Refaa El-Tahtawi Forum for Democracy, Human Rights Studies One World for Development held in collaboration with the United Group - Attorneys at law, Legal Advisors and Human Rights Advocates- and the Arab Organization for Penal Reform a workshop on Monday 31 October,2011 under the title "analyzing rules and ethical behavior in police work blog from human rights perspective"
Ms. Eman Ragab - a researcher at Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies - spoke at the workshop and presented a research paper on conduct and rules and in police work blog Brigadier Shadi Nasir - teacher management of the Police Academy -, Mr. Mohammad Zare - Chairman of the Arab Organization for Penal Reform -, Lt. Col. Ahmed Desouki and General Ahmed Gad - Assistant Secretary of the Interior and the president of the Faculty leaders at the Institute of Police Studies - commented on the speech
The workshop was moderated by Negad El-Boraie cassation attorney and senior partner in the law firm United Group
We the undersigned As human rights organizations and social movements and political forces declare our strong condemnation of the decision of the military prosecutor issued yesterday of detainig activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, fifteen days after the investigation with him and activist Bahaa Saber (released by the insurance of his place of residence) at the disposal of the record 855 of 2011 Criminal eastern military which known by the case of Maspero, after he was accused of incitement and subversion in these events, that based on investigational minutes of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of the Interior in which they were accused of inciting against the armed forces in the massacre of Maspero which claimed the lives of 27 martyrs, which is the known number till now, We believe that the decision to detain Alaa Abdel Fattah for 15 days which he is spending in the appeal prison until now tainted by suspicion of personal revenge of a prominent activist with a wide popularity among the January 25 rebels exercised his right not to be subjected to investigation by the military prosecutor First, because he's a civilian should not be dealt with through military establishment and secondly the assumption of military justice to investigate the massacre of Maspero, make the investigations and the results lose the credibility and professionalism, especially in light of evidence of the involvement of members and leaders of the military establishment in the massacre and In the killing of demonstrators that evidence became visible after been watched by millions of people in Egypt and the world, and till this point there has been no referral of those involved and the real instigators in the events especially in the state media to investigations.
The activist Alaa Abdel Fattah refused to appear in front of an entity that is a gathering between charging, investigation and prosecution, and at the same time the fingers of accusation was directed towards him, he was punished by spending 15 days in prison in an apparent attempt to intimidate the revolution youth especially as the accusations based on unknown sourced investigation included youth movements such as the April 6 youth, youth of Justice and Freedom party, Maspero youth, Copts Without Borders and the Copts of Egypt. And it did not stop at this point, the name came to the martyr Mena Daniel came at the top of the instigators list of the events that ended his life by a treacherous bullet pierced his chest so he became an instigator martyr in the crime he was between the first of its victims.
In these historical moments of the country's history and from our responsibilities towards the nation and as a continue of our struggle against tyranny, See in the Maspero massacre and its aftermath which ended yesterday by detaining Alaa Abdel-Fattah a challenge to the ambition of the Egyptian people and their struggle to seek justice which appears in crimes which had been committed in the massacre of Maspero, As well as the attempts to discredit activists and martyrs who sacrificed their lives for freedom of this country from tyranny.
The events of yesterday is the continuation of the policy of the Military council to transfer tens of thousands of civilians to military trials and attempts to distort the image of the martyrs of Egypt and its militant activists who dream of the victory of their revolution to the principles of freedom, justice and human dignity.
The undersigned declare their solidarity with activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah and all falsely accused in the massacre of Maspero, and insist that the repression will increase their strength and determination to achieve justice, and we pledge to the people that we will seek all the peaceful, democratic and legal ways to question who ever violated the rights of the people sooner or later, And appeal to the Egyptian public opinion and all human rights and civil organizations and opinion makers to Pressure to stop military trials of civilians, the release of Alaa Abdel-Fattah and the transfer of the investigation of the massacre Maspero in particular to an independent civilian organization.
Glory to the martyrs and freedom for the prisoners of Egypt 1. Hisham Mubarak Law Center 2. El Nadeem Center for Psychological Rehabilitation of victims of violence and tourture 3. Egyptian Socialist Party 4. The United Group 5. Center for Egyptian Women 6. Egyptians against Religious Discrimination 7. Egyptian Foundation for the Advancement of the conditions of childhood 8. Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights 9. Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-violence Studies 10. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies 11. CTUWS unions. 12. Association for freedom of thought and expression 13. New Woman Foundation 14. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information 15. Nazra for Feminist Studies
Election campaign management defining the new electoral system.
A Series of meetings organized by the United Group for members of political parties. On Monday 24th of October the United Group started a series of four in-depth meetings aimed at 100 members of political parties on the management of electoral campaigns, explaining the new electoral system and defining a number of political and legal terms related to the subject, and within the framework of the political educational project "let's change for tomorrow" which is implemented by the United Group with participation of Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-violence studies and with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Which aims to raise citizens' awareness of the electoral process and democratic transition and motivate them to participate actively in the political process.
It is scheduled for these meetings to continue for four consecutive days starting from Monday 24th till Thursday 27th of October in Cairo, every meeting targets 25 participants with total 100 participants from several governorates of the Republic, the United Group has been keen to target this group in its project context due to believing in the importance of increasing the education and the awareness of the people involved in the political parties work And its positive impact on participation in Egypt generally.
The lecturers in these meetings are Doctor Fawzy Hathot (lawyer and has a doctorate in constitutional law), Mr. Ramy Mohsen (lawyer and director of National Centre for Research and Studies) and Mr. Mahmoud Ibrahem (Expert in the management of electoral campaigns).
It should be noted that the United Group in the context of the arrangement of these meetings has prepared information booklet on the topics referred to above to be given to the participants, it has been decided also to distribute it to the largest possible number of Egyptian political parties and give them the right to reprint or use its scientific contents as they wish to spread the benefits of the book.
The United Group Published a legal guide on the eligibility of civil companies to work in the fields of development.
In response to the vicious attack launched by several governmental and regulatory agencies against civil society organizations, for allegedly receiving foreign funds to implement foreign programs and plans. In addition to what was said by some officials that there are legal entities, other than NGOs, working in the field of development in violation of the law of associations, and receiving foreign funds in violation of the provisions of the Egyptian law. As well as, the state agencies exploitation of the powers of the central bank to disclose the bank accounts of some NGOs and civil companies, as an attempt to distrust those organizations and accusing them of being agents for some foreign countries. The United Group released a legal guide under the name of "The work of civil companies in the fields of development" in order to respond to the accusations of some officials that the work of civil and commercial companies in development is illegal, as well as to reveal the eligibility of these companies to receive funds to implement developmental activities. The guide reviewed a number of questions and responded to them about how legal is the work of the civil companies in the field of development, and is working in this field limited to NGOs only. It also reviewed the difference between the various types of civil companies with NGOs, and explained the legal nature of the agreements signed by the civil companies with donors to implement a project, as well as highlighting the regulatory bodies which follow-up on the work of companies. The guide ends with explaining the legal relationship between the bank and the customers and the right of the bank to reveal the accounts of its customers, as well as the authority of the Central Bank and its unit specialized In fighting money laundry to inquire about the accounts of the customers and the permissibility of displaying and revealing such information publicly, or submitting to anybody without following the rules set for the disclosure of secret accounts. The Guide also contained several judgments of the Egyptian Court of Cassation which recognizes the legitimacy of civil companies to receive funding from abroad for the implementation of developmental activities and the legitimacy of the work of those companies, and also the judgment, which laid down an important principle that ends the debate about the legal nature of the NGOs' money and that their funds are private as long as it does not confer the status of public benefit. It is worth mentioning that this guide is published in the framework of the project "Empowering Civil Society and the Legal Profession," implemented by the United Group with the support of the Australian Agency for International Development.
Launching the proposed law on right to access information
With the participation of representatives of the Ministries of Communications and Information Technology and Administrative Development, the United Group announces the final Draft of A Constitutional Article and a Proposed Law on Right to Access Information
With the participation of representatives of the Ministries of Communications and Information Technology and Administrative Development, the United Group announced the final Draft of a Constitutional Article and a Proposed Law on Right to Access Information, in the presence of 92 media and representatives of Businessmen Associations, NGOs and Foreign Diplomats in Egypt.
The representatives of the two Ministers stressed the importance of the constructive cooperation between the government and civil society to push forward the democratic process and reform the legislative structure. They praised the effort exerted in preparing the constitutional article and the proposed law, stressing that there is a dire need to adopt such legislations, especially with regard to the major political changes that took place in Egypt after the 25th of January, 2011.
For his part, Mr. Negad El-Borai, Attorney at Law and Senior Partner at the United Group, said that the discussions related to this project started in 2006. The constitutional article was drafted by 25 constitutional experts, professors of political science, and representatives of businessmen associations. The proposed law was drafted by more than 100 experts in legal structures, media, constitutional law, economics, digital infrastructure, political science and political sociology. Furthermore the proposed law had been discussed through two extensive conferences in March 2008 and June 2011 that were attended by more than 600 participants representing the groups targeted by the draft law from all over Egypt.
The final draft of the proposed law was presented to a number of international experts and the experts of Article 19 Association and their comments were put into consideration. Furthermore, the proposed law made use of the final draft law of the African Model Law on the Access to Information.
El-Borai added that the United Group will conduct a number of limited workshops with businessmen associations and some of the groups addressed by the law to discuss the final draft before submitting the final version of the proposed law to the SCAF or the new parliament, which is expected to meet during the first week of March 2012, to be adopted.
