The National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) met on Wednesday to discuss bills to be amended by the upcoming parliament, with a view to compiling and submitting the recommendations to parliament, the council said in an official statement.
The body aims to ensure that any legislation passed is consistent with agreed standards on human rights.
The legislation discussed on Wednesday included bills on rebuilding and renovating churches, the minimum wage, the penal code, non-governmental organisations, and medical insurance, among others.
Egypt has been without a legislative body for nearly three years. Following the 30 June uprising, a plethora of laws was ratified by the interim president, some of them widely believed to be unconstitutional.
An anonymous source inside the NCHR told Daily News Egypt on Tuesday: “We do not yet know how we will communicate with the parliament to review these laws.”
He added: “We would rather write our recommendations on the bills before they are discussed in the parliament.”
According to the source, in preparing its notes and recommendations on the bills, the NCHR will make reference to international agreements and treaties to which Egypt is party.
Among the bills to be discussed in the new parliament is one on health insurance, which the health ministry presented to the cabinet for review in October. The bill includes 38 new articles, expanding the network of coverage for medical insurance to all citizens, to be linked through national ID numbers.
The new medical insurance system will cover a new list of diseases and injuries, through an authority that operates directly under the president, instead of the ministry.
Other laws set to be discussed are the electoral constituencies law, which has raised many concerns regarding its constitutionality. In March, the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled the first issued Electoral Districts Law unconstitutional, resulting in the postponement of parliamentary elections until October.
