CAIRO: Human rights body Amnesty International called on Egypt s parliament on Saturday to reject proposed constitutional changes which it described as the most serious undermining of the people s rights in 26 years. In a statement on the eve of a debate on amendments to articles of the constitution, Amnesty said the changes would give sweeping powers of arrest to the police, allow monitoring of private communications and enable Egypt s president to bypass ordinary courts for people suspected of terrorism. Amnesty International recognizes the threat posed to Egypt by terrorism, but respect for and protection of fundamental human rights cannot simply be swept away by a majority vote, said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa. She said the amendments, proposed by President Hosni Mubarak, would entrench the system of abuse under the country s state of emergency, which was re-imposed in 1981. Egypt s opposition has already denounced the changes as opening the way to a police state.
The government argues that the amendments will enable the state of emergency to be lifted, a stance rejected by Amnesty which said the changes would give the misuse of those powers a bogus legitimacy.
Amnesty s deputy director said: Instead of putting an end to the secret detentions, enforced disappearances, torture and unfair trials before emergency and military courts, Egyptian MPs are now being asked to sign away even the constitutional protections against such human rights violations.
Egypt s state of emergency was lifted by former president Anwar Sadat after the peace treaty with Israel signed in 1979. It was reinstated after his assassination by Islamists in 1981.
