Annual Report of The National Council for Human Rights

Chapter Six - Cont.
Recommendations

- To propose a legislation comprising the principles and goals stated under the General Assembly's Resolution No.47/133, approved on 18/12/1992, in connection with protecting all persons against compulsory disappearance.

- To amend Law No.157 of 1968 and its executive decrees, concerned with the authority of the Minister of Interior to determine the locations of prisons and detention for detainees and individuals. Suspects are now believed to be detained on the premises of the offices and buildings of the State Security Investigations and security forces in the governorates, which are not subjected to inspection or control. Further, there are no records on the detainees there, as well as their detention periods.

1- The Public Prosecution alone should be concerned with issuing the travel bank orders for suspects in crimes and felonies.

2- The travel ban order should be passed by the Public Prosecutor, Assistant Public Prosecutor or attorney generals, each in his area of jurisdiction, and the traveler should be informed of the ban order.

3- The order should be subject to judiciary control, such as presenting the travel ban order and its reasons within a specific period to the Appealed Misdemeanors Court, held in the chambers, otherwise the order shall be considered as null and void. The court should pass a decree either to cancel the order with or without bail, or to continue or amend it, after hearing the Public Prosecution statements and the statement of the travel-banned person.

1- The most significant reasons for slowdown of litigation is the amount of cases accumulated at the courts. It has become visible that the number of judges is incompatible with the number of cases before them.

Therefore, the NCHR recommends the appointment of an adequate number of judges to cope with the rising number of cases. In addition, judges have to be better trained and qualified and thus more capable of deciding on the cases before them, without either procrastination or haste. Consequently, the National Center for Judicial Studies has a major role to play in this connection.

2- To reform support bodies to the judiciary as a significant factor in establishing perfect justice, whether this is related to the Department of Experts, the secretaries or the process servers, who should be well-qualified to better their job performance and impose a tight control on their work.

3- To consider the creation of judicial police to be specialized in implementing verdicts, maintaining order at the courts, completing the requirements of the Public Prosecution in terms of the reports presented to it, as well as supervising the locations of implementing preventative custody decisions.

4- As for the legislative treatment, the NCHR recommends the following:

a- Facilitating notification procedures of court papers and limiting the reasons of the discontinuation of litigation, and resuming it through simplified procedures.

b- Increasing cases of final verdicts which may not be appealed in view of their low value or nature of dispute.

c- Adopting an adequate system for preparing the case, arranging the litigants' documents and aspects of their defense prior to their submittal to the court, so as to avoid postponing the hearing of cases merely for preparing them for decision.

This may require the restoration of the "preparation judge" system after remedying the causes for this system's inefficiency in the past.

d- Finding alternative means to resolve disputes, such as expanding the criminal orders system- in criminal cases- and adopting the mediation system as well as effecting the arbitration system in civil disputes.

In this respect, treatment of the aspects of defense should be considered in order to prepare the work of committees for settlement of disputes which may erupt between the ministries and citizens, and lay down a judicial system for civil and commercial procedures of small value, whereby such disputes are considered and decided through simplified and low cost procedures.

e- Addressing the implementation problems, so that, one court should look into all implementation objections, whether in terms of their subject matter or form.

In light of the recent repeated exposure of a number of Egyptians to flagrant violations of their rights and freedoms while staying in foreign countries in contradiction to the national laws or international bilateral and multilateral agreements.

The Egyptian citizen residing abroad has developed a feeling of being deprived of adequate and efficient protection. Therefore, the NCHR cites the following recommendation:

1- To organize travel and immigration processes through concluding bilateral agreements with the countries receiving manpower, which comprise the terms and conditions reserving the rights of the Egyptian workers in such countries.

This calls upon the concerned ministries, i.e. the Ministry of Work Force, Foreign Trade, Industry and Foreign Affairs, to provide information and data base on surplus and deficit cases in the field of recruitment and traveling of Egyptian manpower abroad, as well as concluding work contracts in such a manner which secures the rights of the Egyptian worker.

2- To coordinate with representatives of such governments and permit representatives of the civil society organizations and institutions to delegate fact-finding missions on the work and living conditions of Egyptian workers in those countries.

3- To reactivate Egyptian labor offices in the Gulf countries and other countries to guarantee performance of their role and deal with violations of Egyptian workers' rights in the Gulf countries.

4- To standardize laws and decrees concerned with the establishments operating in the field of sending Egyptian manpower to work abroad.

5- To conclude unified Arab work agreements to regulate temporary immigration to the Arab countries and guarantee the rights of foreign workers in each country.

6- To establish an integrated system for caring for Egyptians abroad, to act as security network or strong support to care and protect them as well as defend them when necessary, similar to the integrated care systems applied by most Asian countries to their citizens abroad.

7- To establish a special fund for caring for Egyptians abroad.

Such fund should aim at providing more care to citizens abroad, for which no sources or fund exist in the following cases:

· Providing legal care when necessary for noncommercial cases, which are directly linked with the issues emanating from living and working in a foreign country.

· Meeting the fundamental and necessary requirements resulting from accidents and unforeseen crises to which a number of estranged Egyptians are exposed (civil wars, extensive political disorders, etc.).

8- To provide temporary accommodation to Egyptians being extradited from the countries of their abode, if not available.

9- To provide coffins for bodies of the deceased and have them transferred back home for burial. In the event of local burial, the fund will shoulder the relevant costs, provided it gets repaid later by the deceased person's employers, if employment contracts so warrant.

10- To make citizens working abroad aware of the necessity of registering themselves with the concerned consulates in order to achieve assistance, guidance and care whenever needed.

1- To update the regulations of bodies dealing with the public, whereby every regulation is clear and integrated in a document which comprises all the instructions in such a manner that may not cause confusion, provided the time period required for the department to perform the services is specified. A simplified guide of the work procedures should be prepared by each authority and posting guiding stickers at visible locations of the work halls to illustrate steps of the work flow in the facility, and the required timing for performing them.

2- To inform the citizens through the media of the service system, by explaining the procedures for completing the services offered to the citizens, their costs, the required documents and their alternatives.

3- To review performance evaluation systems at the various administrative bodies and determine the criteria in light of which the performance of every employee is measured according to the nature of activity of each authority.

4- To guarantee that employees do not default on completion of the formalities at the specified dates. A special department for follow up must be laid down in order to verify speedy and accurate performance, as well as submit periodical reports to the head of the work.

5- To insert an item in the annual competency report to assess employee's speedy performance of the citizens' applications and solving their problems.

6- To promote the media role in spreading awareness of the individuals' rights to submit complaints, and announce names of the authorities which may receive such complaints.