The final stages of drafting Egypt’s constitution comes at a time of mounting attacks on journalists and media professionals: authors have been banned or prevented from publishing their articles, satellite channels have been closed-down, and issues of private and independent newspapers have been confiscated. These attacks raise questions concerning the protection of freedom of expression and the necessity of organizing the practice of media work based on the free flow of information.
Since February 11, 2011, security services of the successive governments have committed many human rights violations, causing doubt that a political will exists to end those abuses and to create a society that respects human beings and sanctifies their rights. No doubt, the attack on journalists – and media professionals in general – is one of those violations that we thought would come to an end by having an elected president. The continued attack on media professionals, however, causes us to doubt the current government’s honoring of its human rights commitments and willingness to enshrine them in the constitution. Indeed, we had hoped that freedom of thought and expression, one of the pillars of human rights, would be legalized through the amendment of a system of laws crippling it since the era of the former regime.
In this context, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) is pleased to invite you to a public lecture in Minya titled “What We Want in Egypt’s Upcoming Constitution” to be held at 5 p.m. Friday, September 14, 2012 in the Conference Hall of Akhenaton Hotel.
The lecture will be delivered by Ahmed Ezzat, Director of the Legal Unit, at the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE). The lecture will focus on several pivots, most notably of which are the introduction of human rights conventions on freedom of opinion and expression, the link between the attack against journalists and the absence of any legislation that ensures transparency regarding complete freedom of information, and the possibility of protecting those freedoms in the next constitution.
This lecture is part of a series of public awareness lectures organized by CIHRS’s Human Rights Education Program. Lectures will be held throughout Egypt with the aim of disseminating human rights values and principles and simplifying international standards and general principles related to human rights work and the role of civil society.
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