern times. This has led to a precarious state of human rights. The Vice-
President of the National Human Rights Council described the situation stating that
“human rights in Egypt are in peril … because we are a society going through social
and violent conflict.”
While the government officials blamed this situation on the Muslim Brotherhood,
whose leaders have often been imprisoned for months, the civil society actors to
whom the delegation spoke attributed the problems to the authorities currently
wielding power. The majority of civil society actors with whom the delegation spoke
attributed the current problems to the 3 July 2013 military coup that replaced the
elected government of President Mohamed Morsi.
A lawyer explained to the delegation that the Muslim Brotherhood had first decided
not to field a candidate for President in 2012. Although the Muslim Brotherhood had
won the parliamentary elections, it was not until they learned of a plot to close the
Parliament, as eventually happened, that the Freedom and Justice Party, to which
many members off the Muslim Brotherhood belong, decided to compete for the
presidency. Dr. Mohamed Morsi won this election to Egypt's first elected President.
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5. The removal of an elected president by a military coup raises serious human rights
concerns and appears to be the starting point for many contemporary human rights
problems in Egypt. The military coup itself appears to be a serious violation of the
right to participate in one’s democracy of the majority voters in the 2012 presidential
elections. This right is protected in both the ICCPR (art. 25) and the ACHPR (art. 13).
Numerous students recounted tales of arbitrary arrest, beatings, sexual abuse, and
interference with their right of peaceful protest. Such actions are prohibited under
both the ICCPR and the ACHPR. Of particular concern was the large number of
egregious human rights abuses carried out against women. Several civil society actors
we meet at different times and separate from each other reiterated the claim that the
number of sexual and other forms of abuse against women is higher than it has ever
been in Egypt in recent times. Many of the persons who have been arrested and
mistreated are juveniles under 18-years-of-age, the delegation was told repeatedly.
After the military coup and detaining of President Morsi there were widespread
protests and sit-ins across Egypt. The largest of these occurred at Raba'a al-Adawiyya
Square. Estimates of how many people were at the Raba'a sit-in when it was attacked
range from the tens of thousands to more than 250,000. This sit-in lasted
approximately six weeks until it was brutally attacked on 14 August 2013 using of
direct armed force against demonstrators, rooftop snipers, helicopters, armored
vehicles, and other forces. This unprecedented attack, described below, preceded the
attacks on police and police stations that took place from 15 to 20 August 2013
throughout Egypt. The number of people killed, including youth, women and children,
range from a minimum of 638 reported by the government to more than 6000 reported
by activists Thousands of people were injured. The government justified its action on
claims that the sit-in was involved in violence and had become a public nuisance.
Whatever the true number of dead and injured, and even if the authorities' claims
about the sit-in participants were true, the level of violence used by the authorities
was disproportionate and constitutes a massive and serious violation of human rights.
During the visit the delegation discussed the sit-in at Raba'a al-Adawiyya Square and
its clearing by the authorities with the Vice-President of the NCHR, which had just
released a report on the incident. The report claimed that the demonstrators at Raba'a
sit-in had weapons and had fired first on the police and soldiers. The NCHR report, it
was admitted by the Vice-President and Secretary-General of the NCHR in response
to question from the delegation, was based solely on information provided by the
authorities. No person at the Raba'a sit-in or even a supporter of the Muslim
Brotherhood had given evidence to the NCHR, according to its Vice-President.
Moreover, videos that the NCHR provided the delegation of plain clothes youth
totting weapons do not exclude that these youth were agents provocateurs or plain
clothed youth working for the security, police, or military forces, who were sent to
provoke violence. Taking into account the evidence on which the report was based it
may be viewed as a statement of the Egyptian authorities and as such an admission of
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6. the disproportional use of force by these authorities. Such a use of force cannot be
justified on any of the grounds put forward by the authorities. Despite this conclusion,
to date, these serious incidents have not led to the investigation or prosecution of any
police, security, or military personnel or of any official who was involved in ordering
the attack, among which are the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Interior, the
President, the Vice-President, the Prime-Minister, and the chiefs of police and
security.
As Parliament has been dissolved, the authorities that control the executive after the
military coup exercise executive and legislative powers. The delegation was told that
Egypt's current President Mr. Adly Mansour after the military coup, who was the
President of the Constitutional Court, effectively exercises the executive and
legislative powers with the cabinet ministers who were installed after the military
coup. This cabinet was reshuffled in late February 2014.
Comments from both representatives of the authorities and as well as civil society
indicates that the freedoms of expression, assembly, and association were being
challenged by the authorities despite the fact that these are rights have been agreed to
by Egypt in several international human rights instruments, including both the
universal and regional human rights treaties mentioned above. These interferences
with these rights included the arrest and detention of journalists merely for their
contacts with members of the Muslim Brotherhood, harassment of journalists, denial
of visa to journalists, the arrest of peaceful protesters due to their protesting the
military coup or even calling for Egyptians to boycott the January 2014 referendum
on a new Constitution that was boycotted by almost two-thirds of all Egyptian voters,
and the use of violence and sometimes inhumane and degrading treatment against
protesters, often women and girls, who peacefully express their opposition to the
military coup. In this context, the authorities recent promulgated a new decree law on
demonstrations that Egyptian human rights defenders and the National Council on
Human Rights have criticized complaining that it is overly broad and restricts the
rights of freedom of expression, assembly, and association. The NCHR provided us
with their written comments on this law, which they had also submitted to the
authorities.
Civil society members also criticized the recently adopted decree law on elections for
providing the National Election Commission complete immunity from legal
challenges. While the delegation was visiting Cairo, former Prime Minister Ahmed
Shafiq, withdrew from the upcoming presidential elections citing his belief that there
would be widespread election fraud in any election in which General Abdel Fattah al-
Sisi was participating as a candidate.
In December 2013 the authorities designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist
organization claiming that they were behind the violence that gripped the country.
This effectively banned them from public life and suspended the freedom of
expression, association and assembly of all persons who identified themselves with
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7. this group. This happened despite the fact that the Freedom and Justice Party, which is
identified as being aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood won, less than two years
earlier, both Parliamentary and Presidential elections that were widely acknowledged
to have been free and fair. Moreover, this designation was made despite the fact that
numerous other groups had responded with some degree of violence to the authorities'
disproportionate use of force to quell opposition to the military coup, especially to the
violent attack on the Raba'a al-Adawiyya Square sit-in.
Lawyers and victims who are seeking redress through the courts reported significant
interference with the independence of the judiciary as well as with the right to fair
trial. Alleged interferences with the judiciary included corroborated allegations that
judges were not picked to adjudicate cases through a random procedure as required by
law. Alleged interferences of the right to fair trial included lawyers being arrested for
representing clients who opposed the military coup. The delegation was told by
several lawyers that more than 300 lawyers had been arrested. On the day of its
arrival, the delegation was told of a recent incident whereby a lawyer had been
arrested while visiting his client in prison. Lawyers have also reported that defendants
are denied access to their lawyers or their family, confessions are often coerced from
defendants by threats directed to them or to their family members, family members
are prohibited from passing food and other necessities to prisoners, incommunicado
detention and solidarity confinement are widespread, and, in many cases, especially
those involving high profile political prisoners, defendants are prevented from
effectively participating in their own defense. Because of the number of different
lawyers that corroborated these interferences, the delegation concludes from this
evidecne that an endemic denial of fair trial and abuse of judicial procedure appears to
exist in Egypt. This is a matter of paramount concern for ensuring respect for the rule
of both national and international law and should be given adequate and urgent
attention by the Egyptian authorities and the international community.
Both lawyers and family members reported being unable to meet with imprisoned
clients or family members because the fear reprisals from the authorities. Some family
members of detainees also reported that their relatives were being abused in prison.
The delegation was also told that women in particular have been subjected to abuse in
prison. Many families of abused women emphasized the need to punish the
perpetrators of such crimes.
As concerns the trials of President Morsi, the Minister of Justice Mr. Nayer Adel-
Moneim Othman stated that article 152 of the 2012 Egyptian Constitution, which was
in force on 3 July 2013 when President Morsi was removed, was not being applied
because no implementing legislation had been enacted. The Vice-President of Egypt’s
National Human Rights Council, however, stated that the Constitution is self-executing
and does not require implementing legislation. The delegation believes that
is the correct interpretation of the Egyptian Constitutions as it accords with the
practice of almost every State that has adopted a national constitution. In any event,
the trials of President Morsi appear to be unfair due not only to the illegality of the
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8. courts trying him, but also to their failure to abide by fundamental standards of due
process. Denying Mr. Morsi access to lawyers and family and denying him adequate
time and facilities to prepare his defense are serious violations of his right to a fair
trial.
Finally, several activists and family members of persons in detention or who have
been killed or injured… as well as the Vice-President of the National Human Rights
Council have emphasized the need to provide redress to individuals and families who
have suffered injury. Such redress is considered an important part of any effort to
achieve reconciliation. Such redress might also help to lessen the increasing hostility
in society between the minority of Egyptians who support the military coup and the
majority who are demanding a return to democracy.
5. Recommendations
In light of the above visit and the above comments the international lawyers
undertaking this visit have the following recommendations:
1. That the authorities in Egypt immediately end any human rights violations for
which they are responsible and commence an independent and impartial investigation
into the human rights abuses that have been alleged to have been carried out by
officials under their authority against individuals.
2. That the authorities of Egypt takes steps to end its hostilities against the Muslim
Brotherhood and its members and immediately and unconditionally seek talks aimed
at restoring the elected government while ensuring a commitment to human rights.
3. That the government of Egypt and all political and civil society actors engage in
seeking common ground that will lead to restoring democracy as soon as possible.
4. That the Egyptian authorities impartially investigate, arrest, and punish officers
who have committed, and officials who have ordered, wrongful acts against Egyptians
from any sector of society.
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