INDICATORS
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Non discrimination
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The new Egyptian constitution obligates the state to promote and guarantee equality between men and women in all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and provides protection to women from any form of violence [3]. Moreover, the state must take steps to ensure an appropriate level of representation of women in parliament, the executive and the judiciary. [4]
For several decades now, Egypt has suffered from increased discrimination against women and religious minorities. The new Egyptian constitution has introduced anti-discriminatory protections that prohibits discrimination based on religion, belief, gender, race, creed, color, language, disability or social class [5]; the scope of these protections are in accordance with the minimum standards set by international law and are unprecedented as far as Egypt’s previous constitutions are concerned. Further, the constitution obligates the state to take appropriate measures to combat all forms of discrimination and establish an independent government agency for this very purpose [6]. Finally, the constitution has also prohibited hate speech, which is not common even for more mature democracies, but runs the risk of being abused to muzzle legitimate freedom of expression [7].
[1] Article 11 of the Egyptian Constitution of 2014.
[1] Ibid
[1] Article 53 of the Egyptian Constitution of 2014.
[1] Ibid
[1] Ibid
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Outcomes
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33%
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5/10 (82/129)
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56.86%
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Married by 15: 2%
Married by 18: 17%
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People’s Sovereignty over natural resources
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Political Participation for the Right to Food
Participation is one of the fundamental human rights principles, requiring that everyone has the right to participate in making decisions that affect them. In order to ensure that those most affected by violations to the right to food and nutrition participate in political processes, it is essential to have the legal and policy infrastructure within national frameworks, as well as the participatory spaces that give meaningful space for participation.
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Legal Recognition of the Right to Food and Nutrition
Is Right to Food recognized in the legal system Read moreThe Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt explicitly guarantees the right to adequate food.
The Arab Republic of Egypt has become a State party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1982 by way of ratification.
State Policy
Explicit protection of the right to adequate food
Article 79: “Each citizen has the right to healthy and sufficient food and clean water. The State shall ensure food resources to all citizens. The State shall also ensure sustainable food sovereignty and maintain agricultural biological diversity and types of local plants in order to safeguard the rights of future generations.”
Article 80: “Anyone under the age of 18 shall be considered a child. Each child shall have the right to a name, identity documents, free compulsory vaccination, health and family or alternative care, basic nutrition, safe shelter, religious education, and emotional and cognitive development.“
Implicit protection of the right to adequate food
Article 17: “The State shall ensure that social insurance services are provided. All citizens who do not benefit from the social insurance system have the right to social security, in a manner that ensures a decent life in the event of being incapable to provide for themselves and their families, as well as in cases of incapacity to work, old age or unemployment.”
Article 81: “The State shall guarantee the health, economic, social, cultural, entertainment, sporting and educational rights of persons with disabilities and dwarves, strive to provide them with job opportunities, allocate a percentage of job opportunities to them, and adapt public facilities and their surrounding environment to their special needs.”
Article 83: “The State shall guarantee the health, economic, social, cultural and entertainment rights of the elderly people, provide them with appropriate pensions which ensure a decent life for them, and enable them to participate in public life.”
Directive principles of state policy
Article 8: “The State shall achieve social justice and provide the means to achieve social interdependence, in order to ensure a decent life for all citizens, as regulated by Law”
Article 27: “From a social perspective, the economic system shall ensure equal opportunities and fair distribution of development returns, reduce the differences among incomes and adhere to a minimum wage and pension ensuring a decent life, as well as a maximum one in State agencies for every salaried employee according to the Law.”
Article 29: “Agriculture is a basic component of the economy. The State shall protect and expand agricultural land, and shall criminalize encroachments thereon. It shall develop rural areas; raise the standard of living of their population and protect them from environmental risks; and shall strive to on develop agricultural and animal production and encourage industries based thereon. The State shall provide agricultural and animal production requirements, and shall buy basic agricultural crops at suitable prices generating profit margins for farmers in agreement with agricultural unions, syndicates and associations. The State shall also allocate a percentage of reclaimed lands to small farmers and youth graduates, and protect farmers and agricultural workers against exploitation. All the foregoing shall be as regulated by Law.”
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National Food Security Policy
Is there a national food security policy with implementation/action? Read moreThe National Food & Nutrition Policy (2007-2017) was developed to be a part of the National Development Policy, the National Health Policy and at the same time fits into the context of Food & Nutrition Security. In this Multidimensional form, joining together government policies concerned with realizing and achieving the universal human right to adequate food and nutrition in Egypt, it has the following overall goal:
To guarantee universal availability and accessibility to adequate high quality, safe food and promote healthy dietary practices for prevention and control of nutritional disorders. [1]
Other information on subsidies:
With households in the poorest decile allocating 51 percent of their expenditure on food against the national average of 40.6 percent, and food security remaining an issue of access driven by purchasing power, poorer households are highly vulnerable to food price changes. The important role food subsidies
continue to play in cushioning the poorest from food price volatility is evident when looking at a potential food price increase. Up until recently, Egypt’s food subsidies were mainly issued through two separate programs—the baladi bread program and the food ration program. The recent reform of the food subsidy system can be divided into five components—with the first two components referring to changes in the baladi bread program and the last three components referring to changes in the ration card program.
Exceperts on below from: Food Subsidy challenges in Reports from Facing the Challenge: The Recent Reform of the Egyptian Food Subsidy System; December 19, 2014 By: Olivier Ecker (Research Fellow), Jean Francois Trinh Tan (Research Analyst), and Perrihan Al-Riffai (Sr. Research Analyst) – IFPRI [2]
Moving the baladi bread subsidy to the end of the supply chain. In August 2014, the Ministry of Supply and Internal Commerce (MSIC) announced major modifications to the regulations on the baladi bread production, which are in line with common expert recommendations for reducing leakages along the supply chain. Bakery quotas for baladi flour were removed. Instead, bakeries have to purchase baladi flour at market prices and can buy any quantity of baladi flour. In turn, the government covers all production costs of baladi bread through direct cash deposits into the bakeries’ bank accounts on a daily basis.
Limiting baladi bread purchase to ration card holders and introducing maximum bread rations. Restricting the purchase of baladi bread to holders of valid ration cards marks a major change in the baladi bread program, ending the era of the universal bread subsidy introduced during World War II. Each household member registered on the household ration card is eligible for 150 loaves per month (5 loaves per day, on average), and beneficiary households can buy a maximum of 40 loaves per daily purchase. The unused baladi bread allotment can be redeemed for other commodities subsidized on the ration card program without any limit and within the first 10 days of the following month. This change marks a step toward merging the traditionally separate baladi bread program and ration card program and allows beneficiaries to choose the commodities more in accordance with their needs.
Transitioning from paper-based ration cards to electronic smart cards. In late September 2014, MSIC announced that, by the end of 2014, the transition from paper-based (booklet) ration cards to electronic smart cards will be completed, and existing paper-based ration cards will be invalid from January 2015 onward. The same smart cards will be used to purchase commodities subsidized under the ration card program and to buy baladi bread. The government increased the coverage of the ration card program (possibly to include households that rely on the subsidized baladi bread but were not yet covered by the ration card program). The total number of active ration cards are expected to reach 18.2 million by the end of 2014—an almost 8% increase over the number of cards in November 2011, when the ration card program covered 66.4 million beneficiaries (82% of the total population).
Increasing the number of subsidized items and allowing choice in the selection. In July 2014, the government expanded the basket of the commodities subsidized under the ration card program by adding 22 new commodities, and to a total of 32 commodities in early December 2014. New additions, include both food items (including meat, chicken, fish, pulses, and dairy products, but no vegetables or fruits) and non-food items (hygiene and cleaning products).
Replacing quantity-based quotas with cash allotment. Under the new ration card program, each beneficiary household receives a monthly cash allotment on the smart card, which can be redeemed for any of the subsidized commodities at any available packaging unit, instead of the quantity-based quotas for a few subsidized food items (cooking oil, sugar, rice, black tea) as under the old system. This provides beneficiaries some flexibility in the choice of subsidized purchases. The allotment amount per household depends on the number of registered household members, similar to the granted quotas before.
[2] http://www.arabspatial.org/blog/blog/2014/12/19/facing-the-challenge-the...
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Existence of multiactor governing or decision making bodies for food policy at national, subnational and/or local level with diverse participation of civil society organizations
Read moreCivil society actors were present in the drafting of the 2014 Constitution.
The Working Group on Right to Food and Food Sovereignty in Egypt, a civil society based initiative headed by the Right to Food subunit at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) and consisting of experts drafted for the inclusion of the right to food and food sovereignty in the constitution and organized a hearing before the Subcommittee on the Rights and Freedoms for this purpose. This was included in Art 79 of the Constitution.
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