Annual Report of The National Council for Human Rights

Cont. - Chapter Four

Grievances

2- Complaints classified according to the Chronological Order of Their Delivery to the NCHR:

In spite of the NCHR's resolution to form the grievances committee on February 18, 2004, the said committee did not begin to carry out its function of receiving complaints before the end of February. This was also after the establishment of the committee membership, and the appointment of the committee secretary and members, as well as the assigning of an ad-hoc administrative body to receive complaints from individuals and civil society organizations until the hiring of specialized legal researchers to carry out this function.

Accordingly, the committee did not actually begin to operate before the beginning of March 2004. The NCHR received 4,850 complaints during the period from the beginning of March until the end of December 2004. The following Table (1) and Figure (2) show the distribution of complaints throughout this period as follows:

Table (1)

Distribution of Complaints as per on Date of Receipt
(from February until December 2004)





Figure (2)

Distribution of Complaints as per their Chronological Delivery to the NCHR:

From the above table and figure (by excluding the month of February from the time interval and adding the two complaints submitted to the NCHR to those submitted in March), it is evident that the average number of complaints delivered to the NCHR amounts to 485 complaints per month.

Also obvious from the data in Figure (1), is that there is a clear variance in the number of complaints delivered to the NCHR from the beginning of the specified time period to its end. A great number of complaints were delivered to the NCHR during the months of April and May. This may be attributed to the high hopes which individual had in the NCHR. Such hopes were based on their belief in the broad capacities and authorities of the NCHR in reviewing submitted complaints and the delivery of justice to complainants.

This belief was endorsed by the declarations of political leaders and senior officials, regarding the provision of financial and administrative facilities as well as all legal guarantees necessary for the NCHR to carry out its functions independently, objectively and freely, without being subject to external pressures or directives that may impede its review and investigation of the issues and cases referred to it by individuals and civil society organizations in the form of complaints regarding violations made against their human rights.

Accordingly, many considered the NCHR merely a "Grievance Committee" and not a NCHR concerning the full scope of human rights. Furthermore, the high number of complaints does not necessarily indicate the full awareness of individuals regarding their human rights. It may rathe be an indication of the increase of their troubles and problems and the gap between the people and the State's administrative organs.

The number of complaints delivered to the NCHR drastically dropped during the months of October and November. This may be attributed to the fact that a large number of individuals and civil society organizations came to realize how exaggerated their notion of the NCHR's functions and powers to restore their rights was.

This is due to the fact that a number of executive authorities and governmental institutions abstained from responding to the NCHR's correspondence regarding the violations mentioned in some complaints.

In addition, there have been some articles and interviews in the media as well as the efforts of human rights activists to exploit this abstinence - mostly by the Ministries of Interior and Justice and the Public Prosecutor - to cast doubt among the citizens regarding the NCHR's functions.

They believe that the NCHR is only meant to "adorn" the image of Egypt's political system which is accused of recurrently and flagrantly violating the rights of individuals and civil society organizations, according to reports of the UNO's Commission for Human Rights and international organizations for human rights .

Senior NCHR officials have endeavored to correct this false image by declaring, through various media channels and on various occasions and in various meetings, that the NCHR will fully carry out its functions and powers without yielding to or offering any "compromise" of any kind to any authority or institution however powerful.

This will be in complete coordination with all governmental authorities and institutions and in close cooperation with civil society organizations in Egypt and abroad. Furthermore, the NCHR's ability to handle some cases of abstention by some governmental authorities and institutions, or their delay in responding to the NCHR's correspondences regarding complaints delivered by individuals and civil society organizations, is restricted to a certain limit. The NCHR will resort to other means to deliver justice to complainants, such as: (p119)

To include in the NCHR's annual report the stances of such authorities regarding cooperation or non-cooperation with the NCHR in order to deliver justice to complainants, the possibility of forwarding some of the complaints concerning violations against human rights in general and civil and political rights in particular to the human rights committees recently established under the People's Assembly and Shoura Council, as these will be capable of using all their clout, e.g., MP's advise requests, urgent investigations, and fact-finding committees, to deliver due justice .

It is apparent that these declarations - especially since there were initial responses after senior officials in the People's Assembly and Shoura NCHR had declared their intention and desire to fully cooperate with the NCHR - has had a great impact on the response of a number of authorities and institutions that, at first, had refused to respond or delayed response to the correspondences of the NCHR regarding complaints concerning the violation of the rights of individuals and civil society organizations.

This led individuals and civil society organizations to resume delivering their complaints to the NCHR. This is evident from the number of complaints delivered to the NCHR in December, which amounts to 457 complaints, representing an increase of 194 complaints compared to November.