Egypt: The OMCT submits to the European Union a report on Agrarian policy, human rights and violence

Information and recommendations for the European Union in the context of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Egypt

Letter of transmission dated 1 June 2006 In view of the next EU-Egypt Association Council meeting to take place next 13th of June in Luxembourg, OMCT would like to submit to your attention the attached report prepared by our organisation on the basis of a report from the Land Center for Human Rights, an Egyptian NGO partner of OMCT, on the human rights of farmers and their families in Egypt (representing over 50% of the Egyptian population), affected by both state policies and the direct and indirect effects of the implementation of the EU-Egypt Association agreement. As you very well know, the EU-Egypt Association Agreement is “based on respect of democratic principles and fundamental human rights as set out in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which guides their internal and international policy and constitutes an essential element of this Agreement”. The drafting of this so-called ‘human rights clause’ does not only provide for the obligation not to directly violate fundamentals rights, be they civil, political, economic, social or cultural –and for possible sanctions against the party responsible for grave and persistent violations of these rights, but also entails the necessity to ensure that both parties’ policies and the implementation of the agreement itself do not have negative impacts on the enjoyment of human rights, and to the contrary contribute to their promotion. This positive and pro-active interpretation of the human rights clause has been in particular highlighted in the own-initiative report of the European Parliament1 adopted in January 2006, which calls the EU to expand “the positive dimension of the human rights clause, which entails the need to take effective measures to contribute to the enjoyment of human rights within and by the respective parties, to include an ongoing assessment and monitoring of the implementation of the agreement as regards the enjoyment of human rights and to adopt a human rights approach when implementing all aspects of the agreement”. In light of this, we would urge the Association Council to address the critical situation of farmers during the EU-Egypt Association Council meeting to come by taking into account the recommendations made by the Land Center for Human Rights and by:

• asking the Egyptian authorities to take all necessary measures to ensure full respect of farmers’ and their families’ fundamental rights, both civil and political as well as economic, social and cultural ones, and in particular adequate living standards as well as fair access to justice and fair compensation whenever needed


• deciding to rapidly conduct a thorough evaluation of the PCA implementation in terms of direct and indirect impact on the human rights of the Egyptian population, and in particular the impact of liberalisation policies in the agriculture field on farmers’ and their families’ economic and social rights.

OMCT’s specific focus on the situation of farmers on the occasion of this report does not preclude the existence of other serious human rights violations against other groups in Egypt, in particular in the field of torture, ill-treatments and arbitrary detentions, as well as obstacles to freedom of association and expression and to activities by human rights defenders and NGOs2. In particular, the EU should also urge the Egyptian authorities to issue invitations for the UN Special Procedures that could not yet access the country, in particular those having requested such invitation: the Special Rapporteur (SR) on independence of judges and lawyers, the Special Representative on human rights defenders, the SR on freedom of religion, the SR on torture, and the Working Group on enforced and involuntary disappearances. 3 In view of the Action Plan to come, this should be a key element for a short-term evaluation of the Egyptian government goodwill to respect and promote human rights in Egypt. Last but not least, we call the Association Council to decide the creation of a Human Rights subcommittee, as allowed in the Partnership Agreement, in order to ensure in-depth and regular follow-up of human rights issues in both Sate parties in close cooperation with civil society organisations. Do not hesitate to contact us should you need further information. We thank you in advance for your attention and we look forward to hearing from you on the way these concerns could be dealt with during this meeting and after. Signed Eric Sottas OMCT Director
1 Report A6-0004/2006, by Vittorio Agnoletto 2 For further details see the annual report of the Observatory for Human Rights Defenders, p.438-439, available at www.omct.org (HR Defenders section) or upon request to OMCT-Europe 3 As of today, Egypt only authorised the visit of the Independent Expert on the right to development in 2003