[The following report was written by Raghab Saad and Moataz El Fegiery of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Study in Januarly 2014. It was published by the Democracy and Citizenship in North Africa after the Arab Awakening: Challenges for EU and US Foreign Policy (EUSPRING) Project.]
Citizenship in Post-Awakening Egypt: Powers Shifts and Conflicting Perceptions
Abstract
This report links Egypt’s shifting political phases to debates more specifically about citizenship rights. It offers a general overview of Egypt’s recent political trajectory, before unpacking the various dimensions of debates over citizenship rights. In each of the three political phases since Mubarak’s ousting, citizenship rights have been curtailed. Crucially, the reasons for their constriction have been different in each phase. Some limitations have derived from largely political power plays, others from more philosophical-theological factors. It is important to distinguish between these different forms of debate if we are better to understand prospects for the future of citizenship rights in Egypt.
Introduction
The struggle over citizenship rights has switched between different routes in the past three years. Since Hosni Mubarak’s fall, Egypt has followed three major political trajectories, and the changing political configuration under each of them has influenced the evolution of citizenship rights. This evolution has not been a linear progression and the main political actors’ discourses on rights have shifted significantly.
This report links Egypt’s shifting political phases to debates more specifically about citizenship rights. It offers a general overview of Egypt’s recent political trajectory, before unpacking the various dimensions of debates over citizenship rights. In each of the three political phases since Mubarak’s ousting, citizenship rights have been curtailed. Crucially, the reasons for their constriction have been different in each phase. Some limitations have derived from largely political power plays, others from more philosophical-theological factors. It is important to distinguish between these different forms of debate if we are better to understand prospects for the future of citizenship rights in Egypt.
The military led the first transitional phase and achieved a rapprochement with Islamists over the transitional roadmap while marginalising liberal forces. The lack of consensus between Islamists and liberals on key transitional issues, including the scope of rights, intensified the polarisation between the two camps, which has continued until today. Political participation, the right to establish political parties and media freedoms flourished in this phase but were still subject to certain limitations. The improvement of the rights of religious minorities, the rights of women and the status of human rights defenders was obstructed.
Drawing on their organisational advantage and long grassroots activism, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and its Islamist allies were able to lead the second transitional phase. They controlled the constitution-drafting process and dominated the executive and legislature, but the Muslim Brotherhood’s rule ended dramatically after President Morsi was deposed by the military following massive popular unrest. Citizenship rights were severely restricted under Islamists and even those political rights that flourished after the revolution were jeopardised. The military, liberal forces and the official Islamic and Christian establishments sponsored a new transitional roadmap with the participation of the Salafist al-Nour Party, which, despite being absent from the protests against Morsi, distanced itself from the Muslim Brotherhood and joined the new transitional process. The Muslim Brotherhood and its allies have boycotted this process. They have also been the target of an aggressive crackdown and criminal trials.
The military’s powers, autonomy and popularity have expanded in the post-Morsi era. There have been conflicting signals regarding the state of citizenship in this phase. While the draft of the new constitution has removed some of the limitations imposed under the Muslim Brotherhood, respect for rights has seriously deteriorated in the context of the security confrontation between Islamists and the military. Moreover, the contingent and heterogeneous nature of the political alliance that led to Morsi’s removal has created immense challenges for those political actors who struggle to expand citizenship rights. Although, on balance, the new draft constitution presented to president Adly Mansour on 3 December 20131 can be viewed as a positive development in citizenship rights broadly defined, observers differ over the extent to which the new constitution will promote rights or social and economic justice in reality.
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