Overview of human rights status in Egypt:
Egypt has never been absent from participation in all efforts and international occasions that discuss issues of human rights. Egypt’s interest to actively participate in such international efforts for human rights and human development is part of its inclusive modernization starting from the last century. It is also part of Egypt’s civilized commitment towards these issues. Improvement marks started to appear such as the establishment of the national council of motherhood and childhood in 1989, National Commission for Women in 1993, then the National Council for Women in 2000 and the national council for human rights in 2003. Egypt was one of the early countries that ratified one of the most important conventions of human rights; the UN convention on the rights of migrant workers and their families in 2004. Egypt was also one of the early countries that ratified the international convention on the rights of the child on December 1989. And it has announced a decade (1989-1999) for child protection followed by the second decade for the child expressing her political commitment towards childhood issues.
Despite all the conventions of human rights ratified by Egypt, there still is backward in human rights status in Egypt. And this is not due to society culture, lack of financial resources, or the need for training and capacity building as claimed by the government and its institutions. It is because the country’s institutions lack the political willing required to get rid of specific policies and to respect and promote human rights.
The cases in which human rights being violated and not monitored exceed those monitored cases. Rare cases that are delivered to the public opinion still are the compass that sheds light on this crucial issue since the society’s concern to common issues is nothing except considering all cases without discrimination.
Egypt as a state is trying to slightly move towards improving the status of human rights and its related issue but its steps are greatly lagging. This is not because it does not understand the international facts and standards for this concern but because it lacks the actual willing as the improvement of the human rights concern probably affects the given political system and the future of freedoms.
