The founder and chairman of Al-Haq Party will be representing Egypt at the World Amazigh Congress conference.
The conference which will be held in the Libyan capital Tripoli is scheduled to start on 11 January and will be about constitutional entitlement. There will be representatives of every country in the world. Melad said she was picked because her party is the first Egyptian party founded on international human rights principles.
The Amazigh are the Berber population of North African countries such as Libya.
Melad said the Egyptian representation had to represent human rights since the recently passed constitution makes no mention of human rights treaties Egypt has signed.
“Many people do not know that Egypt was one of the countries that have contributed to writing these treaties,” she said. In the conference, Melad will discuss measures needed to protect the rights of minorities while drafting a constitution. She will also discuss the marginalisation of Egyptian Copts under the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood. “It is not just the Copts. All Egyptians have been marginalised except for the Muslim Brotherhood,” she said.
Melad is believed to be the first Egyptian woman to head a political party. She started it in 2011 and it was officially launched in December 2012. She described the time she formed the party in as a “time when there were currents that fought human rights.”
Melad said in terms of human rights, Egypt is in a crisis because if a country signs an international treaty it has a limited amount of time to apply it. “If the period is exceeded without applying the treaty, the country can be taken to international courts,” Melad said.
Human rights groups inside Egypt as well as international ones have criticised the constitution. In addition, the Coptic, Catholic, and Evangelical churches demanded that articles of concern are clarified by the presidency. A United Nations working group has also expressed concerns over the rights of women in the constitution.
