DSE: Emergency Law leading to more instability

Emergency Law leading to more instability

By Pakinam Amer
First Published: May 10, 2006

CAIRO: Opposition forces claim that following the extension of the Emergency Law security forces have been “harsher” and “stricter” in their policy. In response, some political and judicial blocs have organized a conference to combat the law’s “hegemony.”
Following the renewal of the Emergency Law, at least 70 political and human rights activists were arrested; some 20 were rounded up on Monday for protesting in front of Cairo’s Supreme Court.
Monday’s group was charged with insulting the president, demonstrating and distributing leaflets. The police did not hesitate to use force to curb the protestors, according to human rights activist Aida Seif El-Dawla who was present at the scene. Some of the protestors were women, who claimed to have been pushed, shoved and beaten with batons.
Meanwhile, following their conference, the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary (ACIJLP) published reports and recommendations concerning the Emergency Law, deeming the law unconstitutional.
The conference, entitled “The Constitutional and Legislative Organization of the State of Emergency in Egypt” featured the participation of different policymakers and lawmakers, diplomats, journalists and upper house members.
During the conference, the participants expressed their perceptions of the position of Egyptian legislation and international agreements on declaring a state of emergency for an additional two years, despite fierce opposition.
The participants also discussed the regulations governing the law and the constitutional framework that should have guided its extension. The center also attempted to examine whether the reasons for declaring and extending the state of emergency were truly in the interest of public rights and personal freedoms or in fact trampled them.
According to the ACIJLP conference report, extending this “exceptional” law lacks “realistic grounds and misses the reasons stated in the Emergency Law itself.”
The first article of the Emergency Law reads that “a state of emergency may be declared whenever security or public order are threatened in the Republic's territories or parts of it, whether through a war, conditions that threaten with war, internal unrest, natural disasters or an epidemic.”
The participants also argued that extending the Emergency Law had not led to more stability contrary to what the government “envisioned.”
The law in fact reinforces “the international community's view of Egypt as an unstable area … while the state [claims otherwise by trying to] convince the world and investors that Egypt is experiencing real stability.” The law, according to ACIJLP, also enticed negative reactions that “will impact the economy in the coming period,” read their report.
Last week, the U.S. state department strongly criticized the extension of the law, saying that it restrains freedom and reform. International human rights groups, with the New York-based Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International topping the list, published reports linking recent violations of human and prisoners’ rights to the state of emergency, calling on President Hosni Mubarak to keep his promises and abolish the much-criticized law.
“The government pledged to refrain from resorting to the Emergency Law against intellectuals, writers and those who express their opinion, emphasizing that the law will only be used to pursue terrorism,” said the law center representatives at the conference. “Daily events affirm the use of the Emergency Law against journalists, union members and human rights activists.”
“Moreover, the provisions of exceptional nature present in the Penal Code, known as the Anti-Terrorism Law, would suffice to pursue terrorists.”
The center has called upon political and civil forces to pressure the government by directly asking the president to immediately “intervene to lift the state of emergency in accordance with the principles of legitimacy and to implement his election program.” Lawmakers also suggested that adequate compensation is essential to rehabilitating what they called the “victims of the Emergency Law” and their families.
“We call upon the media, particularly the independent media, to broadcast the trials, investigations and cases that are based on the state of emergency.”
Link: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1445