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A day of national mourning…when will justice be realised?
Use of sexual assault to repress internal reform campaigners
22 human rights organisations add their voices to the Journalists' Syndicate's demand for the
resignation of the Interior Minister, call for NDP leaders to be investigated and formation of a people's court
1/6/2005
The signatory human rights organisations to this statement express their solidarity with the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate in its declaration of the 1st June as a day of national mourning. They add their voices to the Syndicate's demand that the Interior Minister - the political and executive head of security bodies and the police forces - resign. For the first time in Egyptian history security forces and the police used sexual assault, or facilitated its use by groups of thugs against members of the opposition protesting against the amendment of article 76 of the Constitution. The signatory organizations also call on the President of the Republic, in his capacity as leader of the ruling party, to take the necessary measures to investigate the party leaders who directed this battlefield of shame. Their names were provided in the testimonies of the women who were the targets of these despicable tactics.
The 25th May 2005 will go down in history not as the anniversary of the Constitutional referendum, but, rather, the day when this shameful weapon was openly used en masse in public.
Over the last fifty years Egypt has witnessed the increasing spread of the use of this contemptible treatment against both men and women in state security headquarters as a tool of investigation, torture and forcing confessions. The Egyptian cinema and reports by both Egyptian and international human rights organisations have all documented these low practices, and the names of those officers directly responsible for them, or under whose supervision they were committed, have occasionally be revealed.
Until the Egyptian judiciary wins the independence it has been fighting for over the last 40 years, and until the independence of the attorney general is realised, the crime of 25th May 2005 will be repeated, just as - according to human rights reports - torture has become a routine, widespread and daily practice. Until the missing justice in Egypt is once again considered, it is perhaps appropriate that the Journalists' Syndicate and human and women's rights' groups organise a public people's court to try the organizers and perpetrators of the 25th May crimes, the leaders of the ruling party and heads of security bodies. This should be in collaboration with representatives of international NGOs and women's groups and groups concerned with media freedom.
The signatory organisations to this statement condemn the press statement issued by the deputy head of the National Council for Human Rights which repeated government claims that the events of May 25 were merely exchanged acts of violence. The statement lumps together the National Democratic Party (NDP), leaders of the opposition and trade unions - most likely referring to the Journalists' and Lawyers' Syndicates - and attributes responsibility for the acts of violence to them, and for "criminal measures" to be taken against them!
The crimes committed on the 25th May 2005 not only dispel the myth of government claims of political reform, but foretell danger in the six coming months which will witness presidential and parliamentary elections - political battles which are even more sensitive and significant than the political battle surrounding the article 76 amendment.
The signatory organisations to this statement fear that Egypt is about to live one of the most violent periods in its history, when all independent voices (regardless of whether these voices belong to individuals, trade unions, political parties, NGOs, the press or satellite channels) will be targeted using the most malicious and dirtiest methods in the absence of an independent judiciary and attorney general, because of the strength of security bodies who are above the law and the Constitution and because of the complete absence for the last 50 years of a true parliament to hold the executive in check.
This denuding and assault of Egyptian women is symbolic of the current situation in Egypt, which lacks a parliament and independent judiciary and attorney general able to protect them and hold to account those who attack human rights, men and women.
Signatories:
1. The Egyptian Association for Advancement through Social Partnership
2. The Egyptian Association Against Torture
3. The Egyptian Association for the Strengthening of Democratic Development
4. The Group for Democratic Development
5. The Human Rights Association for the Assistance of Prisoners
6. The Shumuu Association for Humanitarian Rights and Developing Local Community
7. The Arab Organization for Criminal Reform
8. The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
9. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
10. The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession
11. The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights
12. The Land Center for Human Rights
13. The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
14. The Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of the Victims of Violence and Torture
15. The Habi Center for Environmental Rights
16. Hisham Mubarak Law Center
17. The Arab Network for Human Rights Information
18. The Center for Trade Union and Workers' Services
19. The Arab Program for Human Rights Activists
20. The National Association for Human Rights and Human Development
21. The New Woman Institute
22. The Center for Alternative Development Studies
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