On the 40th anniversary of the International Convention against Torture, the Justice Support Foundation affiliated with the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) calls on the Egyptian government to take immediate steps to amend the definition of the crime of torture in Egyptian law to align with Article no. 1 of the international Convention against Torture. The foundation also calls upon the Egyptian government to sign as well the Optional Protocol attached to the Convention in accordance with Article no 93 of the Egyptian Constitution which mandates Egypt’s commitment to treaties and international agreements it joins and publishes in the Official Gazette considering them an integral part of national legislation that must be enforced and implemented .

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Urgent Statement Subjecting members of the judiciary to training at the military academy: A severe violation of the independence of the judiciary

Justice Support Foundation affiliated with the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession ACIJLP expresses its deep concern and alarm over recent reports indicating that the Egyptian Military Academy celebrated the graduation of the first batch of newly appointed judicial officers (Group B) following their training at the academy headquarters in the Military College at the beginning of July.

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 The Justice Support Foundation affiliated with the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and Legal Profession ACIJLP expresses its deep concern and condemnation of the practices taking place in the terrorism circuits of the criminal courts at the Badr Courts Complex, which in their entirety represent a grave violation of the principles and standards of fair trials, as well as a waste of the right to defense, without which the trial of the accused loses an essential pillar of its fair foundations and justice. On June 29, more than a thousand defendants were presented for renewal of their detention before the Third Circuit of Cairo Criminal Courts, which led to the withdrawal of all lawyers from the circuit while automatically renewing the detention of the accused without the presence of their lawyers and without even enabling them of defending themselves. Moreover, the renewals were conducted via video conference.

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upload/July 2nd, 2024_ Cairo.pdf

The Justice Support Foundation affiliated with the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) condemns the Egyptian security forces’ arrest of a large number of women participating in a protest in front of the United Nations headquarters Tuesday.

On April 23, 2024, a number of Egyptian girls and women organized a protest in front of the United Nations headquarters in Cairo, in order to declare solidarity with women in Palestine and Sudan, and to call on the United Nations to undertake its mission to protect women there from widespread and gross violations in war zones, where women suffer from the scourge of war in light of an acute shortage of the basic elements of life, such as food, water, and secure shelter.

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On Wednesday the 20^th of March, 2024, the Counselor, investigating judge, issued a ruling in Case No. 173 of 2011, known as the Human Rights Organizations Case, stating that there is no basis for filing a criminal case against five organizations that were in progress. In fact, however, the investigating judge’s decision did not include all the organizations involved and did not close the case permanently, thus the case is not resolved completely, contrary to all the statements issued and the news published in many newspapers and news websites on Wednesday. 

Until now, the file of the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) has not yet been closed, while it is the first Egyptian organization to be investigated before the investigating judges in Case no. 173 on December 28, 2011, after entering its headquarters and seizing its files and computers. Its founders are still on the list of those banned from traveling according to the decision of the previous investigating judge in the same case, who referred ACIJILP file to the Supreme State Security Prosecution from 2017 until now without resolution.

It must be noted that the current investigating judge has fulfilled the procedures for the 85 Egyptian organizations whose files have only been examined since 2016, without those organizations that were investigated in 2011 and 2012 and whose situation has not been settled yet.·         

ACIJLP confirms that, so far, it has not yet received any information from any judicial authority regarding the its legal condition in the case, in which a decision of ending investigations was issued. This makes case no. 173 still open and it cannot be claimed to have been resolved permanently according to what was reported from some websites on Wednesday. 

  ACIJLP also welcomes the decision issued in the case on Wednesday the 20^th of March 2024, and demands that the Egyptian authorities ensure that the decision includes all the organizations listed in the case, with the investigating judge clarifying ACIJLP’s legal position. It also demands that all Egyptian human rights advocates to be guaranteed the entitlements of all their civil rights, most importantly their right to movement and travel and their right to manage their seized funds.

The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP)

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Starting from January the 18^th, 2014, those accused of criminal cases have the right to appeal the rulings issued against them, in accordance with Law no.1 of 2024 amending some provisions of the Criminal Procedure law, which came in implementation of the constitutional entitlement contained in Article no.240 of the Egyptian Constitution, the article that granted the government ten years’ time limit to regulate the right to two-level litigation in criminal cases, a right that was approved by Article no.196 of the Constitution.

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