The Egyptian President of the National Council for Human Rights, Ambassador Moushira Khattab, said on Tuesday, February 28 that the Egyptian state pays much attention to human rights issues and this is evident in the formation of the new Council, which adhered to the Paris standards and in which women occupy the majority of seats. She noted that a woman is chairing the Council for the first time.
Her remarks came during the participation of Ambassador Khattab in the meetings of the 137th session of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, where she presented the Council’s assessment of a report submitted by the Human Rights Committee, which included the situation of civil and political rights in Egypt, during the period from November 2020 until September 2022.
Khattab stated that the Council is aware of the political will to enhance civil and political rights through the announcement of the national strategy for human rights, re-forming the presidential pardon committee, and releasing, reintegrating, and rehabilitating detainees.
Moreover, the Egyptian state opened an inclusive national dialogue for all political parties. She also indicated the Council is keen to receive citizens’ rights complaints through the complaints system. Meanwhile, she referred to the complaints system’s fruitful cooperation with the Presidential Pardon Committee.
Furthermore, Ambassador Khattab noted that the Council paid ten visits to correction and rehabilitation centers within 10 months, which is unprecedented in the history of the Council, as well as the Council’s preparation of a training guide for visits to detention centers based on the Nelson Mandela rules.
The members of the Council also explained that Egypt has 106 political parties, which is a huge number compared to major Western countries that only have two or three parties. They added that the Political Parties Law issued in 1977 has been subject to several amendments, the most important of which is facilitating the procedures for establishing parties.
