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Summary: General overview of Egypt's national legal provisions on children's rights, including guidance on how to conduct further research.
عر بية
National laws on children's rights
Status of the CRC in national law
The suspension of the previous Constitution and the provisional nature of the current declaration make it difficult to comment on the current status of the CRC in national law and its likely status in the future.
Constitution: Since 30 March 2011, a temporary Constitutional Declaration has been the basic law of Egypt. The declaration includes a number of rights provisions that apply regardless of age, but none that specifically address the rights of children.
Legislation: The 2008 amendments to the Children's Act made sweeping changes to the law relating to child rights, but relevant legislation is also found in various Codes, Acts, Decrees and Orders. Such legislation includes, but is by no means limited to:
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Children's Act No. 12/1996, as amended by Law No. 126.2008)
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The Criminal Code
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The Civil Code
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The Labour Code
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Family Courts Act No. 10/2004
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Civil Status Act No. 143/1994
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Decree No. 94/2003 establishing the National Council for Human Rights
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Order No. 261/1996 on female genital mutilation in Egypt
Legal Research
The People's Assemby (Majlis al-Sha'b / L'assemblée du peuple) maintains an official website in English, Arabic, and French (http://www.parliament.gov.eg/EPA/en/Levels.jsp?levelid=1&levelno=1&parentlevel=0). The Provisional Constitutional Declaration can be found through the website of the Egyptian Cabinet of Ministers in English (http://www.cabinet.gov.eg/AboutEgypt/ConstitutionalDeclaration_e.pdf) and in Arabic from the website of Al-Masry Al-Youm ((http://www.almasryalyoum.com/node/380474). Egyptian legislation is published in Arabic through the Official Gazette (http://www.tashreaat.com/Pages/default.aspx), and a selection of legislation is available English through the World Law Guide (http://www.lexadin.nl/wlg/legis/nofr/oeur/lxweegy.htm). An overview of the Egyptian legal system and guide to legal research is available through the GlobaLex initative at New York University (http://www.nyulawglobal.org/Globalex/Egypt1.htm), and both the U.S. Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide/nations/egypt.php) and World Legal Information Institute (http://www.worldlii.org/catalog/2669.html) provide a selection of helpful legal resources.
Case law
CRC Jurisprudence:
Please contact CRIN if you are aware of any cases in national courts that reference the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Case Law Research:
Although there are limited case law research resources available online for the Egyptian judicial system, the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt maintains an official website in English, French, and Arabic (http://www.hccourt.gov.eg/index.asp).
Compliance with the CRC
The Committee on the Rights of the Child welcomed the 2008 amendments to the Children's Act, “which requires the State party to guarantee, as a minimum, the rights under the Convention and other relevant treaties, and stipulates harsher penal sanctions when crimes are committed against a child.” However, the Committee also “remain[ed] concerned that some provisions of domestic law, including family law, are still not in full conformity with the provisions of the Convention, mainly due to restrictive interpretation of some domestic laws, and that the reservations to articles 2 (Sharia) and 16 (equality between men and women in family matters) of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms Discrimination against Women may hamper the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the State party” and noted “the limited use of the Convention in national courts, despite article 151 of the Constitution pursuant to which the Convention has the force of domestic law.”
In depth analysis
In their 2011 Concluding Observations, the Committee was particularly welcoming of the 2008 amendments to the Children's Act. Reforms included provisions raising the criminal age of responsibility from 7 to 12 years old, the implementation of the principle of the best interests of the child in national law and the strengthening of penalties for crimes committed against children. A number of areas remain, however, in which the Committee has expressed concern about the compliance of national law with the CRC. While certain reforms in the area of juvenile justice were welcomed, the Committee encouraged the State to move from a punitive to a child rights model of juvenile justice, including ensuring that deprivation of liberty is viewed as a last resort in in pre-trial situations as well as post-trial. The prevalence of discrimination against female children, poor children and children with disabilities has also been a persistent concern of the committee.
Other issues of concern raised throughout reports to the Committee have included the continuing legality of corporal punishment in the home, the exemption of parents and grandparents from legislation prohibiting the abduction of children, and the exclusion of agricultural and domestic work from the prohibition on child labour. Female genital mutilation was also raised in the 2011 report, as though the Penal Code prohibits FGM, the practice remains prevalent, and is rarely successfully prosecuted.
Current legal reform projects
As of early 2011, a draft law on people with disabilities was under consideration.