ECWR Calls for Egyptian women’s Participation to be at Least one-third

ECWR Have Reservations on the Criteria of Egypt’s National Salvation Front for The 50-Member Committee and Calls for Egyptian women’s Participation to be at Least one-third

(Cairo, August 1st, 2013) Egypt’s National Salvation Front (NSF) announced criteria for selecting the 50-member committee which is entrusted with developing of the Constitution in accordance with Article 29 of the Constitutional Declaration issued on July 8. The Criteria of NSF is committed to a minimum number of women in accordance to the stipulation of the constitutional declaration, fifth of the seats, which was criticized by many women’s voices. The NSF did not provide any effort to emphasize its commitment to women’s participation in a fair manner or to express its appreciation to the women who massively participated in the marches during the revolution. The NSF’s criteria missed the effort to confirm the democratic participation and not only decorative participation of women.
The statement of NSF doesn’t only include low representation of women, but also it was based on criteria of selecting women representatives based on the cartoonish structures who are neither representative of women nor the political and practical reality which they overcame in the light of launching many movements and initiatives on the ground which exceeded what was mentioned in the NSF’s statement of bodies for the nomination.
The NSF has tried to propose criteria which seem fair, but these criteria lacks the gender dimension which always leads, even unintentionally to exclude the Egyptian woman from the future-making circles.
The criteria of forming ‘the 50-member Committee’ to review the constitution are an example of the lack of gender equity, as it totally depends on positions that have excluded women for decades. So, the Committee didn’t include a female expert despite the presence of female judges who are efficient. Also there are female experts in the Constitutional Court, the Court of Cassation, and the Technical Office of the Minister of Justice as well as the presence of many female professors of constitutional law at the law faculties at all over the Egyptian governorates.
In New Egypt, which all of us aspire to be a state of justice and equality, and after the significant participation of Egyptian women in the revolution, especially June 30 and 26 July, the responsibility of engaging or even calling on the women and providing them with real chances, falls on leaders who seek to make real democracy happen, especially after women’s confirmation of the desire to bear the responsibility of building this nation.

So it becomes necessary to take procedures to ensure women’s participation in a fair manner. As per article 29, there is a minimum number of women’s participation which is a positive indicator on good intentions but it is not effective and will contribute to a representation which does not differ from the Constitution’s Commission of the Muslim Brotherhood which was defective and may even be closer to zero in the 50-member committee.

Therefore, we recommend the following rule to be considered during the nominations and to make sure that each party is exerting effort to overcome the cultural and social distortions that discriminate against women and working on presenting real women cadres and the rule is:
Each party should nominate double the number of seats that are allocated to them while considering a 50-50% of men and women with an exception of the army and the police based on article 29 from the Constitutional declaration specified 10 seats for women and youth; however, it did not specify a maximum number of seats. Selecting the most efficient candidate based on the professional history of the male or female candidate along with the field and professional contribution that s/he has done to support the democratic development in Egypt.

In addition, assuring that the number of male and female youth does not go below 10 for each of them within the different membership categories, it should be considered that article 29 from the Constitutional declaration specified 10 seats for women and youth; however, it did not specify a maximum number of seats.

Take into account the geographical diversity nominations. Applying the above principles, we suggest the following criteria:

1. 1. The number of the main political mainstreams’ leaders (the liberal mainstream, the leftist mainstream, the Islamic mainstream and the national mainstream) shall not exceed 8 members); 2 members of each mainstream shall be nominated by the related political parties
2. 2. To allocate 10 seats for the male and female youth; seats to be nominated by the four main political mainstreams. And one seat for the general union of the Egyptian university students (to be represented by the elected president of the union), 2 seats for the 30/6 co-operatory, and one seat for the outstanding students to be nominated by the supreme council of universities
3. 3. To allocate two seats for the representatives from Al Azhar and two seats for the three representatives of the three Egyptian churches.
4. 4. To allocate a seat for the armed forces and a seat for the police.
5. 5. To allocate eight seats for the public figures that the cabinet shall nominate such as the scientists, intellectuals, writers, artists, experts, political science and social sciences professors.
6. 6. To allocate four seats that the professional syndicates nominate
7. 7. To allocate four seats for the workers’ syndicates; each of the following nominates a member: the union of Egyptian workers and the independent syndicates. And the general syndicate for farmers to nominate two members.
8. 8. To allocate four seats for Business organizations, one member nominated by each of the following: Federation of Egyptian Industries, the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, the Federation of Chambers of Tourism, and the Union of Egyptian Banks.
9. 9. To allocate three seats for the diverse human rights NGOs that shall be nominated through NGOs and selection shall be based on the field work and intellectual contribution in supporting human rights in Egypt.
10. 10. To allocate three seats; a seat for each national council as follows: the National Council for Human Rights, The National Council for Women, The National Council for Childhood, and Motherhood) after restructuring them to become more representative to human rights issues.