The National Council for Human Rights has finally come out of its deep slumber. As a government body, few expected the incisive critical tone it used in the recent report on Egypt s human rights situation the council presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), an inter-governmental body of 192 members established in 2006. Under the HRC s Universal Periodic Review mechanism, individual member states human rights records are examined periodically through contributions from various sources including a report from the government concerned as well as shadow reports submitted by domestic NGOs. Interestingly, the shadow report drafted by 23 independent Egyptian NGOs, which was also presented to the HRC, shares many common concerns with its government counterpart, both agreeing that the state of human right has deteriorated in the past three years. Although such criticism is expected from independent rights groups, the NCHR has traditionally been criticized for not being critical enough of unacceptable government practices. This report, however, has been unequivocal in slamming basic government violations resulting from the continuing state of emergency. As has been reported in Daily News Egypt, the report has also criticized "constitutional amendments made in 2007 which provide for the drafting of a new counter-terrorism law which would legitimize the suspension of basic constitutional rights related to judicial supervision of police detention and evidence-collection during the investigation of terrorism offences. It has even touched upon the hitherto untouchable issue of the presidential prerogative to refer terrorism suspects to any other judicial authority, including exceptional military courts, a practice that has repeatedly been blasted by human rights advocates as a blatant violation of civil rights because such courts lack an appeals process. Among the various other critiques mentioned in the report were the inadequate legal sentencing meted out to perpetrators of torture; infringements on freedom of the press through publishing offenses laws that allow for custodial sentences for journalists; the crackdown on bloggers, who must be encouraged to participate freely in the cultural and political arenas; as well as the current lack of freedom to form political parties. In an interview with the LA Times, Hossam Badrawi, the head of the NCHR group that drafted the report and also a member of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), said, We praised the government when it vowed to end the implementation of emergency law in 2005. But rather than fulfilling their promise, they extended the law for two more years in 2008. It's not common for such statements to come from NDP members whose absolute loyalty has helped the current regime keep its stronghold over both the government and the People's Assembly for almost three decades. It's hard to figure out exactly what this new tone indicates, but in the best case scenario, it could signal a potentially fundamental shift in the regime's approach to human rights issues. Presenting such a damning report to a UN body is not to be taken lightly and could be a way to hold the government accountable before an international audience. That said, this is definitely not the first time the NCHR has made strong recommendations. In fact, this report was inspired by the NCHR's annual reports from 2006 to 2009. So in the worst case scenario, this report would just be a publicity stunt for the NCHR to dispel its perception as a cosmetic body to improve the regime's image. Until any real change takes place, we will likely continue to witness random arrests, crackdowns on political opposition and incidents similar to the deportation of US citizen Tarvis Randall from the airport as he attempted to enter Egypt earlier this week. Randall was returning from London to Cairo, where he has been living and working for two and half years, only to find that his name was "on a list . His crime? Apparently joining a small march in February calling for the end of Egypt and Israel s blockade of the Gaza Strip. Clearly we still have a long way to go. Rania Al Malkyis the Chief Editor of Daily News Egypt.
