CAIRO: The Egyptian Parliament will commemorate International Democracy Day on Tuesday, the idea of which was proposed by current PA Speaker, Ahmed Fathi Sorour in 1997.
The day was officially adopted by the UN when a resolution was introduced by Qatar during an animated plenary debate on new or restored democracies.
The celebration hosted by Sorour, will be attended by Boutros Boutros Ghali, president of the National Council for Human Rights, and his vice-president, Ahmed Kamal Aboul Magd and Secretary General Ambassador Mokhles Kotb, as well as members of different political parties.
On Nov. 8 2007, the UN declared Sept. 15 the International Day of Democracy “which should be brought to the attention of all people for its celebration and observance, as they stated in a press release at the time.
“Democracy is a universal value based on the freely expressed will of people to determine their own political, economic, social and cultural systems, and their full participation in all aspects of life, said the release. “While democracies share common features, there is no single model of democracy and that democracy does not belong to any country or region.
It called on all its member states, organizations, non-governmental organizations and individuals to commemorate the day by raising public awareness and also to ensure that parliamentarians and civil society organizations are given appropriate opportunity to be involved. Pundits, however, find it hard to imagine that a country like Egypt, which has been internationally criticized for its lack of democracy, to celebrate this day. Earlier this year, a global study on democracy ranked Egypt one of the 43 least democratic countries in the world.
The study titled “Freedom in the World is conducted annually by Freedom House, a US-based NGO that aims to promote democracy and civil rights. Freedom House used three categories to measure democracy: “free, “partly free, and “not free.
Of the 193 countries sampled in the global survey, 22 percent fell into the “not free category, including Egypt.
Human rights and political activists attribute the lack of democracy in Egypt to a number of reasons including the suppression of freedom of expression, repression of opposition groups and the continuation and renewal of the emergency law, in place since 1981.
Regarding political elections, through which democracy is best demonstrated, political blogger Wael Abbas says, “People have no choice [in Egypt] during the elections because power is used to control the people through means such as the central security and shutting down polling stations.
Furthermore, activists also lament that concepts related to democracy, such as freedom of expression, are lacking in Egypt.
“We are one of the worst 10 countries to be an online journalist in . journalists, bloggers and activists in general face severe harassment as they are constantly faced with legal charges or their security is threatened, said rights activist Mina Zikry.
