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- Establish a public registry of persons held in detention,
including persons extradited, rendered, or otherwise transferred from
abroad. The registry should include the place and date of arrest and, if
different, the date of entry into Egyptian custody, present place of
detention, and the legal basis for detention. Make this information
available to the families of detained persons.
- Promptly release persons in detention who have not been
charged with a recognizable criminal offense.
- Ensure that all persons in detention are taken before a judicial
authority no later than twenty-four hours after arrest or entry into
Egyptian custody.
- Ensure that all persons in detention are able to exercise
their right to legal counsel, to appeal their detention, and to fair trial
and due process. Persons convicted by military tribunals or special
security courts, where proceedings do not meet fair trial standards, and
especially persons convicted in absentia, should be granted
re-trials that do meet international fair trial standards or released.
- Ensure that family members have access to detainees.
- Ensure that persons detained arbitrarily and unlawfully
and persons subjected to torture and ill-treatment are able to access
prompt and fair compensation.
- Issue and publicize widely a directive from the President
of the Republic stating that acts of torture and ill-treatment by law
enforcement officials will not be tolerated, that reports of torture and
ill-treatment will be promptly and thoroughly investigated, and that those
found responsible will be held accountable.
- Direct the Office of the Prosecutor General to fulfill its
responsibility under Egyptian law to investigate in a thorough, impartial,
and timely manner all torture allegations against law enforcement
officials. Ensure the independence of the Prosecutor General’s office from
political interference and mandate prosecutors to conduct unannounced
inspections of all places of detention, speaking to inmates in conditions
of privacy, and taking complaints. Make public the results.
- Ensure the prompt conduct of independent forensic medical
examinations of detainees who allege that they have been subject to
torture.
- Allow access for Egyptian and international human rights
monitors to places of detention, and the opportunity to conduct
confidential discussions with detainees.
- Ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against
Torture, which allows independent international experts to conduct regular
visits to places of detention within the territory of state parties, to
assess the conditions of detention an to make recommendations for
improvements.
- Implement the recommendations of the Committee against
Torture in May 2002 and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture in 2003, in
particular the recommendation to establish a fully independent complaints
mechanism for persons held in custody.
- Do not under any circumstances extradite, render, or
otherwise transfer to Egypt persons suspected or accused of security
offenses unless and until the government of Egypt has demonstrated that it
has ended practices of torture and ill-treatment, and taken demonstrable
and effective steps to end impunity for officials responsible for
ordering, condoning, or carrying out acts of torture and ill-treatment.
Transfers of persons to Egypt under current circumstances would constitute
a violation of the principle of non-refoulement.
- Do not seek or accept diplomatic assurances as the basis
for returning any person to Egypt.
To the United States, the Member States of the
European Union, and the International Community
- Do not under any circumstances extradite, render, or
otherwise transfer to Egypt persons suspected or accused of security
offenses unless and until the government of Egypt has demonstrated that it
has ended practices of torture and ill-treatment and impunity for
officials responsible for ordering, condoning, or carrying out acts of
torture and ill-treatment. Transfers of persons to Egypt under current circumstances would constitute a violation of the principle of non-refoulement.
- Do not seek or accept diplomatic assurances as the basis
for returning any person to Egypt.
- Closely monitor any military, security, and
counter-terrorism assistance to Egypt to ensure that security and
intelligence forces strictly adhere to international human rights
standards regarding arbitrary and incommunicado detention and torture and
ill-treatment.
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