Thank you very much.
Good afternoon, members. It's always a pleasure to be in front of you. I'm certainly pleased to have an opportunity to address such a timely and important human rights concern as the situation in Egypt, with specific focus on the plight of Coptic Christians.
It's trite to begin by highlighting what an unprecedented and remarkable year this has been in Egypt. It's quite something to imagine that if this hearing were being held just one year ago today, on December 6, 2010, we would not have begun to imagine the range and nature of changes that would play out over the year to come. In fact the magnitude of change throughout North Africa and the Middle East was at that point not even a dream. It was still ten days before Mohamed Bouazizi's desperate protest of self-immolation in Tunisia that unleashed the spectacular movement for change that has swept through the region.
This movement has brought groundbreaking change to several countries, but has also unleashed terrifying brutality and crackdowns in others. Syria comes quickly to mind, with up to 4,000 people killed in the past eight months, as does Bahrain. I want to bring to the attention of members of the subcommittee a Canadian citizen, Naser Al-Raas, who was subjected to torture after being imprisoned earlier this year. He is at risk of being taken back into custody tomorrow to serve a five-year prison term, simply because he peacefully protested in Bahrain.
On December 6, 2010, in Egypt the decades-old apparatus of a brutal, heavy-handed military and the iron-fisted rule of Hosni Mubarak seemed unassailable, and with them, well-established patterns of widespread and very serious human rights violations. Until that time the rest of the world, including Canada, had unfortunately done very little to counter those violations for various reasons, many of them tied up in the contentious and complicated geopolitics of the region. Egypt's abysmal human rights record was not challenged in any meaningful way by the international community for many long decades.
The concerns were numerous and the victims and survivors countless. Among the many concerns Amnesty International had documented and spoken out about for many years were serious human rights abuses against members of the Coptic Christian community in Egypt. In preparing for today's session I very quickly went back and pulled some sad reminders of those concerns from over the years. Our reporting noted that Coptic Christians were among the civilians targeted regularly by armed Islamist groups, including Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, beginning in 1992, when those groups took up arms against the Egyptian government.
On February 14, 1997—ironically, Valentine's Day—an Amnesty press release condemned an attack in St. George Church in a town in upper Egypt. Four armed and masked men burst into the church and opened fire on a group of 30 young Coptic Christians while they were listening to a sermon. Ten were killed and five others were badly injured.
Another Amnesty press release from January 12, 2010, condemns a drive-by shooting as worshippers were leaving a Coptic Christmas Eve service. Six worshippers were shot dead. The killings came at a time of considerable unrest and clashes among Muslims and Copts in the area. Our press release noted that Egyptian authorities failed to provide adequate protection and security for the Coptic community, which was clearly vulnerable. There was a notable absence of security forces, which are usually deployed during festivities to guard churches at that time of year.
Then at the beginning of this year, on the cusp of Egypt's remarkable protest movement that unleashed such tremendous changes, there was another deadly church attack on January 1, 2011. Worshippers at a Coptic church in Alexandria were targeted in a bombing that killed 23 and injured scores of others who were taking part in a New Year's midnight service.
So before things began to change in Egypt, the record was sadly and starkly clear. There was a well-established pattern of attacks by armed groups targeting the Coptic Christian community, very often specifically targeting churches and church services. Those attacks have been ongoing for close to 20 years. Far too often it was clear that Egyptian authorities were doing far too little to provide the community with safety and protection in the face of that deadly violence, which brings us to this year's tremendous changes.
Underneath all of the fanfare, political drama, and exhilaration of an inspiring popular movement, underneath the stunning fall of Hosni Mubarak from feared strong-man president to accused criminal now facing a very public trial, have there been meaningful and sustainable human rights changes? Do the changes point to a brighter human rights future for Egyptians? And what do the changes mean for the country's beleaguered Coptic Christian community, thought to number between six and eight million, some 10% of the population?
Last month we released a report entitled “Broken Promises: Egypt's Military Rulers Erode Human Rights”. I think the title says it all. I've provided you with copies of that report today, and we have the following to say by way of an overview of these past several months.
The Supreme Council for Armed Forces, which assumed power when former president Mubarak was ousted on February 11, had stated that they would oversee “a peaceful transition of authority within a free and democratic system”. However, ahead of the November elections to the People's Assembly, the SCAF arbitrarily restricted the very human rights, including freedom of expression, association, and assembly, that are instrumental to ensuring free debate of social and political issues. Criticism of authorities regarding the pace of reform has been ruthlessly suppressed. Military courts have imprisoned 12,000 civilians. Military prosecutors have summonsed, interrogated, and ordered the detention of those who dare to criticize the army, and military forces have used unnecessary or excessive force to disperse demonstrations. The euphoria of the uprising, therefore, has now been replaced by fears that one repressive rule has simply been replaced with another.
The jubilation of the moment and the very welcome decision of the armed forces at the time not to shoot at protesters during the uprising have obscured the fact that the country is still, by default, under military rule a year later, although the SCAF had promised power would be handed to an elected civilian government.
In the name of ensuring security and stability, the authorities have committed numerous human rights violations, ignoring the very demands for social justice and fundamental freedoms that triggered the uprising. Indeed, Amnesty International's assessment is that ten months later, the SCAF has been moving further and further away from meeting the human rights demands voiced by millions of Egyptians during the 25 January revolution and the promises that arose from it. The country's state of emergency remains in force. The relatives of those unlawfully killed by the security forces during the revolution still await justice and compensation. Torture and unfair trials remain routine practices. Discrimination against women and religious minorities persists. Freedoms of expression, association, and assembly continue to be undermined. Refugees and asylum seekers continue to be killed at the borders with Israel or detained and forcibly deported to countries where they are at risk of serious human rights violations. Millions of people in slums continue to be denied essential services and are still waiting for their voices to be heard. It's not an optimistic picture.
I'm going to come in a moment to what this all means for the Coptic community, but first I want to draw particular attention to one of the many concerns I just noted, and that is ongoing discrimination against women, because this is key to the larger human rights agenda in the country.
Egyptian women were instrumental in the revolution, yet the hopes raised for women's rights in those heady days have not been fulfilled. Many would say they are close to being dashed now. Women are still being largely excluded from taking part in their country's future, and that urgently needs to be turned around.
There are many contributing factors to the difficulty women face in being able to play an equal role and participating in shaping the new Egypt: lack of political awareness due to high levels of illiteracy, harassment, and coercion when voting; attacks on women candidates; social attitudes serving as a barrier to women seeking public office; women being sidelined in political parties and trade unions; ineffective quota systems—weaker than in previous Egyptian elections; and the exclusion of women from important policy-making functions and bodies--for instance, not one woman was appointed to the very important constitutional amendments committee that was established in March of this year.
What does all this add up to for the country's Coptic community? As a starting point, we have to recognize and underscore that Egyptians of all faiths and all denominations took part in the January 25 revolution. All equally put their faith and hope in this movement for change. However, religious minorities have continued to suffer discrimination by the authorities and to receive inadequate state protection in the face of continuing and what appears to be mounting violence.
Discrimination and attacks against Coptic Christians are particularly prevalent and appear to have worsened since the SCAF assumed power. In addition, Copts continue to face discrimination in relation to appointments to high public office, including the security agencies. Following an assault on a church in upper Egypt in September, thousands of people, mainly Copts, organized protests on October 9 in Cairo's Maspero Square to call for an end to discrimination and respect for the right to freedom of religion.
The military responded with excessive force, including driving armoured vehicles at speed into the crowds. The incident reportedly left at least 26 Copts, one Muslim, and one soldier dead, and some 321 people seriously injured.
The SCAF has utterly dismissed calls for an independent inquiry into what happened. Instead, the army is investigating itself. They seem more intent on punishing those who have raised concerns about the incident. Notably, high-profile Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Abd El Fattah, a prominent leader in the January 25 revolution, has been detained since October 30 simply because he has raised concerns about the fact that the military is in charge of investigating itself for the Maspero Square incident. More than one month later, he remains in detention, with an appeals court refusing just yesterday to free him while his trial is pending.
It is estimated that during the past three decades Egypt has witnessed some 15 major attacks against Copts, but in the past ten months alone, since the January 25 revolution, there have been at least six attacks on churches and/or clashes between Muslims and Copts--so 15 over 30 years, and now six over ten months.
On March 4, Shahedain Church, in a village south of Cairo, was destroyed. On March 8 there were violent clashes between Muslims and Copts in a Cairo neighbourhood, home to a large Coptic community of garbage collectors, leaving ten dead. In April, clashes left two dead. In May there were attacks against two churches: Mar Mina Church and the Virgin Mary Church, leaving at least 15 dead. In September, Mar Girgis Church in Aswan was destroyed. On October 4 and 9, Coptic protesters were attacked by soldiers and unidentified armed thugs.
In the face of this very worrying pattern of violence and attacks, there has been virtually no response from the authorities. It's in keeping with long-standing official attitudes, when faced with religious violence in Egypt, to favour so-called reconciliation by convening meetings of religious leaders rather than taking steps to identify and prosecute offenders and hold them accountable for these very serious human rights abuses.
In the new Egypt, Copts also continue to be dramatically under-represented in appointments to high public office, such as university presidents or key security positions.
Authorities have done nothing to end a ban on building houses of worship or restoring existing ones, which has led to many churches in the country being closed down or destroyed because they allegedly do not have the right permission.
In May a committee was set up to prepare an anti-discrimination law and a unified law for places of worship. The penal code was amended to establish a minimum fine of $5,000 U.S. for all forms of discrimination, including religious discrimination, but no law has yet been issued regarding the construction of religious buildings.
Canada can and should be active with respect to these specific concerns about the ongoing persecution of Coptic Christians but also wider concerns about continuing deeply entrenched discrimination against women and the ongoing and very worrying overall pattern of widespread human rights violations in Egypt ten months after a revolution that promised a very different human rights future.
Canada should press Egyptian authorities to free Alaa Abd El Fattah; to launch an investigation into the Maspero Square violence that is conducted by a truly independent body; to review, amend, or abolish all laws that are in any way discriminatory, including on the basis of religion or sex; to change all existing laws and practices that discriminate against religious minorities, including article 98(f) of the penal code, which criminalizes the exploitation of religion to disturb national peace, and also presidential decree 291/2005, which restricts repairs and expansion of Christian churches.
Canada should call on the Egyptian authorities to commit to an agenda that will ensure women are central to shaping the new Egypt and that equality and non-discrimination are absolutely central to the country's reform process. Amnesty International has detailed recommendations in this area, which you will find in the report I have left with you, “Women Demand Equality in Shaping New Egypt”.
Finally, Canada should call on Egyptian authorities at all levels, including those who are going to be taking their place through recent and ongoing parliamentary elections, to commit to Amnesty International's human rights manifesto for Egypt, which we've called, very simply, “10 Steps for Human Rights”. It includes such obvious steps as repealing Egypt's emergency law and bringing the country's perpetual state of emergency to an end. The country, as I'm sure most or all of you know, has been under emergency rule since 1967—the year Canada marked its centennial—44 years of emergency rule that quite frankly has been nothing but a guise for severe human rights violations, 44 years of emergency rule that sadly has been expanded rather than being restricted over the past ten months,.
I have left you with a copy of our human rights manifesto and would really urge that you take a look at it. I think it's quite clear and concise, and it very helpfully highlights the key changes the international community should be pressing Egypt to live up to.
Those are my comments, both with respect to the particular situation facing Coptic Christians in the country and some wider concerns: the plight of women and the overall human rights situation. I'm of course very open and interested to hear what questions or comments you may have.
Thank you.
