For Immediate Release
Egypt:
Court Prohibits Withholding Documents from Baha’is
Government Should Implement Discrimination
Decision Without Delay
(Cairo, January 30, 2008) – Human Rights Watch and the
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) welcomed a January 29 court
ruling that struck down the government’s policy of denying essential
identity documents and access to basic services to citizens whose religion
is not recognized by the state.
The Cairo Court of Administrative Justice granted the
request of Baha’i Egyptians to obtain birth certificates and identity cards
without indicating any religious affiliation. The decision overturned the
government’s policy of forcing Baha’i Egyptians to choose one of the three
state-recognized religions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism as a
prerequisite for obtaining identification documents.
“This ruling remedies an official discriminatory policy
based solely on religious belief,” said Hossam Bahgat, director of the
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. “We urge the government to
implement the decision without delay, and not to appeal this clear verdict
of the court.”
For the last eight years, the Civil Status Department
of the Ministry of Interior has refused to issue identity documents to any
citizen who does not adhere to one of the three “heavenly” religions. These
documents are essential to obtain education and employment, register births,
immunize children, and conduct basic transactions such as opening a bank
account, getting a driver’s license, or collecting a pension.
A previous ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court
in December 2006 had upheld the state policy of refusing to recognize the
religious affiliation of Baha’is in official documents, arguing that such
recognition would violate public order and Sharia (Islamic law)
requirements. This ruling prompted Baha’i Egyptians to file two new lawsuits
– the subject of yesterday’s ruling – requesting documents that do not list
any religious affiliation. The new cases, filed by EIPR lawyers, argued that
forcing Baha’is to identify falsely as Muslim or Christian violated their
rights to freedom of religion, privacy, and equality.
“The government should stop using public order and
Sharia pretexts to justify official bigotry,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle
East director of Human Rights Watch. “Baha’i Egyptians should not have been
forced to go to court to end this abusive behavior.”
In November 2007, Human Rights Watch and the EIPR
issued a joint report, “Prohibited Identities: State Interference with
Religious Freedom,” (http://hrw.org/reports/2007/egypt1107/)
documenting the Ministry of Interior’s policy of denying mandatory identity
documents to Baha’is as well as citizens who convert from Islam to
Christianity. The report found that this policy was arbitrary and not based
on any Egyptian law. Rather, the government selectively used Sharia to deny
some citizens their right, guaranteed under Egyptian and international human
rights law, to exercise religious freedom without discrimination or penalty.
The discrimination became particularly acute and
systematic when the government, beginning in 1995, insisted that all persons
needing to acquire or replace such documents had to acquire
computer-generated ones from the central Civil Registry Office in the
Ministry of Interior. Officials have said that in the near future, perhaps
early this year, all Egyptians will have to acquire computerized IDs, even
if they now possess valid paper ones.
The court’s January 29 judgment resulted from two
lawsuits. The first case (no. 18354/58) involved 15-year-old twins, Imad and
Nancy Ra’uf Hindi, who have been unable since 2004 to obtain
computer-generated birth certificates unless they convert to Islam or
Christianity. Their father had obtained birth certificates for them when
they were first born in 1993 recognizing their Baha’i religious affiliation,
but new certificates carrying an individual “national number” (raqam qawmi)
are mandatory; Baha’i children are unable to enroll in public schools
without them.
The second case (no. 12780/61) was filed in February
2007 on behalf of Hosni Hussein Abd al-Massih, born in 1989, who was
suspended from the Suez Canal University’s Higher Institute of Social Work
because he could not obtain an identity card recognizing his Baha'i faith.
Baha'i students in post-secondary education have faced suspension or
expulsion because of their inability to obtain ID cards or military service
postponement papers.
Both rulings can be appealed to the Supreme
Administrative Court.
To view the November 2007 Human Rights Watch and
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights report, “Prohibited Identities:
State Interference with Religious Freedom,” please visit:
http://hrw.org/reports/2007/egypt1107/
For more information, please contact:
In Washington, DC, Joe Stork (English): +1-202-612-4327
or +1-202-299-4925 (mobile)
In Cairo, Hossam Bahgat (Arabic, English):
+20-10-628-8928 (mobile)
In Cairo, Gasser Abdel-Razek (Arabic, English):
+20-2-2-794-5036; or +20-10-502-9999 (mobile)
