21 December 1999
EOHR CONFERENCE REVIEWS PRESS FREEDOM
The door must be opened in Egypt for political parties to be formed, journals to be published and for the independence of the media to be guaranteed, concluded participants at the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights' (EOHR) conference "Human Rights In Egypt on the Threshold of the New Millennium." The conference took place on 6-7 December in Cairo in commemoration of the 51st anniversary of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights. The event was coordinated in conjunction with many human rights and civil society groups and was widely attended by more than 180 people, including professors, lawyers, journalists and representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Speakers at the conference reviewed human rights conditions in Egypt over the last ten years, concluding that although the Egyptian constitution guarantees human rights and the right to free expression, most citizens are not able to enjoy these rights. Many attendees discussed the ways in which the emergency law has granted extraordinary powers to the law enforcement authorities at the expense of citizens' rights to organise political parties, organisations, syndicates and unions. Participants noted the many Egyptian citizens who have been killed in the last decade, including those whose executions were ordered under the military courts. In addition, participants made suggestions that the EOHR sponsor a committee "that defends the civil society against the continuous attack against it since the beginning of the nineties."
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