EU Parliament Decision on Maspero incident 2011

Protection of Freedom of Religions and rights of minorities or interference in the internal affairs of the State, within those parameters the EU Parliament passed a draft resolution which was the last in many measures taken by the International Community as a response to a protest against religious discrimination turned into a bloodbath in Maspero Area in Cairo on 9 October 2011.
The EU Parliament, On 27 October 2011, passed a draft resolution on the situation in Egypt and Syria, in particular the Christian Minorities. The resolution strongly condemned the killing of protestors in Egypt, expressed solidarity with the Egyptian people in their struggle for democracy, while noting that since March 2011 tens of thousands of Copts have reportedly left Egypt called upon SCAF to put an end to the emergency law, as it violates the rights of freedom of expression, association and assembly and urged the Egyptian Government and authorities to put an end without delay to military trials of civilians.
In her address to the Parliament, Catherine Ashton, Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy stated, “We were all shocked and appalled by the violence against a peaceful demonstration by the Coptic Christian community that led to the death of 25 people, with more than 300 injured.
These clashes run contrary to the whole spirit and goals of the revolution and the aspirations of all Egyptians – of all backgrounds and beliefs.” She added, “I made a statement calling for calm and restraint and an investigation so that those responsible for the violence can be brought to justice.
I urged and I urged the authorities to protect the right to demonstrate peacefully, and the right to freedom of religion or belief – one of the most fundamental of all human rights.” Commenting on this, a Diplomat from a European who deals with EU Parliament matters, who preferred to stay anonymous, stated “the resolutions of the EU Parliament are recommendations and not mandatory. They are directed to the European Commission and the Member States. These resolutions are used more as public relations tool because in many incidents the views of the Parliament do not coincide with those of the Commission. They are more of political messages to States and not many implications on the EC relations with Egypt will take place at this stage based on that resolution.” Contrary to that, Ms Heba Morayef of Human Rights Watch confirmed that the impact of such resolutions should not be underestimated because although they are non-binding, the resolutions of the EU Parliament have impact on the EC and policies of its member States. “The Parliament is pushing its Member States to be adopt a more robust approach with regard to supporting Democracy and Human Rights.”
While this is not the first time the EU Parliament tackled the issue of human rights in Egypt, freedom of expression as well as the rights of minorities, but this was comprehensible under the Mubarak regime. The Mubarak regime and its repressive approaches were behind the 25th of January revolt and they have always refused such resolutions as contradictory to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of States. Yet, reflecting that no change has taken place so far, the surprise in Ashton’s address was in relation to the situation after the revolution. This surprise is shared by many human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, who called for accountability to those who were behind killing the peaceful demonstrators. Ambassador Fathy El Shazly, Former Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for European Affairs, contradicted the views of many officials that the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of States is absolute. He stated, “Egypt must respect human rights and freedoms in order to avoid any criticism from the international community. The era of absolute power of the state against its citizens is over and States should not be left to torture and violate the human rights of citizens without accountability. It is time for a clear law to regulate the issue of places of worship. Building churches illegally is not appropriate, but the lack of necessary regulations to build places of warship is a problem. If we solve the problem, Egypt will not be subject to international criticism.” He added, “We cannot adopt two standards, Egypt was a locomotive in the Organisation of Islamic Conference in order to have international intervention to save the Muslim minorities in Bosnia and Kosovo against the oppression of the Yugoslav regime at the time. Hence, we should set our internal affairs in place in order to avoid international accountability.” Ms Morayef stressed that the continuation of discrimination against Christians with regard to the building and renovation of their places of worship leads to the violations. She added, “In the last 4 years, incidents of sectarian violence were all concerning building legally unauthorized churches. Recently, the government acknowledged that this issue should be solved through the unified law for places of worship to replace the ancient law that is still in force until now. Moreover, the continuation of the unfair law will lead to further breaches to it by building other unauthorized churches.”
In Egypt in the aftermath of the incident, SCAF requested the Government, on 10 October 2011, to establish an independent commission of inquiry in order to investigate the events and supposedly bring those accountable to justice. In the evening of the same day, the Government established the Commission and issued decisions with regard to the speedy conclusion of the unified law for warship places and amendments to the Penal Code to consider discrimination as a crime. Moreover, the Supreme Council for Human Rights has established another independent Commission of inquiry in the Maspero incidents. Both reports are expected to be published by the end of the week. Ms Morayef confirmed that a problem exists in all the incidents of using disproportionate violence against peaceful demonstrators, not only the Christian demonstrators in Maspero, and the lack of accountability to those who do that. This constitutes a clear violation to the rule of law and provides impunity to the perpetrators. She confirmed, “The way the state has been dealing with incidents of sectarian violence is not satisfactory. We didn’t see indictments in all the incidents that took place since the church of the Two Saints explosion in Alexandria in Christmas last year, passing through Atfih, Embaba ElMenya and now waiting for the outcome of the Maspero inquiry. The rule of law and fighting impunity should replace the old policy of using sectarian violence to achieve political goals, while leaving the victims in a weaker position subject to vindication of their rights by the State.”