What Sisi didn't say about labor conditions in constructing "New Suez Canal"

Mada Masr
What Sisi didn't say about labor conditions in constructing the New Suez Canal

August 7, 2015 

Jano Charbel

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi omitted to mention the 10 workers who died and 145 who were injured while working on the New Suez Canal project from August 2014 to August 2015.

During the canal's inauguration speech on Thursday, Sisi and the Chief of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), Mohab Mamish, paid tribute to those who died as “Egypt’s martyrs” in terrorist acts, including members of the police and Armed Forces, but didn't mention those who died during construction of the new passageway.

They glossed over the hazardous and precarious working conditions under which thousands labored for a year in order to build a 72 kilometer-long expansion of the existing Suez Canal.

Using patriotic rhetoric, Sisi and Mamish praised the timely efforts of all those who were involved in the mega project, including around 44,000 workers, military engineers, machinists, technicians, and Suez Canal employees.

Spokesperson for the Health Ministry Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, told Mada Masr that of the 10 workers, including one medical doctor, who died while working on the new project, five are reported to have died of natural causes, such as pre-existing medical conditions and heart attacks, while the five others are reported to have died in industrial accidents on site.

145 others were injured and required medical attention. The Health Ministry’s crews reported treating 103 workers who collapsed due to sunstroke. Another 41 were treated for venomous scorpion stings and one worker received medical attention after being bitten by a wild dog.

While the exact compensations paid per death or injury have not been disclosed, the ministry points out that comprehensive health insurance was provided for all those working on the New Suez Canal.

Abdel Ghaffar added, that from its very beginning, dozens of field hospitals and mobile medical units covered the entire project site, providing round the clock service for those working on and around it.

Seoud Omar, an independent union organizer and SCA employee in Suez City, commented that thousands of the SCA’s fulltime employees received “decent salaries and bonuses in light of this new project, with some professions and ranks being particularly well paid — to the tune of several thousand pounds per month.”

However, Omar continued, “The situation for thousands of other part-time workers and precarious laborers was less rewarding, in terms of their hourly pay rates, lengthy work schedules and very strenuous working conditions.”

Omar commented that several private contractors, who recruited the workers, in coordination with SCA, imposed harsh working and living conditions on the workers.

In his speech for the inauguration of the New Suez Canal, Mamish acknowledged the hard labor associated with the project. He stated that, from the very start of the project, no holidays were taken and 24-hour daily work shifts continued non-stop. Yet the SCA chief did not delve into the details of everyday working conditions.

Abdel Aziz Abdel Gawwad, a SCA employee and dredger-operator from Ismailia, who worked on the New Suez Canal, indicates that he and all his fellow workers were paid above the national minimum wage (amounting to at least LE1,200 per month) while working on the project.

However, working hours could extend from 10 to 12 hours per day, while conditions were often back-breaking.

Abdel Gawwad indicated that part-time workers employed by private contractors had even harder working conditions, often sleeping in the open, with little access to running water or restrooms.

It is reported that in many cases, such temporary and non-unionized workers, who were typically involved in the dry-digging phase of the project, often had to pay for their own food and drinking water purchased from local vendors, at above-market prices.

These workers often complained of exposure to intense heat during the day and cold at night, while also being exposed to snakes, scorpions and wild dogs, along with mosquitoes and other insects. It is not known if all these workers received full remuneration, or adequate compensation for their labor.

Another point not mentioned by Sisi or Mamish during their inaugural speeches, is that several hundred locals were denied work on the New Suez Canal project for unspecified “security reasons.”

This exclusionary policy is reportedly linked to the forced relocation of some 2,000 local residents, who were displaced by the canal's construction since September 2014.

Sisi claimed that this is just one of many national projects to be undertaken in the future, particularly along the Suez Canal. The government asserts that one million jobs will be created in light of the planned development in the canal zone.

Sisi also stated that the state’s public works project aims to realize the goal of “social justice and human dignity.”

However, the validity of his claims, whether in terms of job creation, social justice or human dignity, have yet to be assessed.

Sisi concluded his speech on Thursday by mentioning that historically, the Suez Canal “has left its fingerprints on the geography of world and on the map of humanity.”

Also unacknowledged by Sisi were the tens of thousands of locals pushed into forced labor, along with hired hands, who died between 1859–1869 to construct the 160 km-long Suez Canal.

While the SCA’s official website does acknowledge the exploitation of thousands of workers associated with the building of the original canal, it doesn't mention the number of those who died in its construction, estimated to be around 120,000.

*Photo courtesy of Reuters/New Suez Canal Facebook page

Egypt's defense of human rights record "pathetic attempt at cover-up"

Reuters 
Four killed in clashes and attacks across Egypt - sources

November 7, 2014

(Reuters) - At least four Egyptians were killed and eight wounded on Friday in separate incidents involving Islamist protesters and militants across the country, security and medical sources said.

Violence has polarised Egyptians since the army overthrew elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last year following mass protests against his rule.

Small hit-and-run demonstrations are the most Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood can muster after a fierce security crackdown in which hundreds have been killed and many thousands detained.

One civilian was killed and two others wounded by gunfire in northeast Cairo during clashes between Islamist protesters and residents, a security official said.

Further south in the province of Fayoum, a 17-year-old Islamist protester was killed during clashes with the police, medical and security sources said. Five others were wounded, including three policemen.

Security sources said a soldier and a civilian were killed and one person was wounded when gunmen opened fire on an army checkpoint near the Suez Canal city of Ismailia.

The Brotherhood maintains it is a peaceful movement and denies involvement in anti-state violence that the government says has killed more than 500 people, mostly police and soldiers, since Mursi's ouster.

Attacks are often claimed by Islamist militants based mainly in the Sinai Peninsula, where the Egyptian army began clearing residents last week to create a buffer zone along the border with the Gaza Strip following attacks that killed 33 soldiers.



*Reporting by Mohamed Abdellah and Yusri Mohamed; Writing by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Andrew Roche

2,000+ residents displaced from homes & farms, denied work on Suez Canal project

Mada Masr
Over 2,000 residents forced from homes, denied work on Suez Canal project

October 1, 2014

Jano Charbel 

 

 

Touted as Egypt’s national project of the century, the construction of a navigational bypass known as the “New Suez Canal” is projected to replenish the state’s coffers with billions, while providing one million new job opportunities in the process. However, it has thus far displaced well over 2,000 longtime residents living by the planned course of this new megaproject – rendering them both homeless and jobless.
 
According to lawyers for the displaced, well over 1,000 residential units have been torn down and their agricultural lands confiscated since the beginning of this month, in the villages of Qantara Sharq and Abtal, just east of the central part of the Suez Canal.

No monetary compensation has yet been paid for the demolitions, nor has alternate housing been provided, although state officials have pledged allotted plots of empty land, amounting to a mere 150 square meters per family.

Displaced families have been told that they will be repatriated in the villages of Amal and Ahrar, near Qantara Sharq, around 130 kilometers northeast of Cairo.

Neither the Suez Canal Authority nor the governorate of Ismailia has thus far made any mention of compensation for loss of agricultural lands and farmers’ livelihoods.

Attempts to contact the Ismailia governorate’s media spokesperson for specific details regarding these relocation efforts went unanswered.

In addition to being displaced from their homes, lands, and livelihoods, these evicted residents are being denied work opportunities in the New Suez Canal Project, due to unspecified security concerns.

A lawyer for the displaced families, Sherine al-Haddad, warns that as this new megaproject pushes forth from the central canal governorate of Ismailia, and hundreds of additional homes may be demolished.

According to her, an estimated 2000, or more, residents living and working along its trajectory may also potentially be displaced from their villages, which lay along the route of the planned bypass.

Earlier this month, the Armed Forces and governorate of Ismailia began the process of evicting some 2,500 locals and demolishing their homes, while simultaneously confiscating hundreds of feddans (one feddan = 1.038 acres) of their family-owned agricultural lands.

Many, if not most, of these uprooted families have resided in the town of Qantara Sharq and the nearby village of Abtal for up to 30 years, whilst reclaiming their surrounding desert environs into farmlands, primarily through the cultivation of mango trees.

Haddad tells Mada Masr there are approximately 500 families, whose members total well over 2,000, that have been hastily displaced from their homes and lands.

“These families were given very little notice prior to their eviction – just around one week – and have not received any concrete form of compensation. Only promises from the officials involved in the New Suez Canal Project.”

Haddad adds that an additional 500 families, amounting to another 2000–2500, may be evicted from their homes over the course of the year, and may also have their farmlands confiscated to make way for the planned route of the canal, along with its planned zones for industry, services and investment.

“Beyond Qantara Sharq and Abttal, additional villages located to the east of Ismailia’s Bitter Lakes may similarly be wiped away to make space for the new project,” she says.

The project, which is actually a new artery (rather than a second canal) for the existing international waterway, is planned to run 72 kilometers parallel to the Suez Canal, and lies east of the original canal.

The lawyer points out that the Sinai Peninsula is virtually all military and state-owned land, and that “all civilian claims of land ownership here are thus considered contentious.”

It is on this basis that the authorities have evicted the residents of Qantara Sharq and Abtal, tore down their homes, and dug up their farmlands. “They’ve been evicted from these two villages as they are situated on land between the old Suez Canal and the new project,” she explains.  

Regardless of original land claims, Haddad points out, “The evicted residents had been residing on these lands for nearly three decades. Thus, by virtue Egypt’s occupancy regulations and the construction of permanent homes on these lands for more than eight to 15 years legally recognizes it as their abodes.”

“Further recognizing their residency on these lands are the utility bills that these residents have been paying the governorate of Ismailia over the course of the years and decades in which they have lived there,” she adds.

Diaa Eddin Negm has been residing and farming in the village of Abtal for the past 30 years. He and his nine sons have been forced off their lands, and are now internally displaced people with no means of income.

Negm explains that his family’s lands are not officially registered in their name with the governorate of Ismailia, “yet we’ve been paying our gas bills, electricity bills, and landline phone bills to the governorate from our address for well over 20 years.”

At over 60 years of age, Negm says “I’m a farmer, as was my father and grandfather before him. This is my profession and that of my children. I’m an ageing farmer who is too old to learn a new profession, or to seek alternate job opportunities. Farming is all I know.”

Further adding to their plight, Negm explains that “after our eviction, I sought other employment opportunities for my nine sons, each of whom has a family of his own.”

When the elderly farmer asked security authorities in Ismailia for permits to allow his children and grandchildren to work with contracting companies on the New Suez Canal Project, he and his extended family were all denied work permits.

“When he found out that we were evicted residents of Abtal, the presiding police general told me that due to security concerns we were not allowed to work on the project. He did not specify what these security concerns are,” he says.

According to Haddad, “the security authorities consider these evicted residents as potential subversive elements.”

“These authorities don’t trust them, as several families and residents have been resisting or protesting their evictions, and some have been detained for doing so. The authorities fear they may stir up trouble along the new project,” she adds.

“So what else are they to do for a living these days?” she asks.

Negm and his extended family are currently living north of the village of Serabium in Ismailia. “We’re all renting apartments now, with the rent being paid from our own pockets. We’re all unemployed now. We’ve received no compensation or alternate housing has yet been provided,” he says.

Negm hopes that the Ismailia governorate will specify the exact location of the 150 square meters on which they will be allowed to build new, permanent homes.

“Together we owned 34 feddans of mango orchards from which we earned our livelihoods, and nine separate homes. The average size of these units was 250 square meters.”

“Regarding the New Suez Canal Project, I am personally both pleased and distressed with it,” Negm concludes.

“To President Sisi, I say: we support your national project and nationwide ambitions. Yet we require agricultural land to sustain ourselves, even if just three or four feddans per family. We are willing to reclaim desert lands, to plant them and turn them into fertile farmlands.”

On August 5, Sisi addressed the nation, stating that this megaproject would serve as a “new artery of life benefiting Egypt, its great people and the whole world.”

However, the forcefully evicted residents of Qantara Sharq and Abtal have not felt any of these benefits.

Another displaced mango farmer from the village of Abtal, Ibrahim al-Sayyed, also sent a message of despair to the president. “My family and I voted for President Sisi, and will vote for him again in the upcoming presidential elections. We support the president and his great national project that will help the economy of the whole country. However, we also want to have homes and farms of our own, as we did just three weeks ago,” he says.

Sayyed hails from a family that has been living and farming in Abtal for the past 30 years. “We have bills and receipts to prove our residency here.”

Together with his family, the 25-year-old Sayyed worked and owned six feddans of mango orchards. The displaced family of 12 had owned a home measuring over 260 square meters.

Like most other residents of Abtal, Sayyed claims he was given a 10-day notice to vacate his home and farmland. Like the others evicted, they were not given any compensation – only the pledge of a 150 square meters of land on which they are to build a new home – using their own resources.

They now rent two small apartments in the village of Serabium, “one in which we all live together, and another in which we have placed all our furniture and belongings,” he says.

They are now paying LE1,000 in rent for both units, although they’ve lost their land and only source of income.

“I have asked about any sort of paid work or service that my relatives or I could provide on the new project, but were turned down when the officials learned that we were displaced from Abtal,” he says.

“In the 1980s, under President Hosni Mubarak, my family and other farming families were encouraged to settle to the east of the canal in Sinai. Now we’ve been pushed back to west of the canal, have been driven from our homes, lands and jobs,” Sayyed explains.       

Haddad says she aims to reach an amicable settlement with the respective state authorities – the governorate of Ismailia, Ministry of Agriculture, Armed Forces, and the Suez Canal Authority - through the channels of legal mediation and arbitration.

“Failing this, I will take my clients’ cases to the State Council Court.”

According to Egypt’s Constitution of 2014, Article 35 stipulates that private properties shall be protected and the right to inheritance thereto guaranteed. Private property may not be placed under sequestration except in those cases specified by law, and with a court order. Private property may not be expropriated except for the public interest, and with fair compensation paid in advance in accordance with the law.

Constitutional Article 63 stipulates that arbitrary forced displaced of citizens in all its forms and manifestations is prohibited and is a crime with no statute of limitations.


*Photo of Suez Canal courtesy of Shutterstock

Al-Azouly Military Prison: Site of ongoing torture of civilians

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Egypt: Dozens of disappeared civilians face ongoing torture at military prison

22 May 2014

Dozens of civilians have been subjected to enforced disappearance and held for months in secret detention at an Egyptian military camp, where they are subjected to torture and other ill-treatment to make them confess to crimes, according to shocking new evidence gathered by Amnesty International.

Egyptian lawyers and activists have a list of at least 30 civilians who are reportedly being held in secret at Al Azouly prison inside Al Galaa Military Camp in Ismailia, 130km north-east of Cairo.

Former detainees there have told Amnesty International that many more – possibly up to 400 – could be held in the three-storey prison block. The detainees have not been charged or referred to prosecutors or courts, and have had no access to their lawyers or families.

“These are practices associated with the darkest hours of military and Mubarak’s rule. Egypt’s military cannot run roughshod over detainees’ rights like this,” said Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui, Middle East and North Africa Programme Deputy Director at Amnesty international.

The authorities must immediately inform the families and lawyers of all those being held in secret at Al Galaa Military Camp or elsewhere. Anyone who has been forcibly disappeared must immediately be granted access to doctors, lawyers and their families.

They must be protected from further torture or other ill-treatment, and released, unless they are promptly charged with a recognizable criminal offence before being brought before a judge for a fair trial.

“Reports of torture in Egypt have been steadily emerging. Yet, what’s happening inside the prison is taken straight from a torturer’s textbook and shows that behind the authorities’ rhetoric of the road map to democracy and upcoming elections lies ruthless repression,” said Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui.

There must be full, impartial and independent investigations into all allegations of torture and ill-treatment, with all those responsible brought to justice.

Amnesty International met with recently released detainees from Al Azouly prison. They gave harrowing accounts of torture, including the use of electric shocks, burns and other ill-treatment during interrogations at the military camp.

Lawyers and activists have told Amnesty International that enforced disappearances have been on the rise in Egypt since November 2013. It is expected that the detainees being held in secret will be brought before state security prosecutors after they have “confessed” under torture.

In some cases, it appears that individuals have been secretly detained for months, during which time they were tortured to extract “confessions”.

Lawyers working on state security cases, including those involving prisoners at Al Azouly, described a systematic pattern where people are abducted from streets or their homes and sent to Al Azouly, where they have no access to lawyers or their families and the authorities refuse to acknowledge that they were in custody.

The defendants are coerced to “confess” to a crime or implicate others. Some of the detainees agree to confess once referred to the state security prosecutor, to get out of the prison and stop the torture. Lawyers told Amnesty International that they are never allowed to attend the first investigation and they are not informed about the date or time of the investigation.

“Torture is absolutely prohibited under all circumstances and is a crime under international law. Prosecutors, courts and other Egyptian authorities must never use ‘confessions’ or statements extracted through torture or other ill-treatment in any proceedings. Imprisonment on such a basis constitutes arbitrary detention,” said Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui.

Testimonies/cases 

One prisoner recently released from Al Azouly military prison:
“The military arrested me in January [2014]…and took me on the same day to Al Azouly prison after they beat me in a military camp in my town for four hours. I was held in Al Azouly prison for 76 days without seeing a judge or a prosecutor, I was not even allowed to talk to my family. They put me on the third floor of the prison in solitary confinement.

The authorities there interrogated me six times. They took off my clothes and gave me electric shocks all over my body during the investigations, including on my testicles, and beat me with batons and military shoes. They handcuffed me from behind and hung me on a door for 30 minutes. They always blindfolded me during the investigations. In one interrogation they burned my beard with a lighter.

The investigations were held in another building inside the camp…the soldiers call it S1 and S8 buildings [which are military intelligence buildings]. I could not see the investigators because I was blindfolded in all investigations and handcuffed from behind. They wanted to know information about protests and demonstrations, they asked about the active members in the university. They wanted to know who funds protests, who holds weapons and who buys them. They also asked me about my affiliation and whether I belong to the Muslim Brotherhood…

“After 25 days I was transferred to another cell with another 23 prisoners. Most of the persons in this cell were from Sinai. One of the prisoners had burns on his body…he mentioned that they put out cigarettes on his body. We were allowed out of the cell once a day to the bathroom before sunrise, and for five minutes for all the 23 persons in the cell. The food was very poor. I was then released without a prosecutor’s order or investigations …they took me from prison and put me outside gate 2 of the military camp.”

Another prisoner recently released from Al Azouly:
“I was arrested from my home by security forces dressed in civilian clothing in February. I was beaten upon arrest and then was taken to Al Azouly prison. They questioned me 13 times. They blindfolded me, handcuffed me from behind and took off my clothes…then they gave me electric shocks all over the body including in my testicles.

I was not allowed to call my family…I gave their number to a cellmate who was released and informed them about my location. A man with us in the cell called Haj Shetewy, he is from north Sinai…was suffering from torture that he faced upon arrest by 101 Military Brigade in Arish.

They inserted a hot steel rod in his anus…he was not able to go to the bathroom for nine days. They did not treat him….he died in cell number 11 on the second floor. After the investigations they released me in May.”

Amr Rabee is an engineering student at Cairo University who disappeared after he was arrested from Ramsis Street in the capital on 11 March by security officials dressed in civilian clothing. His family did not know his whereabouts. They asked in police stations, prosecutors’ offices, National Security and filed a report with the Public Prosecutor’s Office on 15 March about his disappearance. The authorities denied holding him.

Amr Rabee’s family later received a phone call in April from a released prisoner who told them that Amr was being held in Al Azouly military prison. According to the released prisoner, Amr Rabee cannot move his left arm due to a torture-related injury. On 17 May, more than two months after his disappearance, Amr Rabee was brought before the East Cairo Prosecutor’s Office.

A lawyer who was present at the time called the student’s family, who rushed to the Prosecutor’s Office. They arrived to learn that a detention order had been filed and that, according to the official case file, Amr was arrested from his home in Al Haram on 17 May – more than two months after his actual arrest.

The family was able to see him for five minutes in the prosecutor’s office and he mentioned that he was held in Al Azouly military prison and then Al Aqrab prison in Tora. He has a dislocated shoulder.

A woman in a town 250 km from Cairo told Amnesty International that her husband was arrested when the security forces dressed in civilian clothing and police uniforms raided their home in the middle of the night in January 2014.

Before he was taken away, they gave him electric shocks in front of her. Despite repeated efforts to find his whereabouts, she was finally able to see him in Al Aqrab prison in May 2014. He bore signs of torture, including bruises and cuts in his hands and arms and burn marks on his arms. He also had a dislocated shoulder. He told her that they wanted him to confess to involvement in an explosion that led to the killing of soldiers.

Background
Al Azouly prison is inside the headquarters of the Second Field Army Command. The camp includes a military court, the prison and Military Intelligence offices. The prison has three stories: the first floor has military detainees facing trial; the second floor has a mix of civilians facing military trials and individuals who are “under investigation” but who have not been referred to a prosecutor or court; the third floor has more individuals who are “under investigation”.

Amnesty International was not able to determine exactly how many people are being held in Al Azouly prison. Released prisoners say that up to 200 people can be detained on each floor, and estimate that there are 200 to 400 prisoners in total.

Released prisoners said that the torture method used against individual detainees depends on the suspect’s profile. Those accused of killing soldiers or police are given electric shocks, hung on doors, burned, and sometimes whipped.

The interrogations are held in a building 10 minutes away from the prison. Detainees are blindfolded and driven in a military vehicle to the investigation building before being taken to the first floor. The investigations take place from 3 pm until 10 or 11 pm. Since they were blindfolded, prisoners were not able to know whether the interrogations were being conducted by Military Intelligence or National Security officers.

Last week, Amnesty International launched a new global Stop Torture campaign, which accused governments around the world of betraying their commitments to stamp out torture, three decades after the ground-breaking Convention Against Torture was adopted by the UN in 1984.

Police arrest & investigate student for atheist Facebook group

AhramOnline
Egypt security investigates student for forming 'atheist' Facebook group

Suez Canal University filed a complaint against a 20 year-old commerce student who started a Facebook group for atheists 

Monday, Oct. 28, 2013

National security officials in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia are conducting investigations into a university student who allegedly set-up a Facebook group calling for atheism.

Police arrested the 20-year old student of the Faculty of Commerce, Suez Canal University, following a report submitted by the university's administration saying he had formed a group for atheists on the social networking site.

The accused student appeared before the prosecution, who transferred him to national security for further investigation.

In December 2012, an Egyptian court sentenced activist Alber Saber to three years in jail for posting the anti-Islamic film Innocence of Muslims on his Facebook page. He was released after paying bail.

Article 98 of Egypt's penal code says anyone convicted of offending religion in any form can face up to six years in prison.

Civil disobedience spreads from Port Said to Ismailia

Egypt Independent

Protesters in Ismailia shut governmental offices, halt train traffic

Sun, 03/03/2013

Dozens of protesters in Ismailia closed the governorate agriculture and ministry department Sunday, as well as the real estate and public tax authorities, and halted train traffic amid a growing civil disobedience campaign.

Several marches have been staged in Ismailia over the past few days calling for civil disobedience, coming amid reports that Public Notary offices in the city have refused petitions from residents authorizing Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to run the country. The Justice Ministry has denied such reports.

The governorate has been rocked by protests against President Mohamed Morsy’s rule since demonstrations marking the two-year anniversary of the 2011 uprising in January. Clashes have also been ongoing in Port Said and Daqahliya Governorates as well.

Calls for civil disobedience in Ismailia have also been made in solidarity with a similar campaign in Port Said, where strikes have been ongoing since 40 people were killed during clashes in January. The clashes broke out after a court sentenced 21 local residents to death for their involvement in the Port Said stadium violence, where 72 Ahly Club fans were killed in February 2012.


*Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm 
** Photo by Ahmed Shaker

President's emergency powers are excessive, unwarranted

Human Rights Watch

Egypt: Emergency Powers Excessive

January 30, 2013

Detention Without Judicial Review; Trials Lacking Appeal Rights

(New York) – President Mohamed Morsy of Egypt should reverse the emergency powers he issued on January 27, 2013, Human Rights Watch said today. The emergency powers give the police the authority to detain people in three cities for up to 30 days without any judicial review, and permit trials of those detained before emergency security courts. Judicial review of detention is a fundamental right that may not be removed, even during emergencies.

 On January 28 the Shura Council, Egypt’s partially elected upper house, passed a law that would give military officers the right to arrest civilians, which would therefore give them the right to bring civilians before military courts. The law will come into force after ratification by the President and publication in the official gazette which is yet to occur. President Morsy should order an end to military trials of civilians and instruct Egyptian military commanders to bring all civilians they arrest before civilian courts, Human Rights Watch said.

“The government has the duty to take reasonable steps to protect security, but this knee-jerk response granting the police excessive powers is certainly not the answer,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “What is glaringly missing are orders to the police and military to exercise restraint in their use of force and to warn that all official abuses will be punished.”

President Morsy’s January 27 state of emergency was for 30 days in three cities – Port Said, Suez, and Ismailia – after two days of clashes between the police and protesters left over 50 dead. While the geographic and time limits of the state of emergency are an improvement over the previous indefinite nationwide emergency law, the powers granted under the new emergency law are excessive and violate non-derogable rights – rights that may not be taken away, Human Rights Watch said. Under Law 162 of 1958, which has been brought back into force by Morsy’s decree, authorities may arrest people without warrants and detain them for up to 30 days without judicial review.

The clashes over the past three days in Port Said, in response to a court verdict sentencing 21 people to death, have left at least 2 policemen and 37 protesters dead. In Suez eight people were killed after police used excessive force in response to the shooting of a police officer.

Over the past two years, Human Rights Watch has documented numerous occasions in which riot police and military police alike have repeatedly used excessive force and used non-lethal weapons unlawfully when policing protests, injuring and killing over 1,000 protesters. There has been no reform of the security sector and no accountability for these abuses, giving security forces the impression that they are not accountable, Human Rights Watch said.

Law 162 of 1958 also allows for trials before Emergency State Security Courts, which former President Hosni Mubarak’s government used for swift politicized trials since emergency court decisions may not be appealed. Article 75 of the recently passed constitution states that “trial before exceptional courts are prohibited,” in theory making articles 7 to 20 of the emergency law unconstitutional.

Under international law nations may declare a state of emergency when there is a “public emergency that threatens the life of the nation.” This declaration must be temporally and geographically limited to the greatest extent possible. Every derogation from international human rights law must be justified in terms of necessity and be proportionate. The United Nations Human Rights Committee’s General Comment on article 4 (on states of emergency) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt is a party, states that:

States parties may in no circumstances invoke article 4 of the Covenant as justification for acting in violation of … peremptory norms of international law, for instance through arbitrary deprivations of liberty or by deviating from fundamental principles of fair trial, including the presumption of innocence…In order to protect non-derogable rights, the right to take proceedings before a court to enable the court to decide without delay on the lawfulness of detention, must not be diminished by a State party’s decision to derogate from the Covenant.

Other key rights are also non-derogable during a state of emergency, including the right to life, the prohibition of torture, and the principle of legality in criminal law. The imposition of the emergency law in Egypt has historically invited police abuse because it allowed the police to detain people for up to 45 days without ever seeing a prosecutor. In a case before the European Court of Human Rights, the court found excessive Turkey’s detention of a person for 14 days without judicial review during a declared state of emergency. A country may not suspend the right to judicial review of detention even in emergency, Human Rights Watch said.

On January 28, the cabinet approved and the Shura Council passed amendments to Law 107 of 2012, which President Morsy had issued on December 9, 2012. Following a court order voiding earlier elections to Egypt’s lower house, the Shura Council alone exercises legislative functions. The December 9 law authorized a military role in law enforcement during the constitutional referendum.

The amendments extend the law, allowing the military to deploy and carry out arrests whenever the National Defense Council brings the law into force. The council’s membership, set out in article 197 of the constitution, consists of seven senior military leaders sitting with the president and key cabinet ministers.

Over the past two years, since the departure of President Mubarak, the military has exercised law enforcement activities over civilians on a number of occasions. When military officers have arrested civilians, they normally have considered the fact that the military carried out the arrests sufficient grounds to bring those detained before military tribunals. A cabinet source told Reuters on January 28 that the army would “behave like a police force” and would therefore hand civilians over to civilian courts. Human Rights Watch’s analysis of Law 107, however, concluded that it did not protect civilians from trial before military courts, because article 3 specifies that the law was “without prejudice to the jurisdiction of the military justice system.”

“Unless the law is amended to specifically limit the jurisdiction of the military justice system to purely military offenses, civilians may still be taken to military courts whenever the military feels like it,” Stork said.