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Cont. - Chapter Four Grievances
The general trends in such complaints are demonstrated as follows: The largest number of complaints revolved around the rights to equality, which have reached 123 complaints. In 29 of such complaints, complainants demanded that they be granted equal promotional opportunities according to their qualifications and expertise as well as equal treatment with their peers in similar posts. Some complaints concerned social insurance rights. Others were about equality between men and women in terms of granting men's entitlement to their wives' pensions whether they remarried after the deaths of their wives or not. Three complaints demanded that Egyptians working abroad be granted social security and health insurance since they paid greater social and health insurance fees than their peers working in Egypt. Fifteen complaints revolved around property rights, and nine of them referred to violations of the old Lease Law. Said complainants stated that they were forbidden their rights to dispose of their property due to the fact that lease contracts were assigned to heirs of original lessors up to the third degree, who took occupancy in consideration of the same fixed rent determined ages ago. Six other complaints referred to citizens' entitlements to houses allocated to them by their workplaces. Other complaints concerned the right of some citizens of Qena Governorate to retrieve their agricultural properties which they had abandoned at the time of increasing the Aswan Reservoir height. Some complaints referred to cases regarding citizens' ownership of green belts surrounding new cities. A case of major concern among the public is that of the Islamic financial investment companies since a great number of citizens have not retrieved their remaining dues from such companies as yet . Three complaints blame the government for this problem since insufficient action was taken by it against such companies, nor was sufficient action taken in favour of the investors themselves. Four complaints were submitted on violations against the right to enjoy appropriate health standards, which stem from Egypt's poor health insurance system . This dilemma is either due to the prescription of unsuitable medicines to patients or due to the pitiable health services provided in some hospitals. NCHR also received three similar complaints concerning the violation of rights regarding special categories, including women, children and those with special needs. One complaint denounced the deprivation of female employees from child care leave exceeding three months, which is regarded by the complainants as an insufficient period. Another complaint pointed to the obstacles faced by those with special needs in their attempts to exercise their rights in terms of employment , health care, social rights and sports activities. Another complaint pointed to a school's admission of children with special needs in spite of its non-specialization in this field, thus causing the suffering of such children and their deprivation from proper care. One complainant condemned the problem of land mines which caused the death of hundreds of Egyptians, the injury of thousands and the suffering of tens of thousands, as well as the obstacles they formed against the development and urbanization of the Eastern and Western Deserts. There is a total number of 23 million land mines in such deserts, which represents one fifth of land mines worldwide. Despite worldwide awareness, such mine fields and other remains of the war still form ongoing problems. The awareness of such dangers are reflected in the Ottawa Accord of 1997 on the Prohibition of Mines Attacking Individuals and the "Nairobi Summit for a Mine Free World". Such dangers also remain in spite of the efforts exerted by Egypt, particularly by the Armed Forces, which faces many obstacles, the most important of which are the following: - Insufficient cooperation of countries that had planted such mines by withholding necessary information and maps, as well as technical cooperation for the removal of such mines, in addition to the non-existence of accurate records on mine fields, especially west of Matrouh Governorate. - The difficulty of removing such mines due to the lapse of over 55 years since their implanting, which has led to the increased sensitivity of mines as a result of the occurrence of several factors, including collisions, climatic factors, the movement of mines due to the effect of floods and winds as well as the disappearance of mines in the depth of sand piles. - Elevated demining costs as the cost for the removal of one mine in an instance of 5000 mines ranged between $300 and $1000, during which one expert was killed and two injured. The complaint regarding mines requests that the NCHR intervene to solve this problem since it is deemed a violation of the right to live, which concerns millions of Egyptians living in those areas. The NCHR received 13 complaints from prisoners sentenced by court in drug cases. The complainants claim that most drug cases are automatically dealt with as drug trafficking cases where huge fines are imposed, sometimes reaching EGP50,000 -100,000. The problem is that such prisoners allege that they could not even afford expenses to appeal. Other prisoners complained that they were not granted their rights as stipulated in Article 396 of 1956 on the Organization of Prisons. Said Law gives prisoners the right to be released under certain conditions, which is in application of the second paragraph of Article 46 (Ibid) of Law No. 122 of 1989 on drugs. However, such rights are violated despite the prisoners' compliance with the stated code of conduct . Moreover, this sort of violation does not encourage prisoners to show proper conduct. The submitters of five complaints complained that those convicted for the first time were treated similarly to other prisoners with long crime histories. They stated that this could lead them further down the path of despondence. Other complaints spoke of the mistreatment of prisoners. Nine complaints referred to allegations regarding the corruption of the administrative governmental bodies and the abuse of their powers or misuse of public funds. NCHR also received recommendations for solving certain problems relating to economic and social rights, such as youth unemployment, the improved production and distribution of subsidized bread, restoring the sixth grade system in schools, smoking at work and in public places, the status of temporary labourers and housing problems. |
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