Newly formed National Council for Human Rights to focus on remand detention, says member

After a four-year hiatus, 27 members were appointed on Monday to the National Council for Human Rights, a government-appointed body tasked with reporting on and making recommendations for the human rights situation in Egypt.

Two new faces on the council come from the International Dialogue Group, a lobby comprising members of both parliamentary chambers that rose to prominence this year as it successfully coordinated with security bodies and the public prosecutor’s office for the release of certain political prisoners. 

The new council formation was selected by the General Committee of the House of Representatives, which began its second session on Saturday after the summer recess, and is yet to receive final approval from President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The head of the lobby group and former MP Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, who is also head of the Reform and Development Party is among the cohort of dialogue group members newly appointed to the council. Former Family and Population Minister Moushira Khattab, another dialogue group member, was also selected to lead the new council.

Other members include George Ishaq, the former coordinator of the Mubarak-era Kefaya protest movement, who has been a council member for about eight years.

Ishaq told Mada Masr that the newly formed human rights council will help secure the release of political prisoners, whether convicted or in remand detention, adding, “We have hope that a large number of prisoners will be released on the occasion of October 6 [Armed Forces Day].”

According to several sources who spoke to Mada Masr last month on condition of anonymity, security personnel at several prisons across the country have been screening detainees, including people held on charges of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood and for other political affiliations, for the anticipated October 6 presidential prisoner amnesty list, conditioning releases on an agreement to present conditions in detention facilities in a favorable light. Ishaq also said that the council will focus in the coming days on implementing the national strategy for human rights, which Sisi announced recently, saying, “If we can implement 50 percent of it, I will be happy.” He added that the human rights situation requires a second look, so that the council can respond to international comments on human rights in Egypt.

This year, the United States has once again conditioned a small portion of its annual military aid allocation for Egypt on improvements in certain rights files, including the release of 16 specific political prisoners whose names are unknown. 

The new formulation looks set to restart the human rights council’s work after a four-year hiatus. The last council was formed by a decree by then-Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi in August 2013. Each new council works for a four-year period.

When the end of the previous council’s term arrived in 2017, the 2015 House of Representatives introduced legal amendments that would pass the authority to choose the council members to the House General Committee. However, the previous House did not appoint a new council before its term came to an end in December.

In addition to Khattab and Sadat, the new membership of the council will include lawyer Nehad Abu Qumsan — who is taking the place of her late husband Hafez Abu Saada — Egyptian Jurists Association chair Rabha Fathy, the head of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights Essam Shiha, the head of the Forum for Development for Human Rights Dialogue Saeed Hafez, Ahram Weekly Editor-in-Chief Ezzat Ibrahim and vice editor-in-chief of the Mubtada news website Mahmoud Bassiouni, among others.