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EOHR Demands Ending the Legal Guardianship Over the Engineers Syndicate
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13/2/2007
EOHR declares its solidarity with all engineers to put an end to the legal guardianship exercised by the Government over the Egyptian Engineers Syndicate since 1995.
The Egyptian Engineers Syndicate, established according to Law 89/1946, was put under legal guardianship in 1995 after a lawsuit filed by 14 engineers who were opposing the Syndicate's Council policies in which they demanded a legal guardianship over the Syndicate. The lawsuit was based on the nullification of membership of half of the Council's members starting from March 1993, and also due to conflicts between the Secretary of the EES, Eng. Hasballah El Kafrawy from one side and members of the Syndicate's Supreme Council from the other side, which is, according to the lawsuit, severely harms the engineers' interests. Accordingly, Cairo Instant Court decided to put the EES under legal guardianship and to appoint Eng. Muhamed Sabry Abdul Mageed as the legal guardian. The court stressed that the possibility of "Danger" is one of the cornerstones of the case. Despite of the efforts made by the EES to suspend the decision, which wasn't a final decision, the EES premises and some regional offices were taken under the control and the Council was sent out of the building and its members were prevented from entering the building. These procedures led to depriving the engineers from their constitutional and professional rights to elect the Syndicate's Council and the Secretary, to hold their general assembly meetings and to manage their administrative and financial matters.
In this context, EOHR reaffirms that putting the EES under legal guardianship contradicts with Article 56 of the Egyptian Constitution which stated that:" The creation of syndicates and unions on democratic basis shall be guaranteed by law" and also international and regional documents such as Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 8 of ICESCR, Article 22 of ICCPR, Article 20 A of the Declaration on Social Progress and Development 1969 and Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights. EOHR demands the amendment of Law 100/1993 (amended by Law 5/1995) which participated in freezing elections in ten professional syndicates, because the responsible legal committee appointed by the law refrained from holding elections. These ten syndicates are : medicine, engineers, dentists, pharmacists, agriculture, applicable science, teachers, sports, commerce and lawyers. EOHR demands ending the legal guardianship over the EES and scheduling time to carry out the Syndicate's elections.
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