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Egypt: Governments
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The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) is one of the longest-standing bodies for the defense of human rights in Egypt. In 2003, the government established the National Council for Human Rights, headquartered in Cairo and headed by former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali who directly reports to the president. The council has come under heavy criticism by local NGO activists, who contend it undermines human rights work in Egypt by serving as a propaganda tool for the government to excuse its violations and to provide legitimacy to repressive laws such as the recently renewed Emergency Law. Egypt has recently announced that it is in the process of abolishing the Emergency Law.
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Egypt plans to invest $155 million to increase the capacity of Hurghada airport to 7.5 million passengers per year, said Magd El Din Refaat, chairman of the Egyptian Company for Airports. Currently the airport can handle about 4.5 million passengers. The government, meanwhile, will allocate LE50 million for the development of the security system for all Egyptian airports, Refaat added.
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Two recent Egyptian laws advanced efforts to eliminate legal gender discrimination and fulfill Egypt's obligations under the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which it ratified in 1981. First, in January 2000, the Egyptian National Assembly passed Law No. 1, granting women the right to a no-fault divorce within three months without a husband's consent. Then, in July 2004, an amended nationality law extended nationality rights to children of Egyptian women married to non-Egyptian husbands. However, the nationality law failed to give nationality rights to foreign husbands and forbade the children of these marriages from holding government positions, even though the law extends such rights to foreign wives and children of Egyptian fathers. At present, many women ... lack identity cards because they were not registered at birth. The National Council for Women is working to rectify this serious situation in order to assure all women their civil rights.
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Religious freedom in Egypt is hampered to varying degrees by extremist Islamist groups and by discriminatory and restrictive government policies. Being the largest religious minority in Egypt (and the Arab World), Coptic Christian are the most negatively affected community. Until recently, Christians were required to obtain presidential approval for even minor repairs in churches. Although the law was recently eased by handing down the authority of approval to the governors, Copts continue to face many obstacles in building new or repairing existing churches.
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In 2006 Ayman Nour, the leader of Egypt's al-Ghad (“Tomorrow”) Party, who had been incarcerated on Dec. 5, 2005, continued serving a five-year term on charges that he had falsified documents when he petitioned to establish the party in October 2004. In May 2006 the Court of Cassation upheld Nour's conviction, suggesting to many that the Egyptian judiciary had ceased to act independently of government directives. Nour and his liberal supporters were greeted by many Egyptians as the possible nucleus of a political alternative to the corrupt and authoritarian regime of Pres. Hosni Mubarak. Nour's imprisonment seemed calculated to remove the possibility that Nour could successfully challenge and even defeat Mubarak's son Gamal, who was being groomed to run in the next presidential elections.
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Marriage[I]n Egypt : The Egyptian government allows Americans to marry in Egypt. However, the Government of Egypt requires the U.S. Embassy to provide a written affidavit objecting to or approving the marriage of U.S. citizens. The U.S. government does not have legal authority to either approve or object to the marriage of American citizens. As such, the Consular Section of the Embassy is currently not providing the affidavit required by the Egyptian Government to authorize the marriage of a foreigner in Egypt. The Embassy continues to pursue this with Egyptian officials. For further information, please refer to the website of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo at http://egypt.usembassy.gov/consular/acs12.htm.
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