Board of trustees forms 5 subcommittees for Egyptian National Dialogue’s social axis

CAIRO – 30 July 2022: The board of trustees of the Egyptian National Dialogue agreed on the formation of five subcommittees for the dialogue’s social axis during its third meeting on Saturday.

The subcommittees of the social axis of the dialogue will cover the main issues of education, health, population, family issues and social coherence, and culture and national identity, state’s news agency MENA reported.

During their second meeting on 19 July, the board of trustees agreed on the formation of three subcommittees for the dialogue’s political axis for human rights, political parties, municipalities, and human rights and public freedoms.

The dialogue’s board of trustees also agreed in earlier meetings on a 19-article document regulating the work of the dialogue. Also, the code of conduct and ethics for the national dialogue was also issued.

During Saturday’s meeting, the board hailed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s Friday decision to pardon a number of convicts.

The board members expressed aspiration for further pardon decisions during the coming period as the national dialogue unfolds.

Sisi pardoned on Friday a number of inmates who had received final prison sentences, including actor Tarik Al-Nahry, journalist Hisham Fouad, and Researcher Ahmed Samir.

Other people who received a presidential pardon yesterday also included Abdel El Raouf Khattab, Khaled Sadeq, Khaled Abdel Moneim, and Qasim Ashraf.

President Sisi called for the dialogue earlier this year to reach a common ground on the country’s political priorities.

He also reactivated Presidential Pardon Committee, of which reviewed the conditions and files of more than 700 inmates, according Diaa Rashwan, head of the Journalists Syndicate and general coordinator of the dialogue.

In a press conference earlier in July, 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 output, 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 accepting a civil state and the constitution.