Whereas the promotion of respect for democracy, human
rights, and civil liberties are fundamental principles and aims of the United
States;
Whereas the United States attaches great importance to
relations with Egypt and considers fair and transparent elections as the only
way to make progress towards a more democratic society;
Whereas Egypt plays a significant role in the Middle East
peace process and in the fight against international terrorism and
fundamentalism;
Whereas the Egyptian authorities have promised to put an
end to the imprisonment of journalists and bloggers, but this promise has so
far gone unfulfilled;
Whereas in its 2008 annual international
religious freedom report, the United States Department of State concluded that
religious freedom conditions declined in Egypt and the United States Commission
on International Religious Freedom continues to place Egypt on its watch list
due to serious problems of discrimination and intolerance;
Whereas the independence of the judiciary
continues to be undermined through exceptional parallel court systems,
executive administrative orders overriding judicial decisions, and politically
motivated lawsuits;
Whereas Shiites, Koranists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other
religious minorities are harassed, arrested, and imprisoned by security
services;
Whereas all Baha'i institutions and
community activities have been banned in Egypt since 1960, and members of the
Baha'i faith continue to face discrimination when applying for government
issued documents;
Whereas material vilifying Jews appears regularly in the
state controlled and semi official media;
Whereas the Copts, Egypt's largest religious minority
group and the largest Christian population in the Middle East, suffer from many
forms of discrimination, including—
(1)a
lack of employment in higher positions of the public sector, universities,
army, and the security service;
(2)disproportional
representation in Parliament and Shura Council;
(3)difficulty in
building and repairing churches;
(4)lack of protection
and lack of prosecution of perpetrators in cases of sectarian violence;
(5)government
harassment of converts to Christianity while the government encourages
conversion to Islam;
(6)the inability to
obtain government issued identification cards which reflect conversion to
Christianity; and
(7)prejudice against Christian guardians in
child custody cases which involve parents of both Muslim and Christian
faith;
Whereas blogger Abdel Karim Suleiman is
still serving a four-year prison sentence for the peaceful expression of his
views and is the first Egyptian blogger to be charged and convicted for
blaspheming Islam, inciting sectarian strife, and criticizing President Hosni
Mubarak;
Whereas Egyptian authorities continue to
apply the law on nongovernmental organizations in an arbitrary and
discretionary manner, dissolving and harassing Egyptian human rights and
political advocacy organizations;
Whereas the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies and
its founder, Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, have been threatened for their work to
promote democratic reforms;
Whereas Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim has been
convicted in absentia on politically motivated charges;
Whereas other civil society development organizations,
including the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic
Institute, have also been restricted in their work;
Whereas excessive use of force by Egyptian
security, including against African migrants at the Egypt-Israel border, is
occurring in violation of Egypt’s obligations to protect fundamental human
rights; and
Whereas the recent arrests and action against
nongovernmental organizations and human rights defenders undermines the
commitments entered into by the Egyptian Government concerning fundamental
rights and freedoms and the democratic process in the country: Now, therefore,
be it
That the House of
Representatives—
(1)recognizes that respect for human rights is
a fundamental value, and the bilateral relationship between the United States
and Egypt should be a platform for promoting the rule of law and fundamental
freedoms;
(2)calls on the
Egyptian Government to end all forms of harassment, including judicial
measures, the detention of media professionals and, more generally, human
rights defenders and activists calling for reforms and to fully respect freedom
of expression, in conformity with article 19 of the United Nations
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
(3)encourages the
Egyptian Government to honor its commitment to repeal the state of emergency in
order to allow for the full consolidation of the rule of law in Egypt;
(4)encourages the
Egyptian Government to take the steps necessary to fully implement and protect
the rights of religious minorities as full citizens;
(5)strongly supports
measures to guarantee academic freedom, freedom of the media, and freedom of
religion or belief in Egypt, including by ending arbitrary administrative
measures, such as those taken against the Centre for Trade Union and Workers’
Services;
(6)urges the Egyptian
Government not to impose arbitrary restrictions on the peaceful activities of
civil society organizations;
(7)calls on the
Egyptian Government for—
(A)the immediate and unconditional release of
Abdel Karim Suleiman and all other political prisoners and democracy activists;
(B)an end to the
harassment of the Koranists; and
(C)a repeal of the 1960 presidential decree
banning members of the Baha’i community from practicing their faith;
(8)welcomes the Egyptian Government’s decision
to pardon opposition political leader Ayman Nour for medical reasons after he
served three of his five-year prison sentence;
(9)stresses the need
to fully implement the principles of the 1969 Organization of African Unity
Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa and the
1993 International Convention concerning the rights and the protection of
migrant workers and their families;
(10)supports the
concluding observations of the United Nations Committee on Migrant Workers of
May 2007, which called for the re-opening of the investigations into the
killing of 27 Sudanese asylum-seekers in December 2005;
(11)calls for an immediate end to Egypt’s
shoot to stop
border policy which has left at least 32 African
migrants, including women and children, dead;
(12)calls for an end to all forms of torture
and ill treatment and calls for investigations when there is reasonable
suspicion that acts of torture have occurred;
(13)calls on the
Egyptian Government to allow—
(A)a visit by the
United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or
degrading treatment or punishment; and
(B)a visit by the
United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief;
(14)emphasizes the
importance of ensuring and strengthening the independence of the judiciary by
amending or repealing all legal provisions that infringe or do not sufficiently
guarantee its independence;
(15)stresses the need
for respect and protection of the freedoms of thought, conscience, and religion
as ensured in article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article
18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the 1981
United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and
of Discrimination based on Religion and Belief;
(16)encourages Egypt and all other parties
concerned to redouble efforts to fight smuggling through tunnels into the Gaza
strip; and
(17)urges the
President and the Secretary of State to put human rights and religious freedom
developments in Egypt very high on the United States Government's agenda during
meetings with Egyptian officials.