Participation of Egypt's university students in National Dialogue begins

CAIRO – 25 July 2022: The National Dialogue part carried out among university students kicked off Monday under the auspices of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

The Egyptian National Dialogue’s Board of Trustees agreed early in July on a 19-article document regulating the work of the dialogue, Head of the Journalists’ Syndicate and dialogue’s coordinator Diaa Rashwan said.

Also, the code of conduct and ethics for the national dialogue was also issued, Rashwan said after the first meeting of the board of trustees of the dialogue in National Training Academy (NTA) headquarters.

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi called for the dialogue in April to reach a common ground on the country’s political priorities.

In a press conference after the meeting, Rashwan said the dialogue resulted in the issuance of the bylaws regulating the work of the Board of Trustees, which will be published on the dialogue’s website soon.

Rashwan affirmed that those who practiced or incited violence, on top of which is the Muslim Brotherhood group, will not be allowed to participate in the dialogue, according to the board’s decision.

He added that those who do not recognize the legitimacy of the 2014 constitution also will be exempted from the dialogue.

During the first meeting of the board, Rashwan said those who killed innocent Egyptians or incited murders cannot be part of the dialogue because they do not acknowledge the constitution.

Meanwhile, all segments of the society, all political parties and unions are represented in the dialogue, he noted.

Rashwan underscored that the dialogue must culminate in legislative or executive proposals that can be presented to Sisi so people see actual procedures resulting from the initiative.

Participants highlighted that the dialogue focuses on the outcome, and that it is not a place for declaring personal positions, but rather on discussions that lead to serious proposals.

A number of participants have affirmed that those who involve religion into politics should be excluded from the dialogue as the state is heading toward being a modern and civil state.

Participants agreed on setting a time frame, with six months as a ceiling, for the dialogue and to announce regularly what the dialogue has achieved.

Participants touched on prisoners who have not been released despite spending the maximum remand time, and that releasing them must be followed by legislative corrections to prevent the phenomenon from reoccurring.

Some members also claimed that some prisoners accused of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood are not related to the Islamist group by any means, rendering their charges false.

Rashwan said there are no limits to the dialogue, except for accepting a civil state and the constitution.