European Parliament Mashreq Delegation

PRESS RELEASE   15-05-2012

European Parliament Mashreq Delegation

Gender Concerns International has been very active in Brussels these last few months attending the Mashreq and Maghreb Delegation meeting on the 25th of April 2012.

The Mashreq Parliamentarian Meeting held the morning of the 25th featured a number of key speaks including representatives from Human Rights Watch-Egypt, Freedom House and the Anna Lindha Foundation who shared their analysis of the current political situation in Egypt and made specific recommendations to the parliament.

Please see below a brief outline of the content of the discussion.
The representative of Freedom House focused predominately on the recent offices raids which had negatively affected their internal work in Egypt and the general impact this has had on local partners.

Freedom House maintains that there have been a number of opportunities for international governments to intervene and recommends that the European Parliament defend the importance of civil society organisations by maintaining a clear, concise and honest rhetoric with the Egyptian Parliament.

Mr. Audreu Claret (Executive Director of the Anna Lindh Foundation, Alexandria) offered a slightly different perspective of the political situation and his concerns in Egypt emphasizing the need for cross cultural learning and dialogue.

The organization which views women and youth as social actors for change seeks promotes diversity, democracy and development while working with the framework of Euromed. It has recently implemented a new program funded by the EU that will provide additional tools in capacity building and learning. The foundation will also be promoting South-South Programs and is currently analyzing how to enforce the scope of current programs.

Exchange of views with Heba Morayef, Middle East and North Africa research for Human Rights Watch, Egypt.

Ms. Morayef began by highlighting how complicated it is to work in Egypt at the moment due to the lack of clarity in parliament and the overwhelming pressure imposed by external actors both international organisations and international governments as they seek to contribute to the construction of a democratic Egyptian state. “Democracy cannot be constructed in a day, it is a process; no one can confirm that Egypt will succeed in consolidating a plural democracy but what is certain is that times are better than under the Mubarak regime.”

In Ms Morayef view the European Parliament must undertake two important tasks on it’s up coming visit to Egypt.

a) It must demonstrate it’s support for member of civil society by facilitating and encouraging dialogue between members of civil society and the parliament hence ensuring the freedom and working space for independent NGOS, Civil Society organizations, and Women’s Organisations to work.

When the EU discusses with these key members of civil society they should provide European examples of how it is possible to maintain a control on the work of civil society, transparency and reduce corruption through other means. Encourage a more liberal funding regime, which is key for the country to move forward.

b) The EU delegation must also emphasis the importance of CEDAW and the Egyptian Parliaments national and International legal obligations. The Islamic Brotherhood recently threatened to de-sign the CEDAW Convention. Tackle the use of military courts and the penal code. The current law states that any conflict involving a member of military staff has to be tried in military courts which means that demonstrators can be brought to military courts, children have been tried in the military counts and this justified bringing the cases of virginity testing to military courts too. The military must be held accountable for it’s actions and the citizens justice system must be given the ability to react and challenge the military justice system.