Speech of the Egyptian Center for Human Rights
United Nations Minority Forum - Seventh Session
Geneva, 25 – 26 November 2014
Respect for human rights and the promotion of religious freedom are of urgent issues in the
Middle East. Which the international community -through the United Nations- should lay the
foundations for, And to activate the provisions of the international human rights instruments
regarding religious freedom, Especially since there are hundreds who were victims in some Arab
countries because of their religious identity
The Egyptian Center for Human Rights believes that there is an urgent need to make bold and
urgent recommendations to the Arab governments, especially after the Middle East witnessed a
phase of chaos, spreading violence and raise religious and sectarian strife against the interest of
national patriotic identity, turning the Arab Spring from aspirations to freedom and ending a
legacy of tyranny to a stage of chaos and growing influence of extremist groups such as "Isis", "
Al-Nusra", "Bayt al-Maqdis" and other groups that know only the language of murder and
destruction.
The Egyptian Center for Human Rights recommends continuing to work towards purifying the
educational curricula of all ideas that incite violence and spread hatred, especially since the
Center has been working for years to promote human rights in schools in cooperation with the
Ministry of Education and is currently Qualifying teachers to teach human rights and citizenship,
The Center hopes to establish a specialized institute for the study of human rights and citizenship
to be the nucleus for the enhancing of human rights through academic studies recognized by the
relevant international organizations, And be an addition to Egypt and the Middle East, to
consolidate the values of human rights .
The Egyptian Center also recommends the importance of confronting terrorist organizations
through a number of laws that prohibit joining or promoting of such groups, and the need to
firmly address all attempts to sow discord among peoples on the basis of religion or doctrine,
and having The United Nations and the Security Council an important role to play in respecting
human rights and Religious freedom, And to provide the legal, cultural and social environment so
that each person can practice his religious rites and spiritual rites without the authority of
individuals or groups
The Egyptian Center affirms that the new constitution carried many articles that are established
to respect religious freedom and cultural pluralism. At the same time, however, these texts must
be turned into laws that are activated in order to end periods in which authoritarian regimes
ignored human rights and violated the rights of citizens. And to absent the Constitution.