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Egypt
Libya

Egypt

The Parliament continues to approve the laws submitted by the executive power and the Human Rights Committee is working to cover up the real situation of the human rights situation in Egypt

The Parliament continues to approve the proposals and wishes of the executive authority in an automated manner, without caring about his actual role regarding the establishment of legislation that guarantees the basic rights contained in the constitution and expresses the trends and desires of the people who elected it, and it clearly functions as an elected or appointed council by the executive authority or more precisely, by the security services of the executive authority, and the matter reached the point where the Speaker of the Parliament reprimanded the deputies for their lack of commitment during the discussion of a proposal submitted by the government to amend some provisions of the Value Added Law, and that it comes in accordance with the directives of President Abdel-Sisi, and the need for members of the Assembly not to disturb the government during the plenary session, asking everyone to take a seat, as for the Human Rights Committee of the Council, it identified with the general performance of the Council, and instead of working to improve the human rights situation, it went to appease the executive power and its security services and discussed cooperation between them and the Supreme Council for Media with the aim of responding to what it called false allegations and reports about the state of human rights.

  • The Human Rights Committee in the Parliament, headed by deputy Tariq Radwan, discussed with the Supreme Council for Media Regulation aspects of cooperation with the committee in light of the national strategy for human rights and also discussed the joint work to respond to false allegations and reports that address the human rights situation in Egypt in a false way, and the head of the committee stressed the importance of the council’s role in highlighting the Egyptian state’s presidential initiatives and launching the national strategy for human rights, and that it senses a positive change in the council’s work plan, but we need more action to change the language of the speech in order to make it suitable for the different age groups at the level of modern technological media, pointing out that the quality of the media product varies from one recipient to another, and that the important thing resides in knowing how to present the product to the youngsters.
  • The House of Representatives approved, during the plenary session, a draft law submitted by the government to amend some provisions of Law No. 82 of 2006 establishing the National Authority for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Education, the philosophy of the presented draft law resides in presenting the quality of education as one of the main pillars upon which the reform and development of the education system in Egypt is based, this is done through helping the various educational institutions to improve their quality, in accordance with international standards, which leads to the development of their performance and the advancement of the level of education in all fields.

The executive power continues its work without pressure and tends to lift subsidies on bread and the state’s ownership of new agricultural areas and positive amendments to the Child Law

The executive power in Egypt continues its work without any pressure on its work after ensuring a truce by the rest of the state authorities and its security services, in fact after the government has raised fuel prices thrice during the current year, it is actually going to end subsidies on bread and is only waiting for the right time to announce that, the government also approved the amendment of some provisions of the Agricultural Reclamation Law to give the state the right to take some areas of the seized lands to implement projects of public interest, the government also approved ,this week, amendments to some provisions concerning the Child Law to provide more protection for children and guarantee their right to education, and the Ministry of internal affairs issued a statement explaining that the recent leaks related to the corruption of one of the state agencies were fabricated and that they had arrested those who spread the rumor and also arrested the father of the fugitive YouTuber Abdullah Al-Sharif and then they release after that.

The Council of Ministers approved bills amending some provisions of the laws, the first of which was approving a bill amending some provisions of the Child Law promulgated by Law No. 12 of 1996, with the aim of increasing the financial fine prescribed for violating the provisions of the Child Law to become no less than 500 Egyptian Pounds, and not more than 1000 Egyptian Pounds and the most important points of the amendment are the following:

  • The Council of Ministers approved a draft law amending some provisions of Law No. 178 of 1952 regarding the Agrarian Reform Law, and the amendment permitted the allocation of a part of the land that was seized for free, or renting it at a nominal rent, or for less than the same wage, to implement projects or establish facilities of public interest, at the request of one of the ministries, governmental departments, local administration units, or public authorities…, and allocation or leasing shall be by a decision of the Prime Minister, after the approval of the Council of Ministers, based on a proposal by the Board of Directors of the General Authority for Agrarian Reform.
  • The Council of Ministers approved a draft decision of the President of the Republic, regarding the agreement on economic and technical cooperation between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Government of the People’s Republic of China, signed in Cairo on 7/11/2021, according to which the Chinese government will provide a non-refundable grant to the Egyptian government for a total amount of 400 million Chinese yuan (about 63 million dollars), which will be used to implement projects agreed upon by the two sides.
  • The Council of Ministers approved a draft decision of the President of the Republic to pardon some of the convicts on the occasion of the celebration of Police Day, corresponding to January 25, 2022.
  • The Minister of Supply, Ali Al-Moselhi, said that the government is considering converting bread subsidies from in-kind support to cash support and the minister linked this trend with the completion of reducing the number of those he considered not deserving of the food subsidy, and successive Sisi governments succeeded in reducing petroleum subsidies from 123 billion pounds in 2013-2014 to 18 billion pounds this year, it also canceled electricity and water subsidies, and amended the supply subsidy system to transform from commodity subsidies to cash subsidies in 2014, and linked it to prices, and last August, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said that he intends to raise the price of bread, and the Minister of Supply replied that the government is still studying raising the price of bread, and is waiting for the right time.
  • The Ministry of internal affairs issued a statement revealing the truth of the recent leak, which it described as a fabrication by one of the state institutions and he stipulated in his statement that the follow-up recently monitored the organization’s media outlets promoting a phone conversation between a person claiming to be Major General Farouk al-Qadi with a woman named Mervat Muhammad who claimed to be an advisor to the Presidency of the Republic, and their agreement to do the aforementioned, through his relations with many state officials, by facilitating its happening and some of those associated where contracted for the implementation of a number of major projects that the state is establishing in various fields, with the aim of achieving a material profit, and that the National Security Sector was able to uncover the circumstances of the aforementioned phone conversation and seize the speakers, and the examinations and investigations resulted in the arrestees being among the notorious elements that pursue the method of fraud with the aim of gaining material profit, and that they had no previous work in any of the state institutions or government agencies, and investigations also resulted in identifying the person in contact with the fugitive Brotherhood member Abdullah Al-Sharif, who turned out to be a broker residing in Alexandria, and it was found that the aforementioned broker was connected to the accused and obtained the phone conversation from him in the context of the latter’s attempt to convince him of the strength of his relations and the possibility of giving him opportunities to invest, and after experiencing financial hardship, he decided to communicate with Abdullah Al-Sharif and provide him with the aforementioned phone conversation in exchange for a cash amount, and he sent it to him with a promise to send other calls in the same way, and the necessary legal measures were taken and the accused and the mobile phone were seized, and the Supreme State Security Prosecution is under way to conduct investigations.

Activists have not been defeated yet, and the report of the Committee to Protect Journalists is a revealing mirror of the human rights situation in Egypt

Egyptian activists live on the reality of imprisonment, circulation and conditional release and move between criminal courts, terrorism and state security, but they are still not defeated yet, in fact this week, a celebration took place in the French capital, Paris, with a new book by Alaa Abdel-Fattah, and Solafa Magdy and Esraa Abdel Fattah, who was also banned from traveling, were given honorary citizenship, along with Alaa Abdel Fattah, coinciding with the issuance of the report of the International Committee to Protect Journalists in which Egypt came third in the number of imprisoned journalists, revealing the status and conditions of real rights and freedoms in Egypt, and many activists were renewed this week between the criminal courts, terrorism and state security, and several activists’ detention were renewed this week.

  • After the book was launched in Beirut at the end of last November, the book "You Are Not Yet Defeated", which includes collected articles written by the imprisoned activist, Alaa Abdel Fattah, was published in London, Abdel-Fattah wrote some of the first drafts of the book, with a pencil on paper, in a cell in Tora prison, then completed it when undergoing through other stages of litigation, and the launch of the book coincided with the International Day for Human Rights, during which a celebration was held in France, during which the Mayor of Paris granted honorary citizenship to a number of jurists, including from Egypt Abdel Fattah, and journalist Solafa Magdy, who was released last April after 17 months in pretrial detention pending investigations into her accusation of belonging to a terrorist group and spreading false news, as well as activist Esraa Abdel Fattah, who was also released last July after 19 months of pretrial detention pending investigation into the same charges.
  • The Committee to Protect Journalists issued its annual report on press freedoms for the year 2021, in which Egypt ranked third, after China and Myanmar, in the list of countries that detain the largest number of journalists, as the number of journalists imprisoned reached 25 in 2021. Although this number is less than last year, the continued detention of journalists is a model for the government’s disregard for the laws of the country, and the Egyptian authorities constantly circumvent the legislation that limits the duration of pretrial detention to two years, by filing additional charges to extend that period, and in other cases, the authorities impose conditions on the release of persons who complete their sentences, and the best illustration of this method is the situation that Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, also known as Shawkan, suffers from, as he has spent all his nights in police custody since his release from Tora prison on March 4, 2019.
  • The State Security Criminal Court decided to renew the detention of Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh for 45 days pending investigations and accused him of joining a banned group founded in violation of the provisions of the law and the constitution, and it also decided to renew the detention of Safwan Thabet, his son Saif Safwan Thabet along with Rajab Al-Swerki, for 45 days pending case No. 865 of 2020 State Security Inspection, and the prosecution had accused them of joining the terrorist Brotherhood and providing it with funds to achieve its purposes by changing the regime by force, assaulting armed forces men and the police and public facilities, in addition to harming the country’s national economy.
  • The Giza Criminal Court decided to renew the detention of human rights lawyer Amr Imam for 45 days in Case No. 488 of 2019 Supreme State Security, and publisher Ismail El Kemary for the same period in Case No. 810 of 2019 Supreme State Security.
  • The Department of Terrorism, held at the Institute of Police Secretaries in Tora Prisons District, examined the detention renewal orders for 191 defendants in cases investigated by the Supreme State Security Prosecution.
  • The Department of Terrorism, held at the Institute of Police Secretaries in the Tora prisons area, considered the renewal orders for the detention of 156 defendants in cases investigated by the Supreme State Security Prosecution.
  • The Fourth Circuit of Terror, held at the Institute of Police Secretaries in the Tora prisons area, considered the renewal of the detention of 432 defendants in cases investigated by the Supreme State Security Prosecution, Among the defendants are human rights lawyer and former parliamentarian Ziad Al-Alimi, journalists Hisham Fouad and Hossam Mounes, businessman Safwan Thabet and his son, activist Sameh Seoudi, blogger Mohamed Oxygen, and photojournalist Sayed Abdallah.

Epidemiological situation

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According to the Egyptian Medical Syndicate page, the number of doctors who have passed away in the fight against the Corona virus

The Ministry of Health announced that the total number that was registered in Egypt with the Corona virus is 370,819, including 308,829 cases that have been cured, and 21,155 deaths.

Libya

The Libyan elections: Has the decision to postpone the elections become inevitable? The National Unity Government announces that it will hand over power only to an elected government… The coordination of Libyan political parties refuses to postpone

It is clear that the issue of postponing the electoral process beyond its specified time (December 24) has become a reality, however, the issue of announcing it is like a fireball that each party is trying to throw to another institution, and in order to evade the task of announcing this step, the Commission is trying to use all possible vocabulary to pave the issue of postponement but these attempts will not last long, especially as we are approaching the date, and so far the final list for presidential election candidates has not been announced.

In addition, the Dabaiba government will not accept the handover of power except to an elected party, meaning that in the event that elections are not held on time, the government will continue to perform its duties, and this statement emanated from the designated Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Ramadan Abu Jinnah, as a result of a widespread idea that has occupied space in all political meetings, and in his statement he stressed that in case the elections are postponed, it is possible that the Dabaiba government will be overthrown and a new government will be appointed, and a lot of information ponts to the fact that Fathi Basha Agha is the designated candidate to succeed Dabaiba in coordination with Haftar in eastern Libya.

Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General for Libya, Stephanie Williams,
  • The United Nations Support Mission in Libya welcomed the arrival of the Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General for Libya, Stephanie Williams, in Tripoli and the mission indicated that Williams will lead efforts to pursue the Libyan-Libyan dialogue, and support the holding of presidential and parliamentary elections in the country and the special adviser commented on the work of the High National Elections Commission, which has made great progress in the technical preparations for the electoral process, despite many challenges and time constraints, and she stressed on providing support for the electoral process which can lead to unity, stability and the creation of legitimate institutions in the country.
  • The head of the High National Elections Commission, Imad al-Sayeh, said that the elections are expected to take place on their proposed date on December 24, and that the logistical and operational plan is taking place according to what the commission planned, and that the commission has reached the stage of announcing the final lists of candidates for the position of head of state and then the beginning of the electoral campaign phase, and that the Commission is working to review the files of candidates for the Parliament in preparation for the announcement of the preliminary lists of those accepted, and that the issue of postponing the elections is subject to a large number of variables, most of which are directly related to the implementation of the electoral process, and the variables may be political, technical or legal, and stressed that only the House of Representatives decides to postpone or maintain the date set for the implementation of the electoral process.
  • At the same time, the High National Elections Commission said that it will have to make brief delay in announcing the preliminary lists of candidates for the parliamentary elections, given that the number of applications for candidacy exceeded expectations, noting that the process of scrutiny and review will take a longer period of time than planned, the commission is currently reviewing the data in the candidacy applications, which amounted to 5,385 applications distributed over 75 electoral districts, in cooperation with the competent authorities in order to determine to which extent the conditions and requirements were respected.
  • The Minister of the Interior of the Government of National Unity, together with the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General of the United Nations on Libya, reviewed the main points of the plan developed by the Ministry to secure and protect the elections, which it presented last September to the Government of National Unity and the international community, the minister explained that the ministry continues to perform its duties to establish the foundations of security and political stability in Libya, and that what is happening in private security incidents in Sebha is a disruption of the role of the Ministry of Internal affairs, and a threat to the stability of the country, and during the meeting he also discussed the matter of establishing the main election chamber and its 25 subsidiary chambers, and its role in protecting and securing the electoral process.
  • The Prime Minister of the National Unity Government, Ramadan Abu Jinnah, also confirmed that the unity government will hand over power to the government that will be elected on December 24, during a conference held with a number of government ministers in the capital, Tripoli, stressing the need for the people to maintain the stability achieved through the elections, and that the unity government supports the holding of the elections on their scheduled date and has supported the Electoral Commission in order to reach free and fair elections, stressing also that the judiciary has spoken about electoral appeals, and that the national unity government pledged before the Libyan people that it will hand over power to an elected government through the elections that will take place on December 24, denying accusations about the government's efforts to obstruct the upcoming entitlement.
  • Also, 19 Libyan political parties and entities condemned the attempts aimed at obstructing and disrupting the holding of the elections on their scheduled date, December 24, The Coordination of the Libyan Parties confirmed in a statement that it is following with great concern the attempts to obstruct and disrupt the holding of direct presidential and legislative elections and delay them from their scheduled date, and the coordination strongly condemned the obstruction of the High Electoral Commission’s work stressing that it is not acceptable to prejudice the independence of the judiciary or threaten it, or try to influence it, and warned of the implications of confiscating the right of the Libyan people to choose who represents them and assumes the duties of the authority of the state administration, and that the legitimacy of all the current executive and legislative bodies has expired, and that the people’s confidence in it has been shaken and thus it is not possible to accept it continuation after the end of this December, and therefore attempts to extend the life of these bodies will not go unnoticed and may make the political situation more complicated in the future and may be a cause for the spread of violence, the parties also welcomed the re-assignment of Stephanie Williams as an advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, stressing at the same time the importance of the international community standing with Libya and its support for its unity, sovereignty and stability by expelling foreign forces and mercenaries and its support for the option of the democratic path and the return of the right to the people as a source of authorities, The Libyan parties expressed their rejection of any support that goes against the will of the people or identifies with groups that want to monopolize power and spoil the political scene.

Clashes in Sebha tense the atmosphere and a Russian-Libyan agreement after the Turkish agreement

  • Sources in the Libyan city of Sebha said that studies in its schools and universities have stopped, and government departments have closed their doors due to clashes between a security force affiliated with the Presidential Council and forces of the General Command, The sources indicated, in press statements, that the movement appears to be limited to the outskirts of the city only and non-existent in the center of Sabha, which led to the injury of two people with minor injuries, as a result of which they received treatment at the Sabha Medical Center, as activists from Sabha circulated on Facebook, video clips attributed to those clashes, in which light and medium weapons were heard, and these confrontations came hours after the Sabha Security Directorate announced that forces of the General Command, affiliated with the commander of the Southern Region Operations Group, Major General Al-Mabrouk Sahban, had seized 11 modern police cars. Armed police, armed with heavy weapons and armored vehicles, took the policemen who were in cars to the Brak base, and those tensions occurred only two days after the meeting that brought together the Chief of General Staff of the Interim Government of National Unity, Lieutenant-General Muhammad al-Haddad, with the task of the commander of the General Command, Lieutenant-General Abdel Razek al-Nadori. in the city of Sirte, where the Chief of Staff talked about reaching understandings, including not politicizing the military institution, supporting efforts to establish a civil state, developing a plan to organize militants and armed formations, and developing mechanisms to unify the military institution.
  • The Libyan Military Committee is holding a meeting to discuss the expulsion of mercenaries and foreign fighters, and the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, in a statement, that Minister Naglaa Al-Manqoush met Wednesday in the capital, Tripoli, Ivan Molotkov, Deputy Director of the Middle East Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry and his accompanying delegation, to discuss several issues, including mercenaries. And she explained that the two sides expressed their support to the Libyan Joint Military Committee 5 + 5, and its efforts regarding the removal of mercenaries and foreign fighters from Libya, stressing their support for the steps taken, including the meeting that the committee will hold in Moscow, and that the meeting discussed the resumption of the Russian embassy to work in Tripoli as well as in its consulate in the city of Benghazi.
  • For its part, the Russian delegation expressed their country's full support for the government and its efforts to achieve stability in Libya, and they expressed their country's desire to develop and strengthen cooperation in all fields, and to serve the interests of the two countries, and the Director of the Moral Guidance Department of the Libyan Army, Major General Khaled al-Mahjoub, said in a post on his Facebook account that the Joint Military Committee has arrived in Russia to complete its work to coordinate the implementation of the outputs of Berlin and the Geneva Convention, and the official explained that the Libyan ambassador in Russia was at the forefront of the future of the 5 + 5 Committee, noting that the latter praised the committee’s role in bringing peace, implementing the Geneva Convention and working to evacuate foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya, in addition Moscow's trip, which Mahjoub did not reveal about its end date, comes after the Military Committee discussed the file of mercenaries in Turkey, while the latter expressed its desire to evacuate the mercenaries from Libya in conjunction with the exit of the rest of the militants in an all-inclusive manner, according to the dates and timetables coordinated by the Military Committee.

Voluntary repatriation is the magic term used by Europeans to forcibly return irregular migrants to their homelands

  • The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced the deportation of 176 vulnerable refugees and asylum-seekers from Libya, on a humanitarian flight to Rwanda via Mitiga International Airport, and UNHCR said in a statement that this flight organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was the second flight Of its kind to Rwanda this year, using the emergency transit mechanism, where the first flight was last July, and the UNHCR indicated that among those who were deported were men, women and children, including several infants from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan, noting that Many of them were victims of human trafficking and many of them were released from the shelters and the head of the UNHCR mission in Libya praised the cooperation of the Libyan authorities in facilitating this trip, and he explained that by deporting them, UNHCR aims to help them find durable solutions such as resettlement to third countries, voluntary return where possible, or local integration in Rwanda. It is noteworthy that 824 refugees and asylum seekers have so far been evacuated from Libya to Rwanda. Within the framework of the emergency transit mechanism since 2019.
  • An Italian organization said that the year 2021 recorded a new escalation in the number of people arbitrarily detained in Libyan detention centers, and the new report of the Migrants Foundation of the Italian Episcopal Conference denounced the fact that the official Libyan centers of the Directorate for Combating Irregular Migration alone were crowded with about 10,000 men, women and minors, compared to just about 1,100 people until last January.
  • The statistical report mentioned that the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, condemned the continued exposure of prisoners in these centers to torture, violence and ill-treatment, including insufficient food and poor care, and the report indicated that in a little more than three years, between mid-2018 and October 22, 2021, the Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) monitored the beginning and end of 67 situations (bans) that were subjected to ships (government, non-governmental and commercial) carrying migrants on board were saved, and the report concluded that after the suffering of migrants and crews, the waste of time and resources, the tension of life on board the ships, and even political propaganda, 49 of the 67 ships ended up disembarking their migrants in Italy.

The remains of five bodies were discovered in Bani Walid

The General Authority for the Search and Identification of Missing Persons in Libya announced the discovery of the remains of five unidentified bodies in Wadi Maimun, south of the city of Bani Walid, according to what it published on its Facebook page, and that she directed a team from the Excavation Department to Bani Walid General Hospital to examine the bodies upon receiving a report from the Bani Walid District Prosecution regarding the remains that were transferred after they were recovered from their site to the hospital, and her team was able to take DNA samples from the bodies and refer them to the Department of Laboratories specialized in the matching process.

Regarding the latest developments in the spread of the virus in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya

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